1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Ask a Question

Scene VI

Fields near Dover.

[Enter Gloucester, and Edgar dressed like a peasant]

GLOUCESTER:

When shall we come to the top of that same
hill?

EDGAR:

You do climb up it now: look, how we labor.

GLOUCESTER:

Methinks the ground is even.

EDGAR:

Horrible steep.(5)
Hark, do you hear the sea?

GLOUCESTER:

No, truly.

EDGAR:

Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect
By your eyes' anguish.

GLOUCESTER:

So may it be, indeed:(10)
Methinks thy voice is altered; and thou speak'st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

EDGAR:

You're much deceived: in nothing am I changed
But in my garments.

GLOUCESTER:

Methinks you're better spoken.(15)

EDGAR:

Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!(20)
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,(25)
That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.

GLOUCESTER:

Set me where you stand.(30)

EDGAR:

Give me your hand: you are now within a foot
Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon
Would I not leap upright.

GLOUCESTER:

Let go my hand.
Here, friend, 's another purse; in it a jewel(35)
Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods
Prosper it with thee! Go thou farther off;
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

EDGAR:

Now fare you well, good sir.

GLOUCESTER:

With all my heart.(40)

EDGAR:

Why I do trifle thus with his despair
Is done to cure it.

GLOUCESTER:

[Kneeling]

O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,
Shake patiently my great affliction off:(45)
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
Now, fellow, fare thee well.(50)

[He falls forward]

EDGAR:

Gone, sir: farewell.
And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life, when life itself
Yields to the theft: had he been where he thought,
By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead?(55)
Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak!
Thus might he pass indeed: yet he revives.
What are you, sir?

GLOUCESTER:

Away, and let me die.

EDGAR:

Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,(60)
So many fathom down precipitating,
Thouedst shivered like an egg: but thou dost breathe;
Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.
Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell:(65)
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.

GLOUCESTER:

But have I fall'n, or no?

EDGAR:

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.(70)

GLOUCESTER:

Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort,
When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage,
And frustrate his proud will.(75)

EDGAR:

Give me your arm:

UP:

so. How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand.

GLOUCESTER:

Too well, too well.

EDGAR:

This is above all strangeness.
Upon the crown o' the cliff, what thing was that(80)
Which parted from you?

GLOUCESTER:

A poor unfortunate beggar.

EDGAR:

As I stood here below, methought his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea:(85)
It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,
Think that the clearest gods, who make them honors
Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.

GLOUCESTER:

I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear
Affliction till it do cry out itself(90)
‘Enough, enough,’ and die. That thing you speak of,
I took it for a man; often 'twould say
‘The fiend, the fiend:’ he led me to that place.

EDGAR:

Bear free and patient thoughts.

[Enter King Lear, fantastically dressed with wild flowers]

But who comes here?(95)
The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
His master thus.

KING LEAR:

No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the
king himself.

EDGAR:

O thou side-piercing sight!(100)

KING LEAR:

Nature's above art in that respect. There's your pressmoney.
That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper:
draw me a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace,
peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do 't. There's my
gauntlet; I'll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O,(105)
well flown, bird! i' the clout, i' the clout: hewgh!
Give the word.

EDGAR:

Sweet marjoram.

KING LEAR:

Pass.

GLOUCESTER:

I know that voice.(110)

KING LEAR:

Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flattered me
like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the
black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to every thing that
I said!—‘Ay’ and ‘no’ too was no good divinity. When the
rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter;(115)
when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I
found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. Go to, they are not men o'
their words: they told me I was every thing; 'tis a lie, I am
not ague-proof.

GLOUCESTER:

The trick of that voice I do well remember:(120)
Is 't not the king?

KING LEAR:

Ay, every inch a king:
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:(125)
The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.(130)
To 't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.
Behold yond simpering dame,
Whose face between her forks presages snow;
That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name;(135)
The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to 't
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above:
But to the girdle do the gods inherit,(140)
Beneath is all the fiends';
There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit,
Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pah,
pah!
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten(145)
my imagination: there's money for thee.

• substance
• jackdaws, crow-like birds
• seaweed
• ship
• appearing as small as
• dinghy
• topple me
• fairies were believed to covet and multiply treasure
• to cast off or disown
• cause of pain or suffering
• anything
• spiderweb
• falling
• shattered
• end to end
• vertically
• cliff
• cheat
• bumpy
• most noble
• hinder
• counterfeiting coins
• fee paid to soldier forced into army
• person hired to scare crows
• the length of an arrow
• glove thrown down to challenge someone to a duel
• arrow
• target
• plant used to treat insanity
• theology
• immune to sickness
• crime
• copulate
• all at once
• implies
• chastity
• skunk (also a name for a prostitute)
• lively
• mythological creatures known for their sexual appetites
• exotic perfume
• a druggist

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
4. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
5. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
6. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
7. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
8. Copyright