Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down

Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.

The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice, and yon tall anchoring barque

Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy

Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge

That on th’unnumbered idle pebble 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.

EDGAR

Give me your hand. You are now within a foot

Of th’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

Well worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and gods

Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off.

Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.

EDGAR

Now fare ye well, good sir.

He stands aside

GLOUCESTER

With all my heart.

EDGAR (aside)

Why I do trifle thus with his despair

Is done to cure it.

GLOUCESTER (keeling) O you mighty gods,

This world I do renounce, and in your sights

Shake patiently my great affliction off!

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.

EDGAR

Gone, sir. Farewell.

Gloucester falls forward

(Aside) 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?

(To Gloucester) Ho, you, sir, friend; hear you, sir?

Speak.

(Aside) Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives.

(To Gloucester) What are you, sir?

GLOUCESTER

Away, and let me die.

EDGAR

Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating

Thou‘dst shivered like an egg. But thou dost breathe,

Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.

Ten masts a-length make not the altitude

Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.

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.

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.

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’th’ cliff what thing was that

Which parted from you?

GLOUCESTER

A poor unfortunate beggar.

EDGAR

As I stood here below, methoughts his eyes

Were two full moons. He had a thousand noses,

Horns whelked and waved like the enraged sea.

It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours

Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.

GLOUCESTER

I do remember now. Henceforth I’ll bear

Affliction till it do cry out itself

‘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 mad, ⌈crowned with weeds and flowers⌉

But who comes here?

The safer sense will ne’er accommodate

His master thus.

LEAR No, they cannot touch me for crying. I am the King himself.

EDGAR O thou side-piercing sight!

LEAR Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press-money. 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, well flown, bird, i‘th’ clout, i’th’ clout! Whew! Give the word.

EDGAR Sweet marjoram.

LEAR Pass.

GLOUCESTER I know that voice.

LEAR Ha! Goneril with a white beard? They flattered me like a dog, and told me I had the white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to everything that I said ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; 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 everything; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

GLOUCESTER

The trick of that voice I do well remember.

Is’t not the King?

LEAR

Ay, every inch a king.

⌈Gloucester kneels⌉

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, 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. To‘t, luxury, pell-mell,

For I lack soldiers. Behold yon simp’ring dame,

Whose face between her forks presages snow,

That minces virtue, and does shake the head

To hear of pleasure’s name.