A tent in the French camp.
Enter Cordelia, Kent, Doctor, and Gentleman. CORDELIA O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short
And every measure fail me.
KENT To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid.
All my reports go with the modest truth;
Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
CORDELIA Be better suited.
These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
I prithee put them off.
KENT Pardon, dear madam.
Yet to be known shortens my made intent.
My boon I make it that you know me not
Till time and I think meet.
CORDELIA Then be't so, my good lord.
[To the Doctor] How, does the King?
DOCTOR Madam, sleeps still.
CORDELIA O you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
Th' untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father!
DOCTOR So please your Majesty
That we may wake the King? He hath slept long.
CORDELIA Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
I' th' sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
Enter Lear in a chair carried by Servants. GENTLEMAN Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep
We put fresh garments on him.
DOCTOR Be by, good madam, when we do awake him.
I doubt not of his temperance.
CORDELIA Very well.
Music. DOCTOR Please you draw near. Louder the music there!
CORDELIA O my dear father, restoration hang
Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss
Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made!
KENT Kind and dear princess!
CORDELIA Had you not been their father, these white flakes
Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face
To be oppos'd against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick cross lightning? to watch- poor perdu!-
With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all.- He wakes. Speak to him.
DOCTOR Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.
CORDELIA How does my royal lord? How fares your Majesty?
LEAR You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave.
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead.
CORDELIA Sir, do you know me?
LEAR You are a spirit, I know. When did you die?
CORDELIA Still, still, far wide!
DOCTOR He's scarce awake. Let him alone awhile.
LEAR Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight,
I am mightily abus'd. I should e'en die with pity,
To see another thus. I know not what to say.
I will not swear these are my hands. Let's see.
I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd
Of my condition!
CORDELIA O, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o'er me.
No, sir, you must not kneel.
LEAR Pray, do not mock me.
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is; and all the skill I have
Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;
For (as I am a man) I think this lady
To be my child Cordelia.
CORDELIA And so I am! I am!
LEAR Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray weep not.
If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me; for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
You have some cause, they have not.
CORDELIA No cause, no cause.
LEAR Am I in France?
KENT In your own kingdom, sir.
LEAR Do not abuse me.
DOCTOR Be comforted, good madam. The great rage
You see is kill'd in him; and yet it is danger
To make him even o'er the time he has lost.
Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more
Till further settling.
CORDELIA Will't please your Highness walk?
LEAR You must bear with me.
Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.
Exeunt. Manent Kent and Gentleman. GENTLEMAN Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
KENT Most certain, sir.
GENTLEMAN Who is conductor of his people?
KENT As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
GENTLEMAN They say Edgar, his banish'd son, is with the Earl of Kent
in Germany.
KENT Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of
the kingdom approach apace.
GENTLEMAN The arbitrement is like to be bloody.
Fare you well, sir.
[Exit.] KENT My point and period will be throughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.
Exit.