Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Scene VI
Act IV
[Fields near Dover]
Enter GLOUCESTER, and EDGAR [dressed like a peasant]
Glou.When shall I come to the top of that same hill?Edg.You do climb up it now; look, how we labour.Glou.Methinks the ground is even.Edg.Horrible steep.Hark, do you hear the sea?Glou.No, truly.Edg.Why, then, your other senses grow imperfectBy your eyes’ anguish.Glou.So may it be, indeed.Methinks thy voice is alter’d, and thou speak’stIn better phrase and matter than thou didst.Edg.You’re much deceiv’d. In nothing am I chang’dBut in my garments.Glou.Methinks you’re better spoken.Edg.Come on, sir, here’s the place; stand still. How fearfulAnd dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eyes so low!The crows and choughs that wing the midway airShow scarce so gross as beetles. Half way downHangs 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 yond tall anchoring bark,Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoyAlmost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,That on the unnumb’red idle pebbles chafes,Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sightTopple down headlong.Glou.Set me where you stand.Edg.Give me your hand; you are now within a footOf the extreme verge. For all beneath the moonWould I not leap upright.Glou.Let go my hand.Here, friend, ’s another purse; in it a jewelWell worth a poor man’s taking. Fairies and godsProsper it with thee! Go thou further off;Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.Edg.Now fare ye well, good sir.Glou.With all my heart.Edg.Why I do trifle thus with his despairIs done to cure it.Glou.[Kneeling.]O you mighty gods!This world I do renounce, and in your sightsShake patiently my great affliction off.If I could bear it longer, and not fallTo quarrel with your great opposeless wills,My snuff and loathed part of nature shouldBurn itself out. If Edgar live, O bless him!Now, fellow, fare thee well.Edg.Gone, sir; farewell!—And yet I know not how conceit may robThe treasury of life, when life itselfYields to the theft. [GLOU. throws himself forward.] Had he been where he thought,By this had thought been past. Alive or dead?—Ho, you sir! friend! Hear you, sir! speak!—Thus might he pass indeed; yet he revives.—What are you, sir?Glou.Away, and let me die.Edg.Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,So many fathom down precipitating,Thou ’dst shiver’d like an egg: but thou dost breathe;Hast heavy substance; bleed’st not; speak’st; art sound.Ten masts at each make not the altitudeWhich thou hast perpendicularly fell.Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.Glou.But have I fallen, or no?Edg.From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.Look up a-height; the shrill-gorg’d lark so farCannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.Glou.Alack, I have no eyes.Is wretchedness depriv’d that benefit,To end itself by death? ’Twas yet some comfort,When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage,And frustrate his proud will.Edg.Give me your arm.Up: so. How is ’t? Feel you your legs? You stand.Glou.Too well, too well.Edg.This is above all strangeness.Upon the crown o’ the cliff, what thing was thatWhich parted from you?Glou.A poor unfortunate beggar.Edg.As I stood here below, methought his eyesWere two full moons; he had a thousand noses,Horns whelk’d and waved like the enridged sea.It was some fiend; therefore, thou happy father,Think that the clearest gods, who make them honoursOf men’s impossibilities, have preserv’d thee.Glou.I do remember now. Henceforth I’ll bearAffliction 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.Edg.Bear free and patient thoughts.Enter LEAR [fantastically dressed with wild flowers]
But who comes here?The safer sense will ne’er accommodateHis master thus.Lear.No, they cannot touch me for coining;I am the King himself.Edg.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’ the clout, i’ the clout! Hewgh! Give the word.Edg.Sweet marjoram.Lear.Pass.Glou.I know that voice.Lear.Ha! Goneril, with a white beard! They flatter’d 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” too 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.Glou.The trick of that voice I do well remember.Is ’t not the 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:The wren goes to ’t, and the small gilded flyDoes lecher in my sight.Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester’s bastard sonWas kinder to his father than my daughtersGot ’tween the lawful sheets.To ’t, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.Behold yond simp’ring dame,Whose face between her forks presages snow,That minces virtue, and does shake the headTo hear of pleasure’s name,—The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to ’tWith a more riotous appetite.Down from the waist they are Centaurs,Though women all above;But to the girdle do the gods inherit,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, sweeten my imagination.There’s money for thee.Glou.O, let me kiss that hand!Lear.Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.Glou.O ruin’d piece of nature! This great worldShall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?Lear.I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid; I’ll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.Glou.Were all thy letters suns, I could not see.Edg.[Aside.]I would not take this from report. It is; and my heart breaks at it.Lear.Read.Glou.What, with the case of eyes?Lear.O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how this world goes.Glou.I see it feelingly.Lear.What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears; see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou has seen a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?Glou.Ay, sir.Lear.And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image of authority: a dog’s obey’d in office. 