King Lear
Act I, Scene 5
Court before the palace.
George Harley as Kent
William Ridley, printmaker; Vernor & Hood, booksellers; Samuel De Wilde; 1803
- Enter Lear, Kent disguised as Caius, and Fool.
Lear
1 - 4- Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. Acquaint my
- daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from
- her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not
- speedy, I shall be there afore you.
Kent
5 - 6- I will not sleep, my lord, till I have deliver’d your
- letter.
- Exit.
Fool
7 - 8- If a man’s brains were in ’s heels, were’t not in danger of
- kibes?
Lear
9- Ay, boy.
Fool
10- Then I prithee be merry, thy wit shall not go slip-shod.
Lear
11- Ha, ha, ha!
Fool
12 - 14- Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly, for
- though she’s as like this as a crab’s like an apple, yet I
- can tell what I can tell.
Lear
15- What canst tell, boy?
Fool
16 - 17- She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou
- canst tell why one’s nose stands i’ th’ middle on ’s face?
Lear
18- No.
Fool
19 - 20- Why, to keep one’s eyes of either side ’s nose, that what a
- man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
Lear
21- I did her wrong.
Fool
22- Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
Lear
23- No.
Fool
24- Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
Lear
25- Why?
Fool
26 - 27- Why, to put ’s head in, not to give it away to his
- daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
Lear
28 - 29- I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my horses
- ready?
Fool
30 - 31- Thy asses are gone about ’em. The reason why the seven stars
- are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
Lear
32- Because they are not eight.
Fool
33- Yes indeed, thou wouldst make a good Fool.
Lear
34- To take’t again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
Fool
35 - 36- If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I’ld have thee beaten for
- being old before thy time.
Lear
37- How’s that?
Fool
38- Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
Lear
39 - 41- O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!
- Keep me in temper, I would not be mad!
- Enter First Gentleman.
- How now, are the horses ready?
First Gentleman
42- Ready, my lord.
Lear
43- Come, boy.
- Exeunt Lear and First Gentleman.
Fool
44 - 45- She that’s a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
- Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
- Exit.