Shakespeare's King Lear Act 4, Scene 7

King Lear

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ACT IV SCENE VII	A tent in the French camp. Lear on a bed asleep.
[Enter CORDELIA, KENT, and Doctor]
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 acknowledged, madam, is o'erpaid.
	All my reports go with the modest truth;	5
	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 me, dear madam;	10
	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?	15
Doctor	Madam, sleeps still.
CORDELIA	O you kind gods,
	Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
	The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
	Of this child-changed father!	20
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' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
Gentleman	Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep	25
	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.
Doctor	Please you, draw near. Louder the music there!	30
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!	35
CORDELIA	Had you not been their father, these white flakes
	Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
	To be opposed against the warring winds?
	To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
	In the most terrible and nimble stroke	40
	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,	45
	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?	50
KING LEAR	You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
	Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
	Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
	Do scald like moulten lead.
CORDELIA	Sir, do you know me?	55
KING 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.
KING LEAR	Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
	I am mightily abused. I should e'en die with pity,	60
	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 assured
	Of my condition!
CORDELIA	O, look upon me, sir,	65
	And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:
	No, sir, you must not kneel.
KING LEAR	Pray, do not mock me:
	I am a very foolish fond old man,
	Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;	70
	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	75
	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.	80
KING 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.	85
CORDELIA	No cause, no cause.
KING LEAR	Am I in France?
KENT	In your own kingdom, sir.
KING LEAR	Do not abuse me.
Doctor	Be comforted, good madam: the great rage,	90
	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?	95
KING LEAR	You must bear with me:
	Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.
[Exeunt all but 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?	100
KENT	As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
Gentleman	They say Edgar, his banished 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.	105
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]