Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Pervez Rizvi
Not Peer Reviewed

King Lear (Quarto 2, 1619)

The History of King Lear.
2300Gon. I haue bene worth the whistle.

Enter the Duke of Albeney.
Alb. O Gonorill, you are not worth the dust which the winde
Blowes in your face, I feare your disposition,
2303.1That nature which contemnes it origin,
Cannot be bordered certaine in it selfe,
She that her selfe will sliuer and disbranch
From her materiall sap, perforce must wither,
2303.5And come to deadly vse.
Gon. No more, the text is foolish.
Alb. Wisedome and goodnesse to the vilde seeme vilde,
Filths sauour but themselues, what haue you done?
Tygers, not daughters, what haue you perform'd?
2303.10A father, and a gracious aged man,
Whose reuerence the head-lugd Beare would licke;
Most barbarous, most degenerate haue you madded;
Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a Prince, by him so beneflicted,
2303.15If that the heauens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly downe to tame the vilde offences, it will come
Humanly must perforce prey on it selfe, like monsters of the
deepe.
Gon. Milke liuer'd man,
2305That bearest a cheeke for blowes, a head for wrongs,
Who hast not in thy browes an eie deseruing thine honour,
From thy suffering, that not know'st fooles, do these villains pity
2307.1Who are punisht ere they haue done their mischiefe,
Where's thy drum? France spreds his banners in our noiselesse
Land, with plumed helme thy slaier begins threats,
Whiles thou a morall foole, sits still and cries
2307.5Alacke, why does he so?
Alb. See thy selfe diuell, proper deformiry seemes not in the
fiend, so horrid as in woman.
Gon. O vaine foole.
2311.1Alb. Thou chang'd and selfe-couerd thing, for shame
Be-monster not thy feature, wer't my fitnesse
To