Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: Nahum Tate
Editor: Lynne Bradley
Not Peer Reviewed

King Lear (Adapted by Nahum Tate) (Modern)

[4.3]
Gonerill's palace. Enter Gonerill, [her Gentleman,] attendants.
Gonerill
It was great ignorance, Gloster's eyes being out,
To let him live. Where he arrives, he moves
All hearts against us. Edmund I think is gone,
1690In pity to his misery, to dispatch him.
Gentleman
No, madam, he's returned on speedy summons
Back to your sister.
Gonerill
Ha! I like not that.
Such speed must have the wings of love. Where's Albany?
1695Gentleman
Madam, within, but never man so changed.
I told him of the uproar of the peasants,
He smiled at it. When I informed him
Of Gloster's treason --
Gonerill
Trouble him no further,
1700It is his coward spirit. Back to our sister,
Hasten her musters, and let her know
I have given the distaff into my husband's hands.
That done, with special care deliver these dispatches
In private to young Gloster.
1705Enter a Messenger.
Messenger
O madam, most unseasonable news.
The Duke of Cornwall's dead of his late wound,
Whose loss your sister has in part supplied,
Making brave Edmund general of her forces.
1710Gonerill
One way I like this well;
But being widow and my Gloster with her
May blast the promised harvest of our love.
A word more, sir: add speed to your journey,
And if you chance to meet with that blind traitor,
1715Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
Exeunt.