Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

s;

Who, indeed, could believe it?" But she answered, "Come, sir, I do beseech you to understand my purposes aright. As you are old and reverend, you should be wise." Then she complained of his knights, and said they made the court seem more like a riotous inn than "a graced palace." She insisted upon their number being less, and that those who were retained might be such as became his age. The king turned from her in a rage. "Saddle my horses call my train together." Then to Goneril: "I'll not trouble thee; yet have I left a daughter." The Duke of Albany came in. "Woe that too late repents," said the distracted Lear. "O, sir, are you come? Is it your will? Speak, sir. Prepare my horses. Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend; more hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child, than the sea monster." 'Pray, sir, be patient," said Albany (who seems to have been more considerate than his lady). My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant, of what hath moved you." Lear did not seem to

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

hear him; but, turning to Goneril once more, he spoke, and wished that she might know how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. Then he went away; but he came back exclaiming, "What, fifty of my followers at a clap?" Albany, astonished and perplexed, said, "What's the matter, sir ?" Lear said, "I'll tell thee;" and, again addressing Goneril, "Life and death," he cried. "I am ashamed that thou hast power to shake my manhood thus ; that these hot tears, which break from me perforce, should make thee worth them. Let it be so, yet have I a daughter, who I am sure is kind and comfortable." Then the king, Kent, and the attendants left the palace. Goneril ordered her steward to write a letter to her sister, and tell her what she had done, that she might not be taken by surprise, but be prepared to treat her father with similar unkindness.

CHAPTER V.

So the king, the fool, and Kent stood outside in the court of the palace. "Go you before to Gloster, with these letters," said King Lear to Kent. "Acquaint my daughter no further with anything you know than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there before you." Kent answered, "I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter." The fool made some amusing speech, which caused his master to laugh. He said that Regan was as like Goneril as a crab was to an apple, and pretended to make belief that she would use her father kindly. Then he asked the king, "Can'st tell how an oyster makes his shell?" "No," said Lear. "Nor I either; but I can tell why a snail has a house." "Why?" "Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters, and leave his horns without a case." This touched the

"So

"Ready, my

king. "I will forget my nature," he cried. kind a father! Be my horses ready?" lord," answered one of his gentlemen. At this period of our history, we must return for a short time to Edgar and Edmund. The Duke of Cornwall was expected at the Earl of Gloster's castle, and Edmund thought the time was come for following up his wicked schemes against his brother. You remember he had advised him to hide in his chamber? Now he called, hastily, "Brother, a word; descend. Brother, I say." Edgar came to him. "My father watches," said Edmund. "O, sir, fly this place. Intelligence is given where you are hid. Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall? He's coming hither; now, i' the night, i' the haste, and Regan with him. Have you nothing said, upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany ?" "I am sure on't; not a word," said Edgar. Edmund exclaimed, as if in great alarm, "I hear my father coming. Pardon me, in cunning, I must draw my sword upon you; draw; seem to defend yourself."

my

Then he called out loudly, "Yield; come before father;" and quietly, "Fly, brother." And Edgar alarmed, and not knowing what to think, made haste to escape. Edmund then wounded his own arm, that the Earl of Gloster might think that he and Edgar had been fighting, and that Edgar had hurt him. Then he called out, "Father! father! Stop! stop! Ho, help?" Gloster and servants rushed in with torches. "Now, Edmund, where's the villain ?" "Look, sir, I bleed." "Where's the villain, Edmund ?" "Fled; this way, sir." "Pursue him," cried Gloster; "The noble duke, my master, comes tonight; by his authority I will proclaim it, that he who finds him shall deserve our thanks-he that conceals him, death." There was a sound of trumpets without; and the Duke and Regan arrived. Cornwall said to Gloster, that he had heard the strange news about his son's evil doings. "O," said Gloster, "my heart is crack'd, is crack'd." "What!" Regan said, "did my father's godson seek your life? He,

« ForrigeFortsæt »