King Lear: Act 4, Scene 7

    tragedy

    A tent in the French camp. LEAR on a bed asleep,

    Scene Summary

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    Lear wakes in the French camp, clean and dressed. Cordelia is with him. He thinks he is dead and she is a spirit. She kneels to him and he tries to kneel to her. He says he is a foolish, fond old man and she has reason to hate him. She says she has no cause. He is not yet entirely in his right mind, but he knows her.

    soft music playing; Gentleman, and others attending.
    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;
    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;
    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?
    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!
    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
    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!
    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!
    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
    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,
    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?
    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?
    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,
    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,
    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;
    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
    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.
    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.
    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,
    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?
    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?
    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.
    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