epub:type="z3998:persona">King Lear
No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her.
Exit an Attendant. Go you, call hither my fool.
Exit an Attendant.
Re-enter
Oswald.
O, you sir, you, come you hither, sir: who am I, sir?
Oswald
My lady’s father.
King Lear
“My lady’s father”! my lord’s knave: your whoreson dog! you slave! you cur!
Oswald
I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon.
King Lear
Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?
Striking him.
Oswald
I’ll not be struck, my lord.
Kent
Nor tripped neither, you base football player.
Tripping up his heels.
King Lear
I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I’ll love thee.
Kent
Come, sir, arise, away! I’ll teach you differences: away, away! if you will measure your lubber’s length again, tarry: but away! go to; have you wisdom? so.
Pushes Oswald out.
King Lear
Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there’s earnest of thy service.
Giving Kent money.
Enter
Fool.
Fool
Let me hire him too: here’s my coxcomb.
Offering Kent his cap.
King Lear
How now, my pretty knave! how dost thou?
Fool
Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
Kent
Why, fool?
Fool
Why, for taking one’s part that’s out of favour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou’lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow has banished two on’s daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. How now, nuncle! Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!
King Lear
Why, my boy?
Fool
If I gave them all my living, I’ld keep my coxcombs myself. There’s mine; beg another of thy daughters.
King Lear
Take heed, sirrah; the whip.
Fool
Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink.
King Lear
A pestilent gall to me!
Fool
Sirrah, I’ll teach thee a speech.
King Lear
Do.
Fool
Mark it, nuncle:
Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest;
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score.
Kent
This is nothing, fool.
Fool
Then ’tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer; you gave me nothing for’t. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?
King Lear
Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.
Fool
To Kent. Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool.
King Lear
A bitter fool!
Fool
Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet fool?
King Lear
No, lad; teach me.
Fool
That lord that counsell’d thee
To give away thy land,
Come place him here by me,
Do thou for him stand:
The sweet and bitter fool
Will presently appear;
The one in motley here,
The other found out there.
King Lear
Dost thou call me fool, boy?
Fool
All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.
Kent
This is not altogether fool, my lord.
Fool
No, faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on’t: and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they’ll be snatching. Give me an egg, nuncle, and I’ll give thee two crowns.
King Lear
What two crowns shall they be?
Fool
Why, after I have cut the egg i’ the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i’ the middle, and gavest away both parts, thou borest thy ass on thy back o’er the dirt: thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in this, let him be whipped that first finds it so.
Singing. Fools had ne’er less wit in a year;
For wise men are grown foppish,
They know not how their wits to wear,
Their manners are so apish.
King Lear
When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah?
Fool
I have used it, nuncle, ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mothers: for when thou gavest them the rod, and put’st down thine own breeches,
Singing. Then they for sudden joy did weep,
And I for sorrow sung,
That such a king should play bo-peep,
And go the fools among.
Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to lie: I would fain learn to lie.
King Lear
An you lie, sirrah, we’ll have you whipped.
Fool
I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: they’ll have me whipped for speaking true, thou’lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind o’ thing than a fool: and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o’ both sides, and left nothing i’ the middle: here comes one o’ the parings.
Enter
Goneril.
King Lear
How now, daughter! what makes that frontlet on? Methinks you are too much of late i’ the frown.
Fool
Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing.
To Goneril. Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face bids me, though you say nothing.
Mum, mum, He that keeps nor crust nor crum,
Weary of all, shall want some.
Pointing to King Lear. That’s a shealed peascod.
Goneril
Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool,
But other of your insolent retinue
Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be endured riots. Sir,
I had thought, by making this well known unto you,
To have found a safe redress; but now grow fearful,
By what yourself too late have spoke and done.
That you protect this course, and put it on
By your allowance; which if you
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