The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

[Exit Gentleman.]

This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble Touches us not with pity. O, is this he?

The time will not allow the compliment That very manners urges.

Kent. I am come

To bid my king and master aye good night.

Is he not here?

Alb. Great thing of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where’s the King? and where’s Cordelia?

The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in.

Seest thou this object, Kent?

Kent. Alack, why thus?

Edm. Yet Edmund was belov’d.

The one the other poisoned for my sake, And after slew herself.

Alb. Even so. Cover their faces.

Edm. I pant for life. Some good I mean to do, Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send (Be brief in’t) to the castle; for my writ Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia.

Nay, send in time.

Alb. Run, run, O, run!

Edg. To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send Thy token of reprieve.

Edm. Well thought on. Take my sword;

Give it the Captain.

Alb. Haste thee for thy life. [Exit Edgar.]

Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me To hang Cordelia in the prison and

To lay the blame upon her own despair That she fordid herself.

Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.

[Edmund is borne off.]

Enter Lear, with Cordelia [dead] in his arms, [Edgar, Captain, and others following].

Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone.

Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!

I know when one is dead, and when one lives.

She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.

If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives.

Kent. Is this the promis’d end?

Edg. Or image of that horror?

Alb. Fall and cease!

Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so, It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt.

Kent. O my good master!

Lear. Prithee away!

Edg. ‘Tis noble Kent, your friend.

Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have sav’d her; now she’s gone for ever!

Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!

What is’t thou say’st, Her voice was ever soft, Gentle, and low-an excellent thing in woman.

I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee.

Capt. ‘Tis true, my lords, he did.

Lear. Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I would have made them skip. I am old now, And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?

Mine eyes are not o’ th’ best. I’ll tell you straight.

Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov’d and hated, One of them we behold.

Lear. This’ a dull sight. Are you not Kent?

Kent. The same—

Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?

Lear. He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that.

He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.

Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man-Lear. I’ll see that straight.

Kent. That from your first of difference and decay Have followed your sad steps.

Lear. You’re welcome hither.

Kent. Nor no man else! All’s cheerless, dark, and deadly.

Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, And desperately are dead.

Lear. Ay, so I think.

Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain is it That we present us to him.

Edg. Very bootless.

Enter a Captain.

Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord.

Alb. That’s but a trifle here.

You lords and noble friends, know our intent.

What comfort to this great decay may come Shall be applied. For us, we will resign, During the life of this old Majesty, To him our absolute power; [to Edgar and Kent] you to your rights;

With boot, and Such addition as your honours Have more than merited.- All friends shall taste The wages of their virtue, and all foes The cup of their deservings.- O, see, see!

Lear. And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.

Do you see this? Look on her! look! her lips!

Look there, look there! He dies.

Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord!

Kent. Break, heart; I prithee break!

Edg. Look up, my lord.

Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.

Edg. He is gone indeed.

Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur’d so long.

He but usurp’d his life.

Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you twain

Rule in this realm, and the gor’d state sustain.

Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go.

My master calls me; I must not say no.

Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest have borne most; we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

Exeunt with a dead march.

THE END

<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS

PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE

WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE

DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS

PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED

COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY

SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>

1595

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

by William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae.

FERDINAND, King of Navarre

BEROWNE, lord attending on the King

LONGAVILLE, ” ” ” ” “

DUMAIN, ” ” ” ” “

BOYET, lord attending on the Princess of France MARCADE, ” ” ” ” ” ” “

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, fantastical Spaniard SIR NATHANIEL, a curate

HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster

DULL, a constable

COSTARD, a clown

MOTH, page to Armado

A FORESTER

THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE

ROSALINE, lady attending on the Princess MARIA, ” ” ” ” “

KATHARINE, lady attending on the Princess JAQUENETTA, a country wench

Lords, Attendants, etc.

<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS

PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE

WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE

DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS

PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED

COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY

SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>

SCENE:

Navarre

ACT I. SCENE I.

Navarre. The King’s park

Enter the King, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN

KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live regist’red upon our brazen tombs, And then grace us in the disgrace of death; When, spite of cormorant devouring Time, Th’ endeavour of this present breath may buy That honour which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge, And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors-for so you are That war against your own affections

And the huge army of the world’s desires-Our late edict shall strongly stand in force: Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; Our court shall be a little Academe,

Still and contemplative in living art.

You three, Berowne, Dumain, and Longaville, Have sworn for three years’ term to live with me My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes That are recorded in this schedule here.

Your oaths are pass’d; and now subscribe your names, That his own hand may strike his honour down That violates the smallest branch herein.

If you are arm’d to do as sworn to do, Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too.

LONGAVILLE. I am resolv’d; ‘tis but a three years’ fast.

The mind shall banquet, though the body pine.

Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.

DUMAIN. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified.

The grosser manner of these world’s delights He throws upon the gross world’s baser slaves; To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die, With all these living in philosophy.

BEROWNE. I can but say their protestation over; So much, dear liege, I have already sworn, That is, to live and study here three years.

But there are other strict observances, As: not to see a woman in that term,

Which I hope well is not enrolled there; And one day in a week to touch no food, And but one meal on every day beside, The which I hope is not enrolled there; And then to sleep but three hours in the night And not be seen to wink of all the day-When I was wont to think no harm all night, And make a dark night too of half the day-Which I hope well is not enrolled there.

O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!

KING. Your oath is pass’d to pass away from these.

BEROWNE. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please: I only swore to study with your Grace, And stay here in your court for three years’ space.

LONGAVILLE. You swore to that, Berowne, and to the rest.

BEROWNE. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.

What is the end of study, let me know.

KING. Why, that to know which else we should not know.

BEROWNE. Things hid and barr’d, you mean, from common sense?

KING. Ay, that is study’s godlike recompense.

BEROWNE. Come on, then; I will swear to study so, To know the thing I am forbid to know, As thus: to study where I well may dine, When I to feast expressly am forbid;

Or study where to meet some mistress fine, When mistresses from common sense are hid; Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth.

If study’s gain be thus, and this be so, Study knows that which yet it doth not know.

Swear me to this, and I will ne’er say no.

KING. These be the stops that hinder study quite, And train our intellects to vain delight.

BEROWNE. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain Which, with pain purchas’d, doth inherit pain, As painfully to pore upon a book

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile; So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.

Study me how to please the eye indeed, By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, And give him light that it was blinded by.

Study is like the heaven’s glorious sun, That will not be deep-search’d with saucy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won, Save base authority from others’ books.

These earthly godfathers of heaven’s lights That give a name to every fixed star

Have no more profit of their shining nights Than those that walk and wot not what they are.

Too much to know is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name.

KING. How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

DUMAIN. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!

LONGAVILLE. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding.

BEROWNE. The spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding.

DUMAIN. How follows that?

BEROWNE. Fit in his place and time.