Lear's Labour's Lost
                                                         copyright © 2007 Jeff Goode

            ACT IV

            SCENE 11 - Fields near Dover.
                  Enter JAQUENETTA, and EDGAR dressed like a peasant
            JAQUENETTA 
               When shall we come to the top of that same hill?
            EDGAR
               You do climb up it now: look, how we labour.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Methinks the ground is even.
            EDGAR
                                     Horrible steep.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Methinks thy voice is alter'd; and thou speak'st
               In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
            EDGAR
               Come on, then; here's the place: stand still. How fearful 
               And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! 
            JAQUENETTA 
               Set me where you stand.
            EDGAR
               Give me your hand: you are now within a foot 
               Of the extreme verge: for all beneath the moon 
               Would I not leap upright.
            JAQUENETTA 
                                    Let go my hand.
            EDGAR
               Now fare you well, sweet maid.
            JAQUENETTA 
                                    With all my heart.
            EDGAR
               Why I do trifle thus with her despair 
               Is done to cure it.
            JAQUENETTA 
                                [Kneeling] O you mighty gods! 
               This world I do renounce, and, in your sights, 
               Shake patiently my great affliction off: 
               If Edgar live, O, bless him! 
               Now, fellow, fare thee well. 
                                                              She falls forward
            EDGAR
                                   Good soul: farewell.
               And yet I know not how conceit may rob
               The treasury of life, when life itself
               Yields to the theft: had she been where she thought,
               By this, had thought been past. Alive or dead?
               Ho, you there! friend! Hear you, girl! speak!
               Thus might she pass indeed: yet she revives.
               What are you, lass?
            JAQUENETTA 
                                   Away, and let me die.
            EDGAR
               Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, 
               So many fathom down precipitating, 
               Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg: but thou dost breathe; 
               Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again.
            JAQUENETTA 
               But have I fall'n, or no?
            EDGAR
               From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. 
               Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far 
               Cannot be seen or heard: do but look up.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Alack, I have no eyes.
               Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
               To end itself by death?
            EDGAR
                                   Give me your arm:
               Up: so. How is 't? Feel you your legs? You stand.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Too well, too well.
            EDGAR
               Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours 
               Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee.
            JAQUENETTA 
               I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear 
               Affliction till it do cry out itself 
            EDGAR
               Bear free and patient thoughts. 
               But who comes here? 
                  Enter KING LEAR, fantastically dressed with wild flowers 
            KING LEAR
               No, they cannot touch me for coining; I am the king himself.
            EDGAR
               O thou side-piercing sight!
            JAQUENETTA 
               I know that voice.
            KING LEAR
               Ha! They flattered me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black
               ones were there. 
            JAQUENETTA 
               The trick of that voice I do well remember: 
               Is 't not the king?
            KING LEAR
                                   Ay, every inch a king:
               When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
               I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
               Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
               Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
               Was kinder to his father than my daughters
               Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
            JAQUENETTA 
               O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world 
               Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?
            KING LEAR
               I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid!
               I'll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
            KING LEAR
               Read.
            JAQUENETTA 
               What, with the case of eyes?
            KING LEAR
               If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. 
               I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.
            JAQUENETTA 
               Alack, alack the day! 
                  Enter BOYET, with Attendants 
            BOYET 
               O, here he is: lay hand upon him. Sir,
               Your most dear daughter--
            KING LEAR
               No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even 
               The natural fool of fortune. Use me well; 
               You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons; 
               I am cut to the brains. 
            BOYET 
               You shall have any thing.
            KING LEAR
               Then there's life in't. Nay, if you get it, you shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa. 
                                                      Exit running; Attendants follow 
            BOYET 
               A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
               Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter,
               Who redeems nature from the general curse
               Which twain have brought her to.
            EDGAR
               How light and portable my pain seems now, 
               When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, 
               He childed as I father'd! Tom, away! 
               Mark the high noises; and thyself bewray, 
               When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, 
               In thy just proof, repeals and reconciles thee. 
               What will hap more to-night, safe 'scape the king! 
                                                         Assumes his disguise again
               Lurk, lurk.
                                                                      Exit
                  Enter, with drum and colours, CORDELIA, KENT, PRINCESS, and Soldiers
            CORDELIA
               Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now 
               As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud; 
               Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, 
            PRINCESS 
               Search every acre in the high-grown field, 
               And bring him to our eye. 
                                                                Exit an Officer
            CORDELIA
               What can man's wisdom
               In the restoring his bereavèd sense?
            BOYET 
               There is means, madam:
               Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
            CORDELIA
               All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
               Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
               In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
               Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
               That wants the means to lead it.
            EDGAR
                                 [To KENT] Hail, gentle sir.
            KENT 
               Sir, speed you: what's your will?
            EDGAR
               Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward? 
            EDGAR (cont'd)
               How near's the other army?
            KENT 
               Near and on speedy foot; the main descry
               Stands on the hourly thought.
            EDGAR
                                    I thank you, sir.
                                                                  Exit KENT
               [To PRINCESS] If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, 
               Hear me one word.
            PRINCESS 
                                  I'll overtake you. Speak. 
                                                  Exeunt all but PRINCESS and EDGAR
            EDGAR
               Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. 
               If you have victory, let the trumpet sound 
               For him that brought it: wretched though I seem, 
               I can produce a champion that will prove 
               What is avouchèd there. If you miscarry, 
               Your business of the world hath so an end, 
               And machination ceases. Fortune love you.
            PRINCESS 
               Stay till I have read the letter.
            EDGAR
                                     I was forbid it.
               When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
               And I'll appear again.
            PRINCESS 
               Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper. 
                                                                    Exeunt
                                                                End of Act IV

Forth!