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Contents Page
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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / King Lear / Act I Scene V
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King Lear: Act 1 Scene 5
Scene V Court before the same.
- [Enter KING LEAR, KENT, and Fool]
- KING LEAR
- Go you before to Gloucester with these letters.
- Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you
- know than comes from her demand out of the letter.
- If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you.
- KENT
- I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered
- your letter.
- [Exit]
- FOOL
- If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in
- danger of kibes?
- KING LEAR
- Ay, boy.
- FOOL
- Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall ne'er go
- slip-shod.
- KING LEAR
- Ha, ha, ha!
- FOOL
- Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly;
- for though she's as like this as a crab's like an
- apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
- KING LEAR
- Why, what canst thou tell, my boy?
- FOOL
- She will taste as like this as a crab does to a
- crab. Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i'
- the middle on's face?
- KING LEAR
- No.
- FOOL
- Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that
- what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
- KING LEAR
- I did her wrong--
- FOOL
- Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
- KING LEAR
- No.
- FOOL
- Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
- KING LEAR
- Why?
- FOOL
- Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
- daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
- KING LEAR
- I will forget my nature. So kind a father! Be my
- horses ready?
- FOOL
- Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the
- seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
- KING LEAR
- Because they are not eight?
- FOOL
- Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
- KING LEAR
- To take 't again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
- FOOL
- If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten
- for being old before thy time.
- KING LEAR
- How's that?
- FOOL
- Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst
- been wise.
- KING LEAR
- O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven
- Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!
- [Enter Gentleman]
- How now! are the horses ready?
- GENTLEMAN
- Ready, my lord.
- KING LEAR
- Come, boy.
- FOOL
- She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure,
- Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.
- [Exeunt]
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