King Lear

Front Cover
Grosset & Dunlap, 1909 - 208 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 85 - No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall — I will do such things — What they are yet I know not ; but they shall be The terrors of the earth.
Page 102 - ... heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman outparamoured the Turk. False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.
Page 140 - tis, to cast one's eyes so low! The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, Show scarce so gross as beetles : Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade! Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yon...
Page 22 - Thou, nature, art my goddess ; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother ? Why bastard ? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue ? Why brand they us With base ? with baseness ? bastardy ? base, base...
Page 8 - Tell me, my daughters, (Since now we will divest us, both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of State,) Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most ? That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge).
Page 103 - Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! here's three on "s are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Page 27 - ... we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and the stars : as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion ; knaves, thieves and treachers, by spherical predominance ; drunkards, liars and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence ; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on...
Page 145 - 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 : The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive ; for Gloster's bastard son Was kinder to his father, than my daughters Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
Page 182 - 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 'It 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 ! [Dies.
Page 147 - Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? GLOUCESTER. Ay, sir. K. LEAR. And the creature run from the cur? There thou might'st behold the great image of authority; a dog 's obeyed in office.

Bibliographic information