No Fear Shakespeare
King Lear
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 2, Scene 2, Page 3
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GLOUCESTER
Weapons, arms? What’s the matter here?
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GLOUCESTER
You have weapons? What’s going on here?
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CORNWALL
Keep peace, upon your lives.
He dies that strikes again. What is the matter?
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CORNWALL
Stop it, I order you. The next person to strike again dies. What’s going on here?
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REGAN
The messengers from our sister and the king.
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REGAN
These are the messengers from my sister and the king.
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CORNWALL
What is your difference? Speak.
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CORNWALL
What are you fighting about? Tell me.
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OSWALD
I am scarce in breath, my lord.
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OSWALD
I’m out of breath, sir.
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KENT
No marvel, you have so bestirred your valor. You cowardly
rascal, nature disclaims in thee. A tailor made thee.
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KENT
No wonder, with all your exertions, you cowardly rascal. You’re not worth being called a man. The only thing manly about you are your clothes. A tailor made you.
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CORNWALL
Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man?
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CORNWALL
That’s an odd thing to say. How can a tailor make a person?
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KENT
Ay, a tailor, sir. A stone-cutter or painter could not have
made him so ill though they had been but two years o' th'
trade.
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KENT
Definitely a tailor, sir. A sculptor or a painter couldn’t have screwed him up as bad as that, even as an apprentice.
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CORNWALL
Speak yet. How grew your quarrel?
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CORNWALL
But tell me what you’re fighting about.
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OSWALD
This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of
his gray beard—
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OSWALD
This old ruffian here, whom I didn’t kill because he’s so old—
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KENT
Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!—My lord, if
you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into
mortar and daub the wall of a jakes with him.—Spare my
gray beard, you wagtail?
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KENT
You useless bastard—you’re like the letter “z,” a totally unnecessary addition to the alphabet.—My lord, please let me grind this lumpy lowlife into a powder and use it to plaster up the bathroom walls.—You didn’t kill me because I’m so old, you fawning dog?
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CORNWALL
Peace, sirrah!
You beastly knave, know you no reverence?
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CORNWALL
Calm down. Don’t you have any manners, you savage?
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KENT
Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege.
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KENT
Yes, sir, but not when I’m enraged.
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