No Fear Shakespeare
King Lear
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 4, Scene 1
Original Text | Modern Text | |
Enter EDGAR diguised |
EDGAR enters in disguise. | |
5 |
EDGAR
Yet better thus, and known to be contemned,
Than still contemned and flattered. To be worst,
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear.
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts.
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EDGAR
Still, I’m better off now, as a beggar who is openly hated, than when I was flattered to my face hated in secret. The lowliest and most dejected creatures live without fear and still harbor hope. The worst kind of change is when good fortune turns sour. At the bottom, any change is for the better. So I welcome this wind freely. I’ve sunk as far down as I can go, so I’ve got nothing more to fear from the weather.
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Enter GLOUCESTER led by an OLD MAN
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GLOUCESTER enters, led by an OLD MAN. | |
| 10 |
But who comes here?
My father, poorly led? World, world, O world!
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee,
Life would not yield to age.
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But who is this? My father, led by a poor peasant? Oh, life is full of surprises! We age and die because they wear us out.
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OLD MAN
(to GLOUCESTER)
O my good lord,
I have been your tenant and your father’s tenant
these fourscore years.
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OLD MAN
(to GLOUCESTER) My good lord,
I’ve rented land from you and your father for eighty years.
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GLOUCESTER
Away, get thee away. Good friend, be gone.
Thy comforts can do me no good at all.
Thee they may hurt.
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GLOUCESTER
Away, get out of here. Leave me, my friend. There’s nothing you can do to help me now, and being with me puts your life in danger.
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20 |
OLD MAN
Alack, sir, you cannot see your way.
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OLD MAN
But you can’t see where you’re going, sir.
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GLOUCESTER
I have no way, and therefore want no eyes.
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GLOUCESTER
I don’t have anywhere to go, so I don’t need to see. When I could see, I didn’t always see clearly. I made
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