No Fear Shakespeare
King Lear
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 4, Scene 3, Page 2
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KENT
Made she no verbal question?
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KENT
She didn’t ask anything?
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GENTLEMAN
Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of “father”
Pantingly forth as if it pressed her heart,
Cried, “Sisters, sisters! Shame of ladies, sisters!
Kent, father, sisters! What, i' th' storm, i' th' night?
Let pity not be believed.” There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamor moistened. Then away she started
To deal with grief alone.
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GENTLEMAN
Actually, once or twice she sighed and said, “father,” as if the word were pressing on her chest. Once she exclaimed, “Sisters, sisters, shame on you! Kent, father, sisters! What, out in a storm in the middle of the night? I can’t believe it.” The tears fell from her eyes like holy water. Then she ran away to grieve alone.
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KENT
It is the stars,
The stars above us, govern our conditions.
Else one self mate and mate could not beget
Such different issues. You spoke not with her since?
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KENT
It must be fate that makes us who we are—otherwise someone as good as Cordelia could not possibly be related to those two witches. Have you not spoken to her since then?
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GENTLEMAN
No.
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GENTLEMAN
No.
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KENT
Was this before the king returned?
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KENT
Did this happen before the King of France returned home?
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GENTLEMAN
No, since.
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GENTLEMAN
No, afterward.
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KENT
Well, sir, the poor distressèd Lear’s i' th' town,
Who sometime in his better tune remembers
What we are come about, and by no means
Will yield to see his daughter.
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KENT
Well, sir, poor delirious Lear is in town. Sometimes when he’s lucid he remembers why we’re here, and absolutely refuses to see his daughter.
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GENTLEMAN
Why, good sir?
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GENTLEMAN
Why, good sir?
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KENT
A sovereign shame so elbows him. His own unkindness
That stripped her from his benediction turned her
To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters. These things sting
His mind so venomously that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.
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KENT
He’s too overwhelmed with shame. He remembers how unkind he was to her, how he disowned her and sent her abroad, how he gave her rightful inheritance to her two dog-hearted sisters. All those memories pain his mind so deeply that guilt and shame keep him away from Cordelia.
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