No Fear Shakespeare
King Lear
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 4, Scene 6, Page 3
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EDGAR
Gone, sir. Farewell.
(aside) And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life when life itself
Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought,
By this had thought been past. Alive or dead?—
Ho you, sir, friend! Hear you, sir? Speak.—
Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives.—
What are you, sir?
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EDGAR
Gone, sir. Goodbye. (to himself) But I still wonder if it’s possible for his own imagination to kill him, since he’s so willing to die. If he’d been standing on the edge of the cliff as he thought, he’d be dead right now. Is he alive or dead?—Hey, sir, friend! Can you hear me? Answer me.—Maybe he passed away after all. But no, he’s stirring.—Who are you, sir?
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GLOUCESTER
Away, and let me die.
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GLOUCESTER
Go away and let me die.
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EDGAR
Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
So many fathom down precipitating,
Thou’dst shivered like an egg. But thou dost breathe,
Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.
Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.
Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.
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EDGAR
Even if you were made of feathers and air, you should’ve been smashed in pieces like an egg after falling as far as you just did. But your flesh is solid, your mind is strong, you’re breathing and talking, you’re not bleeding. You just fell the height of ten ship masts, straight down. It’s a miracle you’re alive. Say something again.
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GLOUCESTER
But have I fall'n, or no?
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GLOUCESTER
But did I fall or not?
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EDGAR
From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
Look up a-height. The shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.
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EDGAR
You fell from the terrifying top of this chalk cliff. Look for yourself—see the top of the cliff way up there? The lark shrilly singing up there is too far away to be heard. Just look.
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GLOUCESTER
Alack, I have no eyes.
Is wretchedness deprived that benefit,
To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort
When misery could beguile the tyrant’s rage
And frustrate his proud will.
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GLOUCESTER
I can’t. I have no eyes. If you’re wretched and desperate, aren’t you allowed to kill yourself? It used to be the last ditch comfort of miserable people.
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EDGAR
Give me your arm.
Up so. How is ’t? Feel you your legs? You stand.
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EDGAR
Give me your arm. Get up. There you go. How do you feel? Can you feel your legs? You’re standing.
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GLOUCESTER
Too well, too well.
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GLOUCESTER
Only too well.
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