Get this No Fear to go!
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CORDELIA
Be governed by your knowledge, and proceed
I' th' sway of your own will. Is he arrayed?
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CORDELIA
Do whatever you think best. Is he in his royal garments?
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Enter LEAR asleep in a chair carried by servants |
Servants carry in LEAR sleeping in a chair. |
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GENTLEMAN
Ay, madam. In the heaviness of his sleep
We put fresh garments on him.
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GENTLEMAN
Yes, ma'am. We changed his clothes while he was fast asleep.
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DOCTOR
Be by, good madam, when we do awake him.
I doubt not of his temperance.
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DOCTOR
Stay close by when we wake him up, ma'am. I’m sure he will stay under control.
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CORDELIA
Very well.
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CORDELIA
All right.
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DOCTOR
Please you, draw near.—Louder the music there!
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DOCTOR
Please come closer.— Make the music louder, please!
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25 |
CORDELIA
(kisses LEAR) O my dear father, restoration hang
Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss
Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made!
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CORDELIA
(kisses LEAR) Oh, my dear father, please get better. May my kiss heal the wounds inflicted on you by my sisters—who should have respected and cherished you.
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KENT
Kind and dear princess!
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KENT
Kind and dear princess!
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30 35 40 |
CORDELIA
Had you not been their father, these white flakes
Did challenge pity of them. Was this a face
To be opposed against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick cross lightning? To watch—poor perdu!—
With this thin helm? Mine enemy’s meanest dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire. And wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all.—He wakes. Speak to him.
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CORDELIA
If you hadn’t been their father, your white hair would have inspired in them only compassion. Is this a face that should have endured the freezing winds or withstood the dreadful thunder or the terrible lightning? To stay awake all night like a guardsman—poor lost soul!—with only your thinning hair for a helmet? I would’ve let even my enemy’s nastiest dog stay inside by the fireplace on that night, even if he had bit me. And were you then happy to find shelter on a bed of hay along with swine and homeless bums? Oh, oh! It’s a wonder you didn’t lose your life and your mind all at once.—He’s waking up. Talk to him.
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