No Fear Shakespeare
King Lear
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 5, Page 2
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LEAR
No.
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LEAR
No.
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FOOL
Why, to keep one’s eyes of either side ’s nose, that what a
man cannot smell out, he may spy into.
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FOOL
Why, to keep the eyes on the sides, so that you can see anything that you can’t sniff out.
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LEAR
I did her wrong—
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LEAR
I was wrong to her—
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FOOL
Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
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FOOL
Do you know how an oyster makes its shell?
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LEAR
No.
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LEAR
No.
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FOOL
Nor I neither. But I can tell why a snail has a house.
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FOOL
Me neither. But I know why a snail carries its house on its back.
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LEAR
Why?
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LEAR
Why?
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FOOL
Why, to put ’s head in—not to give it away to his daughters
and leave his horns without a case.
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FOOL
So that he always has a roof over his head. He can’t give his house away to his daughters, leaving himself without shelter.
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LEAR
I will forget my nature. So kind a father!—Be my horses
ready?
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LEAR
I want to forget what I am. Such a kind father!—Are my horses ready?
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FOOL
Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven
stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
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FOOL
Your attendant asses are getting the horses ready. There’s a nice reason why the constellation Pleiades has only seven stars in it.
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LEAR
Because they are not eight?
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LEAR
Because it doesn’t have eight?
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FOOL
Yes indeed. Thou wouldst make a good fool.
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FOOL
That’s right. You’d make a good fool.
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LEAR
To take ’t again perforce— Monster ingratitude!
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LEAR
I could take back my crown by force—What outrageous ingratitude!
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