Enter Lear, fantastically dressed up with flowers.
The safer sense will ne’er accommodate
His master thus.
LEAR.
No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the King himself.
EDGAR.
O thou side-piercing sight!
LEAR.
Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a clothier’s yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace, this piece of toasted cheese will do’t. There’s my gauntlet; I’ll prove it on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird! i’ the clout, i’ the clout. Hewgh! Give the word.
EDGAR.
Sweet marjoram.
LEAR.
Pass.
GLOUCESTER.
I know that voice.
LEAR.
Ha! Goneril with a white beard! They flattered me like a dog; and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to everything I said ‘ay’ and ‘no’ to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at my bidding; there I found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to, they are not men o’ their words: they told me I was everything; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
GLOUCESTER.
The trick of that voice I do well remember:
Is’t not the King?