Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Goneril and Edmund, the Bastard. GONERIL
Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband
Not met us on the way. Enter Oswald, the Steward. Now, where’s your master? OSWALD
Madam, within, but never man so changed.
I told him of the army that was landed; 5
He smiled at it. I told him you were coming;
His answer was “The worse.” Of Gloucester’s
treachery
And of the loyal service of his son
When I informed him, then he called me “sot” 10
And told me I had turned the wrong side out.
What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
What like, offensive. | Goneril and Edmund arrive at Goneril's castle, but before Goneril can invite Edmund in for a nightcap, Oswald comes out and says that Albany (Goneril's husband) is inside the castle and he's defected from "Team Bad Guy." Albany's pleased as punch that the French army has landed in Britain to mop the floor with Lear's good for nothing children. |
GONERIL, to Edmund Then shall you go no further.
It is the cowish terror of his spirit, 15
That dares not undertake. He’ll not feel wrongs
Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way
May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother.
Hasten his musters and conduct his powers.
I must change names at home and give the distaff 20
Into my husband’s hands. This trusty servant
Shall pass between us. Ere long you are like to
hear—
If you dare venture in your own behalf—
A mistress’s command. Wear this; spare speech. 25
She gives him a favor.
Decline your head. She kisses him. This kiss, if it
durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.
Conceive, and fare thee well. EDMUND
Yours in the ranks of death. He exits. 30 GONERIL My most dear
Gloucester!
O, the difference of man and man!
To thee a woman’s services are due;
My fool usurps my body. 35 | Goneril, hearing about her traitor husband, declares Albany a coward and is unable to go through with the final points of her plan. She promises Edmund that he'll hear from her soon, and they share a lingering kiss good-bye. Clearly, the trip from Gloucester's castle to Goneril's was long enough to jumpstart an affair. Goneril speaks in pretty clear terms: now that Edmund is now the new Earl of Gloucester, he's to have become a lot more attractive. Plus her husband's cowardice (read: morality) is far less attractive to her than Edmund's power-grabbing villainy, which makes her swoon. |
OSWALD Madam, here comes my lord. He exits. Enter Albany. GONERIL
I have been worth the whistle. ALBANY O Goneril,
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition. 40
That nature which contemns its origin
Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap perforce must wither
And come to deadly use. 45 GONERIL No more. The text is foolish. ALBANY
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man, 50
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would
lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you
madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it? 55
A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offenses,
It will come:
Humanity must perforce prey on itself, 60
Like monsters of the deep. | As soon as Edmund leaves, Goneril's husband, Albany, comes in and chews her out for the way she has been treating her father. She waves him off for being preachy, and he declares that wisdom and goodness seem "vile" to those who are "vile." (Translation: Goneril is vile.) |
GONERIL Milk-livered man,
That bear’st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
Thine honor from thy suffering; that not know’st 65
Fools do those villains pity who are punished
Ere they have done their mischief. Where’s thy
drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,
With plumèd helm thy state begins to threat, 70
Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries
“Alack, why does he so?” | Goneril glosses over the whole discussion by saying Albany is wasting time moralizing while the kingdom is in danger of invasion. |
ALBANY See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity shows not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman. 75 GONERIL O vain fool! ALBANY
Thou changèd and self-covered thing, for shame
Bemonster not thy feature. Were ’t my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear 80
Thy flesh and bones. Howe’er thou art a fiend,
A woman’s shape doth shield thee. | |
GONERIL Marry, your manhood, mew— | Goneril sneers at the idea of Albany's "manhood." |
ALBANY What news? MESSENGER
O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall’s dead, 85
Slain by his servant, going to put out
The other eye of Gloucester. | A messenger interrupts the domestic brawl with the news that Cornwall, Regan's husband, is dead. The wound he got from his rebellious servant during Gloucester's blinding was fatal. |
ALBANY Gloucester’s eyes? MESSENGER
A servant that he bred, thrilled with remorse,
Opposed against the act, bending his sword 90
To his great master, who, thereat enraged,
Flew on him and amongst them felled him dead,
But not without that harmful stroke which since
Hath plucked him after. ALBANY This shows you are above, 95
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge. But, O poor Gloucester,
Lost he his other eye? | Husband and wife react to the news in different ways. Albany is horrified that Gloucester has been treated so brutally, but he thinks Cornwall's death is a sign that justice will prevail. |
MESSENGER Both, both, my lord.—
This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer. 100
Giving her a paper.
’Tis from your sister. GONERIL, aside One way I like this well.
But being widow and my Gloucester with her
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life. Another way 105
The news is not so tart.—I’ll read, and answer. She exits. | Goneril is torn. On the one hand, Cornwall's death will make Edmund even more powerful. On the other hand she's horrified that Edmund will be alone with her recently widowed—and thus available—sister. |
ALBANY
Where was his son when they did take his eyes? MESSENGER
Come with my lady hither. ALBANY He is not here. MESSENGER
No, my good lord. I met him back again. 110 ALBANY Knows he the wickedness? MESSENGER
Ay, my good lord. ’Twas he informed against him
And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment
Might have the freer course. | Albany is curious about where on earth Edmund was while Gloucester was being mistreated (and why he didn't stop it). Albany finds out how deep the treachery runs when he learns that Edmund is a) the guy who tattled on his father, and b) the guy that took Goneril back home, thus making it easier for his father's torturers to do their thing. |
ALBANY Gloucester, I live 115
To thank thee for the love thou show’d’st the King,
And to revenge thine eyes.—Come hither, friend.
Tell me what more thou know’st. They exit. | Albany is full of praise for Gloucester's loyalty to the King and declares he'll get revenge on behalf of Gloucester. |