King Lear (1970)

Paul Scofield: King Lear

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  King Lear : Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death.

• King Lear : My daughters, Which of you shall we say doth love us most?

• King Lear : Nothing will come of nothing.

• King Lear : Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

• King Lear : Where's my fool? I think the world's asleep. Where's that mongrel?

• King Lear : O, you! You, sir. Come you hither, sir: Who am I, sir?

  Oswald : My lady's father.

  King Lear : 'My lady's father'! You whoreson dog! You slave! You cur!

  Oswald : I'll not be struck, my lord!

  Kent : Nor tripped neither, you base football player.

• King Lear : This is nothing, fool.

  Fool : Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?

  King Lear : Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing.

• King Lear : Who is it that can tell me who I am?

  Fool : Lear's shadow.

• King Lear : How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

• King Lear : Are my horses ready?

  Fool : Your asses are gone about them.

• Fool : Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.

  King Lear : What canst thou tell, my boy?

  Fool : She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab.

• Fool : Thou canst tell why one's nose stands i' the middle on's face?

  King Lear : No.

  Fool : Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

• Fool : Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?

  King Lear : No.

  Fool : Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

  King Lear : Why?

  Fool : Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his daughters.

• Fool : The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.

  King Lear : Because they are not eight?

  Fool : Yes, indeed! Thou wouldst make a good fool.

• Fool : If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being old before thy time.

  King Lear : How's that?

  Fool : Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.

• King Lear : O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; Keep me in temper: I would not be mad!

• King Lear : Let not women's weapons, water-drops, stain my man's cheeks. No, you unnatural hags!

• King Lear : Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once, That make ingrateful man!

• King Lear : Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, You owe me no subscription: then let fall, Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.

• King Lear : I am a man, More sinn'd against than sinning.

• King Lear : When the mind's free, The body is delicate.

• King Lear : What hast thou been?

  Edgar : A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey!

• Gloucester : The trick of that voice I do well remember: Is 't not the king?

  King Lear : Ay, every inch a king: When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? Adultery? Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No: The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly, Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive!

• Gloucester : O, let me kiss that hand!

  King Lear : Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.

• King Lear : Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back; Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind, For which thou whipp'st her.

• King Lear : When we are born, we cry that we are come, To this great stage of fools.

• King Lear : You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave: Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound, On a wheel of fire, that mine own tears, Do scald like moulten lead.

• King Lear : Pray, do not mock me: I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks I should know you, and know this man; Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant, What place this is; and all the skill I have, Remembers not these garments; nor I know not, Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; For, as I am a man, I think this lady, To be my child Cordelia.

  Cordelia : And so I am, I am.

  King Lear : Be your tears wet? Yes, 'faith. I know you do not love me; for your sister,s Have, as I do remember, done me wrong: You have some cause, they have not.

  Cordelia : No cause, no cause.

  King Lear : You must bear with me: Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.

• Cordelia : Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

  King Lear : No. No, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds in the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness: and so we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh, At gilded butterflies, and we'll hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; And take upon's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies.

• King Lear : Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so, That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She's dead as earth.

• King Lear : A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

• King Lear : And my poor fool is hang'd! No. No, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou'll come no more, Never, never! Never, never, never!

• King Lear : Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips, Look there, look there!