[Stage] Enter Cordelia, Kent disguised, Gentleman, and Doctor
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
And every measure fail me.
Kent(肯特)
To be acknowledged, madam, is o’erpaid.
All my reports go with the modest truth,
Nor more, nor clipped, but so.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Be better suited.
These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
I prithee, put them off.
Kent(肯特)
Pardon, dear madam.
Yet to be known shortens my made intent.
My boon I make it that you know me not
Till time and I think meet.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Then be ’t so, my good lord.—
How does the king?
Doctor(医生)
Madam, sleeps still.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
O you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abusèd nature,
Th’ untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up,
Of this child-changèd father!
Doctor(医生)
So please your majesty
That we may wake the king? He hath slept long.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Be governed by your knowledge, and proceed
I’ th’ sway of your own will. Is he arrayed?
[Stage] Enter Lear asleep in a chair carried by servants
Gentleman(绅士)
Ay, madam. In the heaviness of his sleep
We put fresh garments on him.
Doctor(医生)
Be by, good madam, when we do awake him.
I doubt not of his temperance.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Very well.
Doctor(医生)
Please you, draw near.—Louder the music there!
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[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!
Kent(肯特)
Kind and dear princess!
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
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.
Doctor(医生)
Madam, do you. ‘Tis fittest.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?
Lear(李尔)
You do me wrong to take me out o’ th’ grave.
Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Sir, do you know me?
Lear(李尔)
You are a spirit, I know. Where did you die?
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[aside to Doctor] Still, still far wide!
Doctor(医生)
He’s scarce awake. Let him alone awhile.
Lear(李尔)
Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
I am mightily abused. I should ev’n die with pity
To see another thus.
I know not what to say.
I will not swear these are my hands. Let’s see.
I feel this pinprick. Would I were assured
Of my condition.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[kneels]
O, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o’er me.
No, sir, you must not kneel.
Lear(李尔)
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(科迪莉亚)
And so I am, I am.
Lear(李尔)
Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not.
If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me, for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
You have some cause; they have not.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
No cause, no cause.
Lear(李尔)
Am I in France?
Kent(肯特)
In your own kingdom, sir.
Lear(李尔)
Do not abuse me.
Doctor(医生)
Be comforted, good madam. The great rage,
You see, is killed in him. And yet it is danger
To make him even o’er the time he has lost.
Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more
Till further settling.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Will ’t please your highness walk?
Lear(李尔)
You must bear with me.
Pray you now, forget and forgive.
I am old and foolish.
[Stage] Exeunt. Manent Kent and Gentleman.
Gentleman(绅士)
Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so
slain?
Kent(肯特)
Most certain, sir.
Gentleman(绅士)
Who is conductor of his people?
Kent(肯特)
As ’tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
Gentleman(绅士)
They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of
Kent in Germany.
Kent(肯特)
Report is changeable. Tis time to look about. The
powers of the kingdom approach apace.
Gentleman(绅士)
The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well,
sir.
[Stage] Exit Gentleman
Kent(肯特)
My point and period will be throughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought.
[Stage] Exit