King Lear: Act 2, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 3 of King Lear from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Edgar. EDGAR I heard myself proclaimed, And by the happy hollow of a tree Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place That guard and most unusual vigilance Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may ’scape, 5 I will preserve myself, and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape That ever penury in contempt of man Brought near to beast. My face I’ll grime with filth, Blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots, 10 And with presented nakedness outface The winds and persecutions of the sky. The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars who with roaring voices Strike in their numbed and mortifièd arms 15 Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary, And, with this horrible object, from low farms, Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills, Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, Enforce their charity. “Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom!” 20 That’s something yet. “Edgar” I nothing am. He exits.	Meanwhile, Fortune has not been kind to Edgar, who has survived the manhunt by hiding in a tree. Desperate to escape, he decides to disguise himself as "Poor Tom," an inmate of Bedlam hospital. He says he'll put mud all over his face and wear nothing but a blanket to cover his naughty bits. He'll also know up his hair and go around howling, acting like a madman who roams about the country driving sharp objects into the flesh of his arms and begging for charity. He ends by saying at least people will pity him as Tom. As Edgar, he's nothing.

Original Text

Translated Text

Enter Edgar.

EDGAR I heard myself proclaimed,
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free; no place
That guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may ’scape, 5
I will preserve myself, and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury in contempt of man
Brought near to beast. My face I’ll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots, 10
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars who with roaring voices
Strike in their numbed and mortifièd arms 15
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary,
And, with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. “Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom!” 20
That’s something yet. “Edgar” I nothing am.

He exits.

Meanwhile, Fortune has not been kind to Edgar, who has survived the manhunt by hiding in a tree.

Desperate to escape, he decides to disguise himself as "Poor Tom," an inmate of Bedlam hospital.

He says he'll put mud all over his face and wear nothing but a blanket to cover his naughty bits. He'll also know up his hair and go around howling, acting like a madman who roams about the country driving sharp objects into the flesh of his arms and begging for charity.

He ends by saying at least people will pity him as Tom. As Edgar, he's nothing.

King Lear: Act 2, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 3 of King Lear from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text

Translated Text

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