King Lear: Act II, Scene 4

O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life's as cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,--
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall--I will do such things,--
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I'll weep
No, I'll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

啊！不要跟我說什麼需要不需要；最卑賤的乞丐，也有他的不值錢的身外之物；人生除了天然的需要以外，要是沒有其他的享受，那和畜類的生活有什麼分別。你是一位夫人；你穿著這樣華麗的衣服，如果你的目的只是為了保持溫暖，那就根本不合你的需要，因為這種盛裝艷飾並不能使你溫暖。可是，講到真的需要，那麼天啊，給我忍耐吧，我需要忍耐！神啊，你們看見我在這兒，一個可憐的老頭子，被憂傷和老邁折磨得好苦！假如是你們鼓動這兩個女兒的心，使她們忤逆她們的父親，那麼請你們不要儘是愚弄我，叫我默然忍受吧；讓我的心裡激起了剛強的怒火，別讓婦人所恃為武器的淚點玷污我的男子漢的面頰！不，你們這兩個不孝的妖婦，我要向你們復仇，我要做出一些使全世界驚怖的事情來，雖然我現在還不知道我要怎麼做。你們以為我將要哭泣；不，我不願哭泣，我雖然有充分的哭泣的理由，可是我寧願讓這顆心碎成萬片，也不願流下一滴淚來。啊，傻瓜！我要發瘋了！


James Earl Jones's breathtaking performance in the climactic confrontation of King Lear with his daughters in Act II Scene 4 of William Shakespeare's King Lear.

Fragment of a televised version of the 1974 New York Shakespeare Festival production in Central Park. Directed by Edwin Sherin.
Starring:
James Earl Jones ... King Lear
Lee Chamberlin ... Cordelia
Ellen Holly ... Regan
Douglass Watson ... Kent
Paul Sorvino ... Gloucester
Tom Aldredge ... Fool
Rene Auberjonois ... Edgar
Raul Julia ... Edmund
Rosalind Cash ... Goneril

*Full text for Act II Scene 4 here.
*《李爾王》全劇本中文版