King Lear (20 page)

This sword of mine shall give them
instant way
¹⁵⁸
,

Where they shall rest forever. Trumpets, speak!

ALBANY
    Save
him
¹⁶⁰
, save him!

GONERIL
    This is
practice
¹⁶¹
, Gloucester:

By th’law of war thou wast not bound to answer

An unknown opposite: thou art not vanquished,

But
cozened and beguiled
¹⁶⁴
.

ALBANY
    Shut your mouth,
dame
¹⁶⁵
,

Or with this paper shall I stop it.— Hold, sir.—

Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.

No tearing, lady: I perceive you
know
¹⁶⁸
it.

Shows her the letter

GONERIL
    Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:

Who can
arraign
¹⁷⁰
me for’t.

ALBANY
    Most monstrous! O, know’st thou this paper?

EDMUND
    Ask me not what I know.

ALBANY
    Go after her: she’s desperate:
govern
¹⁷³
her.

EDMUND
    What you have charged me with, that have I done,

And more, much more: the time will bring it out:

’Tis past and so am I.— But what art thou

That hast this
fortune on
¹⁷⁷
me? If thou’rt noble,

I do forgive thee.

EDGAR
    Let’s exchange
charity
¹⁷⁹
.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund:

If more, the more
th’hast
¹⁸¹
wronged me.

My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.

The gods are just, and of our
pleasant
¹⁸³
vices

Make instruments to plague us:

The
dark
and
vicious
place where thee he
got
¹⁸⁵

Cost him his eyes.

EDMUND
    Th’hast spoken right: ’tis true,

The
wheel
¹⁸⁸
is come full circle: I am here.

ALBANY
    Methought thy very gait did
prophesy
¹⁸⁹

A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee.

Let sorrow split my heart if ever I

Did hate thee or thy father!

EDGAR
Worthy prince, I know’t.

ALBANY
Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

EDGAR
    By nursing them, my lord.
List
¹⁹⁶
a brief tale,

And when ’tis told, O, that my heart would burst!

The
bloody proclamation
¹⁹⁸
to escape

That followed me so near — O, our lives’ sweetness!

That we
the pain of death would hourly die
²⁰⁰

Rather than die at once! — taught me to shift

Into a madman’s rags, t’assume a
semblance
²⁰²

That very dogs disdained: and in this
habit
²⁰³

Met I my father with his bleeding
rings
²⁰⁴
,

Their precious stones new lost, became his guide,

Led him, begged for him, saved him from
despair
²⁰⁶
,

Never — O, fault! — revealed myself unto him

Until some half-hour past, when I was armed.

Not sure, though hoping, of this good
success
²⁰⁹
,

I asked his blessing, and from first to last

Told him our
pilgrimage
: but his
flawed
²¹¹
heart —

Alack, too weak the conflict to support —

’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,

Burst smilingly.

EDMUND
    This speech of yours hath moved me,

And shall perchance do good: but speak you on:

You look as you had something more to say.

ALBANY
If there be more, more woeful, hold it in,

For I am almost ready to
dissolve
²¹⁹
,

Hearing of this.

GENTLEMAN
    Help, help, O, help!

EDGAR
    What kind of help?

ALBANY
    Speak, man.

EDGAR
    What means this bloody knife?

GENTLEMAN
    ’Tis hot, it
smokes
²²⁵
:

It came even from the heart of — O, she’s dead!

ALBANY
    Who dead? Speak, man.

GENTLEMAN
    Your lady, sir, your lady; and her sister

By her is poisoned: she confesses it.

EDMUND
    I was contracted to them both: all three

Now marry in an instant.

EDGAR
    Here comes Kent.

ALBANY
    Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead:

This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Touches us not with pity.— O, is this he?—

The time will not allow the
compliment
²³⁶

Which very manners urges.

KENT
    I am come

To bid my king and master
aye
²³⁹
goodnight:

Is he not here?

ALBANY
    
Great thing
²⁴¹
of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where’s the king? And where’s Cordelia?—

See’st thou this
object
²⁴³
, Kent?

Points to the bodies

KENT
    Alack, why thus?

EDMUND
    Yet Edmund was beloved:

The one the other poisoned for my sake

And after slew herself.

ALBANY
    
Even
²⁴⁸
so. Cover their faces.

EDMUND
    I pant for life: some good I mean to do,

Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send —

Be brief in it — to th’castle, for my
writ
²⁵¹

Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:

Nay, send in time.

ALBANY
    Run, run, O, run!

EDGAR
    To who, my lord? Who has the
office
²⁵⁵
?

Send thy token of reprieve.

EDMUND
    Well thought on: take my sword,

Give it the captain.

EDGAR
    Haste thee, for thy life.

EDMUND
    He hath commission from thy wife and me

To hang Cordelia in the prison and

To lay the blame upon her own despair,

That she
fordid
²⁶³
herself.

ALBANY
    The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.

LEAR
    Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:

Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d 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. Lend me a looking-glass:

If that her breath will mist or stain the
stone
²⁷⁰
,

Why, then she lives.

KENT
    Is this the
promised end
²⁷²
?

EDGAR
    Or image of that horror?

ALBANY
    
Fall and cease!
²⁷⁴

LEAR
    This feather stirs: she lives! If it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.

KENT
    O my good master!

LEAR
    Prithee, away.

EDGAR
’Tis noble Kent, your friend.

LEAR
    A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have saved her: now she’s gone for ever!—

Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little. Ha?

What is’t thou say’st?— Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.—

I killed the
slave
²⁸⁶
that was a-hanging thee.

GENTLEMAN
    ’Tis true, my lords, he did.

LEAR
    Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting
falchion
²⁸⁹

I would have made him skip: I am old now,

And these same
crosses
²⁹¹
spoil me.— Who are you?

Mine eyes are not o’th’best
: I’ll tell you
straight
²⁹²
.

KENT
    If fortune brag of
two she loved and hated
²⁹³
,

One of them we behold.

LEAR
    This is a
dull sight
²⁹⁵
. Are you not Kent?

KENT
    The same,

Your servant Kent: where is your servant
Caius
²⁹⁷
?

LEAR
    He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that:

He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.

KENT
    No, my good lord, I am the very man—

LEAR
    
I’ll see that straight
³⁰¹
.

KENT
    That from
your first of difference and decay
³⁰²

Have followed your sad steps.

LEAR
    You are welcome hither.

KENT
    
Nor no man else
³⁰⁵
: all’s cheerless, dark and deadly.

Your eldest daughters have
fordone
³⁰⁶
themselves,

And
desperately
³⁰⁷
are dead.

LEAR
Ay, so I think.

ALBANY
    He knows not what he says, and
vain is it
³⁰⁹

That we present us to him.

EDGAR
    Very
bootless
³¹¹
.

MESSENGER
    Edmund is dead, my lord.

ALBANY
    That’s but a trifle here.

You lords and noble friends, know our intent:

What comfort to
this great decay
³¹⁵
may come

Shall be applied.
For
us, we will
resign
³¹⁶
,

During the life of this old majesty,

To him our absolute power:— you, to your rights

With
boot
and such
addition
³¹⁹
as your honours

Have more than merited. All friends shall taste

The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The
cup
of their deservings.— O,
see, see
³²²
!

LEAR
    And my poor
fool
³²³
is hanged! No, no, no life?

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you undo
this button
: thank you,
sir
³²⁷
.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there!

He dies

EDGAR
    He faints! My lord, my lord!

KENT
    Break, heart, I prithee, break.

EDGAR
    Look up, my lord.

KENT
    Vex not his
ghost
³³³
: O, let him pass! He hates him

That would upon the
rack
³³⁴
of this tough world

Stretch him out
longer
³³⁵
.

EDGAR
    He is gone, indeed.

KENT
    The wonder is he hath endured so long:

He but
usurped
³³⁸
his life.

ALBANY
    Bear them from hence. Our present business

Is general woe.—

Friends of my soul, you twain

Rule in this realm, and the
gored
state
sustain
³⁴²
.

KENT
    I have a
journey
³⁴³
, sir, shortly to go:

My master calls me, I must not say no.

EDGAR
    The weight of this sad time we must obey:

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much nor live so long.