Until some half-hour past, when I was armed.
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success209,
I asked his blessing, and from first to last
Told him our pilgrimage: but his flawed211 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 dissolve219,
Hearing of this.
Enter a Gentleman
With a bloody knife
GENTLEMAN Help, help, O, help!
EDGAR What kind of help?
ALBANY Speak, man.
EDGAR What means this bloody knife?
GENTLEMAN ’Tis hot, it smokes225:
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.
Enter Kent
ALBANY Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead:
Goneril and Regan’s bodies brought out
This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble,
Sees Kent
Touches us not with pity.— O, is this he?—
To Kent
The time will not allow the compliment236
Which very manners urges.
KENT I am come
To bid my king and master aye239 goodnight:
Is he not here?
ALBANY Great thing241 of us forgot!
Speak, Edmund, where’s the king? And where’s Cordelia?—
See’st thou this object243, 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 Even248 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 writ251
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 office255?
To Edmund
Send thy token of reprieve.
EDMUND Well thought on: take my sword,
Give it the captain.
To a Gentleman
EDGAR Haste thee, for thy life.
[Exit Gentleman]
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 fordid263 herself.
Edmund is borne off
ALBANY The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.
Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms
Gentleman and others following
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 stone270,
Why, then she lives.
KENT Is this the promised end272?
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.
Kneels
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 slave286 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 falchion289
I would have made him skip: I am old now,
And these same crosses291 spoil me.— Who are you?
Mine eyes are not o’th’best: I’ll tell you straight292.
KENT If fortune brag of two she loved and hated293,
One of them we behold.
LEAR This is a dull sight295. Are you not Kent?
KENT The same,
Your servant Kent: where is your servant Caius297?
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 straight301.
KENT That from your first of difference and decay302
Have followed your sad steps.
LEAR You are welcome hither.
KENT Nor no man else305: all’s cheerless, dark and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone306 themselves,
And desperately307 are dead.
LEAR Ay, so I think.
ALBANY He knows not what he says, and vain is it309
That we present us to him.
Enter a Messenger
EDGAR Very bootless311.
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 decay315 may come
Shall be applied. For us, we will resign316,
During the life of this old majesty,
To Edgar and Kent
To him our absolute power:— you, to your rights
With boot and such addition319 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, see322!
LEAR And my poor fool323 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, sir327.
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 ghost333: O, let him pass! He hates him
That would upon the rack334 of this tough world
Stretch him out longer335.
EDGAR He is gone, indeed.
KENT The wonder is he hath endured so long:
He but usurped338 his life.
ALBANY Bear them from hence. Our present business
Is general woe.—
To Kent and Edgar
Friends of my soul, you twain
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain342.
KENT I have a journey343, 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.