Great Performances | PBS » Shakespeare

Macbeth: Blood and Death

colin fitzpatrick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:21:59 +0000

On location with Macbeth, somewhere in England. It’s day 6 of 18, and the end of our first week. Remarkably, given that we have to average 8 minutes of completed drama a day, we’re on schedule and not too far from our projected budget. Patrick Stewart has had a great week, delivering for us a performance of great intelligence and intensity. And our director Rupert Goold seems happy, not least because we’ve successfully murdered Lady Macduff and her three children, shot Young Siward and the Thane of Cawdor, and run riot through Birnam Wood with a troop of marauding soldiers. There has been blood.

As is standard on films, we are not shooting our screen version of the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth in strict sequence. The availability of actors, the demands of specific locations, and the efficiencies of bunching similar scenes together mean that when you are shooting a drama you invariably jump around in the story. But we have a particular complication in that our Lady Macbeth, Kate Fleetwood, has been on stage in London in Life is a Dream, which closes tonight. So our first week has involved all the scenes from which she is absent.

This has meant that we have shot all of Act IV and much of Act V, plus Macbeth and Banquo’s first encounter with the witches. The production is played in modern-dress, set in a totalitarian state with suggestions of Russia under Stalin. Consistent with this, the witches are early on nurses in a military field hospital and later sinister harpies with overtones of contemporary horror movies. Towards the end, Macbeth’s and Macduff’s opposing forces are dressed in battle fatigues and wield (real) AK-47s.

This morning, Saturday, we have eight or so soldiers plus thirty crew in one of the most remarkable locations in which I’ve filmed. (Apologies, but we have agreed that we will not disclose where we’re filming, although I hope we can do so later.) To get to the site we walk several hundred yards down a wide, dark tunnel of immaculate brickwork. At one point, a side arch opens out into a kind of cloister, over the central courtyard of which hangs an iron and glass canopy in a serious state of disrepair. If one was to build this in a studio it would cost tens, and probably hundreds, of thousands of dollars — and even then you’d never quite get the roots branching through the metalwork, the slime on the cracked glass, and the dank, dripping moss.

The platoon with us is led by Malcolm (Scott Handy), Siward (Christopher Knott) and Macduff (Michael Feast) as they prepare for their final assault on Macbeth in Dunsinane. There are moments when it feels as if we’re trying to shoot the sequel to Saving Private Ryan, albeit on a budget that might buy lunch on a couple of days for a production like that. But our director of photography Sam McCurdy achieves edgy visuals with shadows, shapes close to the lens, torchlight flashes and tremulous camera movement.

We are filming with a pair of RED digital cameras, recording our high definition images directly onto hard discs. As a consequence there are neither rolls of film nor videotapes, and this lack is initially disconcerting for any of us who have not worked with this technology before. But as soon as a group of two or three ‘takes’ is complete, this are transferred to multiple discs for safe-keeping — and the image quality is truly exceptional. You’ll see every detail of this scene’s drops of rain and spots of sweat.

Although the cast have not played their roles for some eighteen months now, this morning — as on each day — because they retain so much from nine months of nightly performances they are word-prefect on almost every take, and consistently deliver pitch-perfect performances. ‘Make all our trumpets speak,’ Macduff orders, ‘give them all breath, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.’ The speech is stirring, the delivery thrilling. The words are picked up by the rest as they rush forwards. ‘Blood and death. Blood and death.’

Our director Rupert Goold staged the original production at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then oversaw its triumphant transfers to London’s West End, Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally Broadway. Now he’s aiming to create a production for Great Performances that retains the essential qualities, including the thrilling performances from the stage production but that translates these into a dynamic film. As we stamp our feet to keep warm and avoid standing beneath the decaying glass for fear that a pain might shake lose, we feel some way away from the comfort and cosiness of a multi-camera recording in a theatre. The finished result should be all the better for it.

– John Wyver is also posting daily production reports at the Illuminations blog, www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk.

Macbeth: A Drum, a Drum! Macbeth Doth Come

colin fitzpatrick — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:03:35 +0000

‘Turn over.’ ‘Turning.’ ‘Sound running.’ ‘Macbeth, one, take one. “A” camera — mark!’ It’s just before 9.30 on a beautiful Sunday morning in England’s East Midlands. There are four actors, some twenty extras, thirty or so crew and an awful lot of hi-tech equipment clustered around a grand piano in what was once a library. Each person, not to mention the cameras, sound kit and lights, is focussed on the first shot of a new Great Performances film of William Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Just under two years ago, this production, which stars Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, was winning raves on Broadway. Now director Rupert Goold is creating a screen version of his hit show.

As one of the film’s co-producers, with my colleague Seb Grant, I’m as engaged as everyone else here. My independent production company Illuminations is partnering with WNET.org and with BBC in Britain to translate the vivid, contemporary staging to television. Earlier this year, for Great Performances again, we produced in a similar manner a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, which also stars Patrick Stewart (as Claudius) along with David Tennant as the Prince. For us, there’s little to beat the thrill of working like this with a great text, a great production and a great cast.

This Macbeth originated at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer of 2007. Originally staged in Chichester’s small Minerva studio space, the production is a thrilling, visceral, genuinely scary experience in the theatre — and that’s what we are hoping we can achieve on film too. The main stage set was a kitchen in an underground bunker, but this also doubled as a military hospital, a train and other settings. For the film, we can keep the kitchen at the film’s heart (Macbeth making himself a sandwich as he briefs Banquo’s murderers is a highpoint) but we can also open out the rest of the action.

We have found a truly spectacular location, with a warren of below-ground spaces. A touch frustratingly we need to respect the owner’s wish for us not to disclose where we are, but as we start to film our hopes for its particular beauties and strangeness are more than realised on the screen. We will be here for three six-day weeks, aiming to capture some eight minutes of finished screen time each day.

Rupert Goold has not made a film before but he has recently had an astonishingly successful run on the British stage. The theatre company he runs, Headlong Theatre, has been touring his bold version of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. He oversaw a revival of Sam Mendes’ recent production of Oliver!, directed J B Priestley’s Time and the Conways at the National Theatre this summer, and also this autumn’s smash-hit Enron, which transfers to Broadway in 2010. He has also just staged Puccini’s Turandot for English National Opera, setting the action in a Chinese restaurant, a decision that was hailed by some critics and derided by others.

For us part of the key to working successfully with a debut director is to surround her or him with a great creative team. For the Macbeth shoot Rupert’s key collaborator is director of photography Sam McCurdy BSC. Sam is an immensely experienced cinematographer who has several low-budget horror films on his CV, and it was partly this experience that made him seem perfect for what’s unquestionably a grim and gory tale.

Day one is taken up with filming what’s known as the ‘England’ scene, an interlude in the play’s concluding action. Patrick Stewart begins filming with us on Tuesday but he has already come on a location visit, just to begin to feel this remarkable place and to have it help shape his performance. He has been working for nearly two years towards having this production, and his central performance, filmed for television. He’s excited as the rest of us about starting — and I’ll contribute regular updates here about his and our progress through the rest of the shoot.

John Wyver is also posting daily production reports at the Illuminations blog, www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk.

Related Links:

Illuminations
Site for the production company
Royal Shakespeare Company
Company’s main site
Chichester Festival Theatre
The theatre’s online home
Archive site for stage production of Macbeth at Chichester Festival Theatre
English National Opera
Site for the opera company
Sam McCurdy BSC
Personal site by our director of photography

Macbeth: Production Announcement

colin fitzpatrick — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:47:41 +0000

Following a London West End run in December 2007, a sold-out limited engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2008, and a subsequent eight-week run on Broadway, director Rupert Goold’s gripping stage production of Macbeth—starring Patrick Stewart in a triumphant, Tony-nominated performance—will be filmed for television in a co-production agreement between WNET.ORG and Illuminations Television, in association with the BBC.

Originating at England’s innovative Chichester Festival Theatre, director Goold’s exciting interpretation relocates the bloody action to a nameless 20th century nether world. Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood also returns to reprise her stage role performance as Lady Macbeth.

Shot in High Definition on UK locations, Goold will maintain the atmosphere and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production, heightening the Shakespearean classic with an edgy style reminiscent of Illuminations’ recent film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, which will be broadcast on PBS in April 2010 by THIRTEEN’s Great Performances.

For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer. For Illuminations, John Wyver and Sebastian Grant are producers.

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text Scene Link Directory

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:08:33 +0000

This full text version of King Lear is divided into 40 short scenes or scene segments. Each segment includes the corresponding clip from the Ian McKellen film. Any scene or segment may be linked from the table below.

Segment	Description
Notation	How this edition of King Lear represents annotations, stage directions, etc.
Roles	List of Persons of the Play
ACT I
I.i.a	Edgar and Gloucester discuss pending division of kingdom, meet Edmund.
*I.i.b*	Lear asks for love oath. Cordelia refuses, receives nothing. Lear banishes Kent. Lear declares his intention to keep 100 knights and rotate monthly between the castles of Goneril and Regan.
I.i.c	Cordelia goes away with the King of France. Goneril and Regan confer.
I.ii.a	Edmund fools his father Gloucester with a forged letter into thinking Edgar means to kill him.
*I.ii.b*	Edmund persuades Edgar that his father has, on false reports, become violently angry with him (this of course is true).
I.iii	Goneril complains to her steward Oswald about Lear’s unruly knights.
I.iv.a	Kent returns in disguise, promises to serve Lear (who has come in with his unruly knights). Lear pushes Oswald, Kent then trips him, earning a tip.
I.iv.b	Lear’s Fool finally arrives, abuses Lear for his stupid move and cavorts generally.
I.iv.c	Goneril removes one-half of Lear’s knights, sending Lear into a rage and a departure for Regan’s castle.
I.v.	Lear sends a message with Kent. He and Fool bemoan their states.
ACT II
II.i	At Gloucester’s house. Edmund feigns fight with Edgar, cuts himself to make it convincing, draws Gloucester into seeking Edgar’s life, wins favor of Cornwall, Regan’s husband.
*II.ii.a*	Kent verbally abuses Oswald, provoking a sword fight, stopped by Cornwall. Kent’s continued rudeness earns him an evening in the stocks.
II.ii.b	Edgar decides that safety can only be realized by faking complete madness.
II.ii.c	Lear arrives at Gloucester’s, finds Kent in the stocks, attempts to assert his powers as king. Kent is released.
II.ii.d	At first sympathetic to Lear, Regan supports her sister’s reduction of his train. Goneril arrives, the pair deprive him of all but one, at which Lear charges from the house into a brutal storm.
II.ii.e	Regan orders the doors closed against the ravages of the weather outside.
ACT III
III.i	Kent gives message for Cordelia and a ring for recognition to messenger knight.
III.ii	Lear howls against the storm. The Fool and then Kent (in disguise still) attempt to get him into shelter.
III.iii	Gloucester foolishly tells Edmund of a letter he has received announcing an invasion of England by France to redress the wrongs committed against Lear. Edmund decides immediately to betray him to Cornwall.
III.iv.a	Lear, Kent, and the Fool seek shelter, find Edgar disguised as a madman. Madness becomes the scene. Lear insists on being disrobed completely.
*III.iv.b*	Gloucester arrives with a torch. After Lear confers with his “philosopher” Edgar, they repair to a shelter next to Gloucester’s house.
III.v	On the evidence provided by Edmund, Cornwall declares Gloucester a traitor, and names Edmund the Duke of Gloucester.
III.vi	The mad quartet conduct a mock trial of Goneril and Regan. Gloucester returns, insists Lear be taken to Dover for safety, but is then captured himself.
III.vii	Charging Gloucester with treason, Cornwall gouges out Gloucester’s eyes. A servant kills Cornwall in return. Regan kills the servant. Another servant patches Gloucester’s eyes, but he is banished from his own home.
ACT IV
IV.i	Edgar finds Gloucester blinded, leads him to Dover.
IV.ii	Edmund returns with Goneril, promises her his love, then departs. Albany rebukes her, she replies spitefully, sends a (fateful) message to Edmund.
IV.iii	Kent meets a gentleman who advises that the King of France has returned to France, and the invading armies are now led by Monsieur la Far (from whom we hear no more).
IV.iv	Cordelia appears, knowing of Lear’s madcap ways, orders him to be found.
*IV.v*	Oswald finds Regan, refuses to give her the letter intended for Edmund. Regan declares herself, now widowed, more fit for Edmund’s attentions. She tells Oswald to kill Gloucester if he encounters him, as he is a menace even in his blind state.
IV.vi.a	Edgar leads Gloucester to Dover, persuades him that they stand over its high cliffs. Gloucester throws himself over the cliffs. Edgar, in a different voice, seems to revive him, after which Gloucester decides to let nature end his life.
IV.vi.b	Lear comes in, has madcap but penetrating conversation with Gloucester about almost everything.
IV.vi.c	Cordelia’s guard find Lear, attempt to take him, but Lear runs away.
IV.vi.d	Oswald arrives, recognizes Gloucester, attempts to kill him, but Edgar kills Oswald instead. He discovers the letter to Edmund and realizes the threat to Albany.
IV.vii	Lear and Cordelia reunite after Lear recovers from a long sleep.
ACT V
*V.i*	Edmund and Albany organize England’s forces. Edgar approaches Albany with the letter, says to let the trumpet sound if France should lose the impending war.
*V.ii*	Edgar takes Gloucester to a safe place. The war happens. Lear and Cordelia lose.
V.iii.a	Edmund sends Cordelia and Lear to prison, secretly orders a guard to kill them.
*V.iii.b*	Albany seeks Lear and Cordelia, but Edmund argues for their being sequestered for a day to let the troops recover. Goneril poisons Regan. Albany arrests Edmund for treason, but Goneril intervenes. Albany challenges Edmund and calls for the trumpets.
*V.iii.c*	Edgar arrives disguised as a warrior, kills Edmund. Goneril leaves and kills herself. Dying, Edmund discloses what he ordered for Lear and Cordelia. They dispatch soldiers to rescue them.
V.iii.d	They are too late. Lear comes in carrying Cordelia, howling. He expires in grief. Albany cedes power it seems to Edgar as Kent leaves to join his master.
Editing	Principles and resources applied to editing King Lear for WNET Great Performances

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 3d

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:32:42 +0000

Lear enters carrying Cordelia, howling. Lear knows she is dead, but in desperation or madness still looks for signs of life. He melts a little—“her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman”—then declares that he killed her killer, with some sense of bravura. He spots Kent, now in his old habit, who connects his disguised self to his real self. Kent gives Lear the news of his other daughters, but Lear responds nonsensically. A messenger announces Edmund’s death. “That’s but a trifle” says Albany.

Albany attempts to restore some order to the kingdom, with power restored to Lear and suitable honors to Kent and Edgar, but Lear pays no attention. “And my poor fool is hanged. . . O thou’lt come no more. Never, never, never, never, never.” He asks to have his shirt unbuttoned and comes close to Cordelia one last time, “do you see this? look on her: look, her lips, look there, look there.” He expires of grief.

Albany once more attempts repair, suggesting that Edgar and Kent “rule in this realm and the gored state sustain.” Kent declines: “I have a journey, sir, shortly to go; My master calls me, I must not say no.” Edgar concludes the play with this choral quatrain:

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.

Act V Scene 3c . . . Editing

ACT V. SCENE III. SEGMENT D.

Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms.

KING LEAR
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones. [295]
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, [300]
Why then she lives.

KENT Is this the promised end?

EDGAR Or image of that horror?

ALBANY Fall, and cease!

KING LEAR
This feather stirs. She lives. If it be so, [305]
It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.

KENT O my good master!

KING LEAR Prithee, away.

EDGAR ‘Tis noble Kent, your friend. [310]

KING 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. [315]
I killed the slave that was a-hanging thee

Captain ‘Tis true, my lords, he did.

KING LEAR Did I not, fellow?
I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
I would have made them skip. I am old now, [320]
And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
Mine eyes are not o’th’ best, I’ll tell you straight.

KENT
If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.

KING LEAR This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent? [325]

KENT The same,
Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?

KING 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— [330]

KING LEAR I’ll see that straight.

KENT
That from your first of difference and decay
Have followed your sad steps.

KING LEAR You are welcome hither.

KENT
Nor no man else. All’s cheerless, dark, and deadly. [335]
Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
And desperately are dead.

KING LEAR Ay, so I think.

ALBANY
He knows not what he says, and vain it is
That we present us to him. [340]

EDGAR Very bootless

Enter a Messenger.

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 may come [345]
Shall be applied. For us we will resign
During the life of this old majesty
To him our absolute power. [to Edgar and Kent] You, to your rights,
With boot and such addition as your honors
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste [350]
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!

KING LEAR
And my poor fool 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. [355]
Never, never, never, never, never.
Pray you, undo this button. Thank you, sir.
Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
Look there, look there. He dies.

EDGAR He faints! My lord, my lord! [360]

KENT Break, heart, I prithee, break!

EDGAR Look up, my lord.

KENT
Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer. [365]

EDGAR He is gone, indeed.

KENT
The wonder is he hath endured so long.
He but usurped his life.

ALBANY
Bear them from hence. Our present business
Is general woe. Friends of my soul, you twain [370]
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.

KENT
I have a journey, 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. [375]
The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 3c

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:27:47 +0000

Edgar enters, refuses to disclose his identity, but lays the charges at Edmund, “false to thy gods, thy brother and thy father . . . a most toad-spotted traitor.”

Edmund hurls them back, “this sword of mine shall give them instant way.” They then fight, and Edmund falls. Albany calls to save him, so he may have his own charge. The letter comes out. Goneril claims immunity as queen: “the laws are mine, not thine.”

She leaves, followed by an officer on Albany’s orders. Edmund now admits all he has done, but asks for Edgar’s identity. Edgar forthwith provides it. “My name is Edgar and thy father’s son. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us.” Albany elicits a history from Edgar, a speech which moves Edmund to do some good. They are interrupted by the officer rushing on stage to announce the deaths of Regan and Goneril — Goneril having poisoned Regan and then taken her own life.

Albany orders the bodies brought forth, but as they are being carried in he remembers Lear and Cordelia: “great thing of us forgot.” Edmund now confesses his order to hang Cordelia, blaming the decision on despair. He is carried off, leaving the stage free for the final scene with Lear and his three daughters.

Act V Scene 3b . . . Act V Scene 3d

ACT V. SCENE III. SEGMENT C.

Enter Edgar armed.

ALBANY
Ask him his purposes, why he appears
Upon this call o’the trumpet.

Herald What are you?
Your name, your quality, and why you answer
This present summons? [135]

EDGAR Know my name is lost,
By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.
Yet am I noble as the adversary
I come to cope.

ALBANY Which is that adversary? [140]

EDGAR What’s he that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester?

EDMUND Himself. What sayst thou to him?

EDGAR                                       Draw thy sword,
That if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine. [145]
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honors,
My oath, and my profession. I protest,
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valor and thy heart, thou art a traitor—    [150]
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
Conspirant ‘gainst this high-illustrious prince;
And from th’extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou no,    [155]
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou liest.

EDMUND        In wisdom I should ask thy name.
But, since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,    [160]
And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.
Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,
With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart,    [165]
Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak.

Alarums. Fights. [Edmund falls.]

ALBANY Save him, save him!

GONERIL This is practice, Gloucester. [170]
By th’ law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquished,
But cozened and beguiled.

ALBANY Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it. Hold, sir. [175]
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.
No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it.

GONERIL
Say if I do; the laws are mine, not thine.
Who can arraign me for’t.

ALBANY Most monstrous! oh! [180]
Know’st thou this paper?

GONERIL Ask me not what I know.

Exit

ALBANY [To officer] Go after her. She’s desperate. Govern her.

EDMUND
What you have charged me with, that have I done,
And more, much more. The time will bring it out. [185]
‘Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble,
I do forgive thee.

EDGAR Let’s exchange charity.
I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; [190]
If more, the more thou hast wronged me.
My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place where thee he got [195]
Cost him his eyes.

EDMUND Thou hast spoken right; ’tis true.
The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

ALBANY
Methought thy very gait did prophesy
A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee. [200]
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? [205]

EDGAR
By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale,
And when ’tis told, O, that my heart would burst!
The bloody proclamation to escape
That followed me so near—O, our lives’ sweetness,
That we the pain of death would hourly die [210]
Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift
Into a madman’s rags, t’assume a semblance
That very dogs disdained; and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, [215]
Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair,
Never—O fault!—revealed myself unto him,
Until some half-hour past, when I was armed.
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
I asked his blessing, and from first to last [220]
Told him my pilgrimage. But his flawed 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, [225]
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,
Hearing of this. [230]

[EDGAR This would have seemed a period
To such as love not sorrow, but another
To amplify too much would make much more,
And top extremity.
Whilst I was big in clamor came there in a man, [235]
Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
Shunned my abhorred society, but then finding
Who ’twas that so endured, with his strong arms
He fastened on my neck and bellowed out
As he’d burst heaven, threw him on my father, [240]
Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
That ever ear received, which in recounting
His grief grew puissant and the strings of life
Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded,
And there I left him tranced. [245]

ALBANY But who was this?

EDGAR
Kent, sir, the banished Kent, who in disguise
Followed his enemy King and did him service
Improper for a slave.]

Enter a Gentleman, with a bloody knife

Gentleman Help, help, O, help! [250]

EDGAR What kind of help?

<ALBANY Speak, man.

EDGAR What means that bloody knife?

Gentleman ‘Tis hot, it smokes.
It came even from the heart of—O, she’s dead! [255]

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. [260]

EDGAR Here comes Kent.

ALBANY
Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead.
This judgment of the heavens that makes us tremble
Touches us not with pity.

[Exit Gentleman.] Enter Kent

O, is this he? [265]
The time will not allow the compliment
Which very manners urges.

KENT I am come
To bid my King and master aye good night.
Is he not here? [270]

ALBANY Great thing of us forgot!
Speak, Edmund, where’s the King? And where’s Cordelia?
See’st thou this object, Kent?

[The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in]

KENT Alack, why thus?

EDMUND
Yet Edmund was beloved. [275]
The one the other poisoned for my sake,
And after slew herself.

ALBANY Even so, cover their faces.

EDMUND
I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,
Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send— [280]
Be brief in it—to the castle, for my writ
Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia.
Nay, send in time.

ALBANY Run, run, O, run.

EDGAR
To who, my lord? Who hath the office? Send [285]
Thy token of reprieve.

EDMUND
Well thought on. Take my sword.
The captain, give it the captain.

ALBANY Haste thee, for thy life.

EDMUND
He hath commission from thy wife and me [290]
To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
To lay the blame upon her own despair,
That she fordid herself.

ALBANY The gods defend her. Bear him hence awhile.

[Edmund borne off]

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 3b

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:22:50 +0000

Albany and the two daughters come in. Albany admires Edmund’s valor in battle, and asks for custody of Lear and Cordelia. Edmund says he has them under detention to avoid their appeal to the common people. As a delaying tactic, he asks for a day of recovery for the troops who suffer and bleed; the morrow will be a fitter time. Albany insists upon his superior station, but is interrupted by Regan, who equally insists that Edmund bore her commission in battle, hence deserves equal station. Goneril objects: “not so hot!” She attempts to appropriate him, and the two argue until Regan begins to feel ill.

Regan attempts to turn her troops and prisoners over to Edmund, but Albany arrests Edmund for treason, claiming he has already pledged himself to Goneril. Throwing down a gauntlet, he calls “let the trumpets sound.” Regan feels worse—“sick, O, sick”—and Goneril admits in an aside that she administered a poison to her sister. Edmund accepts the challenge. Regan must be supported out, and the trumpet sounds three times.

Act V Scene 3a . . . Act V Scene 3c

ACT V. SCENE III. SEGMENT B.

Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers

ALBANY
Sir, you have showed today your valiant strain,
And fortune led you well. You have the captives [45]
Who were the opposites of this day’s strife.
I do require them of you, so to use them
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.

EDMUND    Sir, I thought it fit [50]
To send the old and miserable King
To some retention and appointed guard,
Whose age had charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side
And turn our impressed lances in our eyes    [55]
Which do command them. With him I sent the queen,
My reason all the same. And they are ready
Tomorrow, or at further space, t’ appear
Where you shall hold your session. [At this time
We sweat and bleed—the friend hath lost his friend,    [60]
And the best quarrels in the heat are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness.
The question of Cordelia and her father
Requires a fitter place.]

ALBANY Sir, by your patience, [65]
I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.

REGAN That’s as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,
Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers, [70]
Bore the commission of my place and person,
The which immediacy may well stand up
And call itself your brother.

GONERIL Not so hot.
In his own grace he doth exalt himself [75]
More than in your addition.

REGAN In my rights,
By me invested, he compeers the best.

GONERIL That were the most if he should husband you.

REGAN Jesters do oft prove prophets. [80]

GONERIL Holla, holla!
That eye that told you so looked but asquint.

REGAN
Lady, I am not well, else I should answer
From a full-flowing stomach. General,
Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony. [85]
Dispose of them, of me. The walls are thine.
Witness the world that I create thee here
My lord and master.

GONERIL Mean you to enjoy him?

ALBANY The let-alone lies not in your good will. [90]

EDMUND Nor in thine, lord.

ALBANY Half-blooded fellow, yes.

REGAN Let the drum strike and prove my title thine.

ALBANY
Stay yet. Hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee
On capital treason, and in thine attaint, [95]
This gilded serpent. For your claim, fair sister,
I bar it in the interest of my wife.
‘Tis she is subcontracted to this lord,
And I, her husband, contradict your banns.
If you will marry, make your loves to me; [100]
My lady is bespoke.

GONERIL An interlude!

ALBANY
Thou art armed, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound.
If none appear to prove upon thy person
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, [105]
There is my pledge. [throws a glove] I’ll prove it on thy heart,
Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaimed thee.

REGAN Sick, O sick!

GONERIL [Aside] If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine. [110]

EDMUND [throws a glove]
There’s my exchange. What in the world he is
That names me traitor, villainlike he lies.
Call by thy trumpet. He that dares approach,
On him, on you—who not?—I will maintain
My truth and honor firmly. [115]

Enter a Herald

ALBANY A herald, ho!
Trust to thy single virtue, for thy soldiers,
All levied in my name, have in my name
Took their discharge.

REGAN My sickness grows upon me. [120]

ALBANY She is not well. Convey her to my tent. [Exit Regan]
Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,
And read out this. A trumpet sounds

Herald reads

‘If any man of quality or degree within
the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund,    [125]
supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold
traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the
trumpet. He is bold in his defence.’ 1 trumpet
Again!    2 trumpet
Again!    3 trumpet    [130]

Trumpet answers within

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 3a

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:19:51 +0000

Edmund orders Lear and Cordelia guarded until a higher authority (Albany, Goneril, or Regan) can decide their fate. Cordelia is depressed, but Lear makes light of their state: “No, no, no, no. Come let’s away to prison. . . .” He is taken out defiantly. Secretly Edmund passes a paper to a captain with orders to kill Cordelia and Lear on the promise of fortune and the threat of unemployment. “If it be man’s work, I’ll do it.”

Act V Scene 2 . . . Act V Scene 3b

ACT V. SCENE III. SEGMENT A. The British camp near Dover.

Enter in conquest with drum and colors, Edmund, Lear and
Cordelia as prisoners, Soldiers, Captain.

EDMUND
Some officers take them away. Good guard,
Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to censure them.

CORDELIA We are not the first
Who with best meaning have incurred the worst. [5]
For thee, oppressed King, am I cast down.
Myself could else outfrown false fortune’s frown.
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

KING LEAR
No, no, no, no. Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’th’ cage.    [10]
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news. And we’ll talk with them too,    [15]
Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out,
And take upon’s the mystery of things
As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out
In a walled prison packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by the moon.    [20]

EDMUND Take them away.

KING LEAR
Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?
He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes. [25]
The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
Ere they shall make us weep. We’ll see ‘em starve
first. Come.

Exit [Lear and Cordelia, guarded]

EDMUND
Come hither, captain. Hark.
Take thou this note. Go follow them to prison. [30]
One step I have advanced thee. If thou dost
As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men
Are as the time is; to be tender-minded
Does not become a sword. Thy great employment [35]
Will not bear question. Either say thou’lt do’t,
Or thrive by other means.

Captain I’ll do ‘t, my lord.

EDMUND
About it, and write “happy” when thou’st done’t.
Mark, I say, instantly, and carry it so [40]
As I have set it down.

[Captain
I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats.
If it be man's work, I'll do 't.]

Exit Captain

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 2

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:18:03 +0000

In the play’s shortest scene, the battle takes place. Edgar first secludes Gloucester under a tree and leaves (for what we do not know). He returns to disclose that Cordelia has lost the battle and that she and Lear are in custody. He takes Gloucester’s hand to lead him away, but Gloucester refuses: “a man may rot here.” Edgar becomes philosophical—“men must endure their going hence even as their coming hither”—and then utters one of the play’s most ambiguous lines: “ripeness is all.”

Act V Scene 1 . . . Act V Scene 3a

ACT V. SCENE II. A field between the two camps.

Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colors, Lear, Cordelia,
and Soldiers, over the stage, and exeunt

Enter Edgar and Gloucester

EDGAR
Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host. Pray that the right may thrive.
If ever I return to you again,
I’ll bring you comfort.

GLOUCESTER Grace go with you, sir! [5]

Exit [Edgar]

Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar

EDGAR
Away, old man. Give me thy hand. Away!
King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta’en.
Give me thy hand. Come on.

GLOUCESTER No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.

EDGAR
What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure [10]
Their going hence, even as their coming hither.
Ripeness is all. Come on.

GLOUCESTER And that’s true too.

Exeunt

King Lear: Play Summary and Full Text: Full Text with Clips: Act V Scene 1

kim maxwell — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:16:28 +0000

Edmund, with Regan, sends a gentleman off to see if Albany is willing to fight or not. Regan then asks directly if he is sleeping with Goneril. He insists he is not, but she seems not to quite believe him, ordering him to “be not familiar with her.”

Goneril now comes in with Albany. In an aside, Goneril declares that she would rather lose the battle than Edmund. Albany then distinguishes between his support for Lear and Cordelia but his determined opposition to a French invasion. Edmund promises to meet up with Albany at his tent, and leaves, with both women, each carping at the other.

Alone, Albany is visited by Edgar from the shadows, who gives him the letter he took from Oswald. He says that if Albany wins, he should sound the trumpet, and Edgar will carry out his revenge, “wretched though I seem.” He exits quickly. Edmund returns, alerting Albany to the enemy’s proximity and true forces discovered by reconnaissance, and urges Albany to be ready. Alone, Edmund deliberates on his two women, which to have—both, one, or none—and the circumstances of jealousy he must deal with. He decides to await the outcome of the battle before determining a course.

Act IV Scene 7 . . . Act V Scene 2

ACT V. SCENE I. The British camp, near Dover.

Enter with drum and colors, Edmund, Regan, Gentlemen, and Soldiers

EDMUND
Know of the duke if his last purpose hold,
Or whether since he is advised by aught
To change the course. He’s full of alteration
And self-reproving. Bring his constant pleasure. [exit Gentleman]

REGAN Our sister’s man is certainly miscarried. [5]

EDMUND ‘Tis to be doubted, madam.

REGAN Now, sweet lord,
You know the goodness I intend upon you.
Tell me but truly—but then speak the truth—
Do you not love my sister? [10]

EDMUND In honored love.

REGAN
But have you never found my brother’s way
To the forfended place?

[EDMUND That thought abuses you.

REGAN
I am doubtful that you have been conjunct [15]
And bosomed with her, as far as we call hers.]

EDMUND No, by mine honor, madam.

REGAN
I never shall endure her. Dear my lord,
Be not familiar with her.

EDMUND Fear me not— [20]

Enter, with drum and colors, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers

She and the Duke her husband.

[GONERIL [aside]
I had rather lose the battle than that sister
Should loosen him and me.]

ALBANY
Our very loving sister, well bemet.
Sir, this I heard. The King is come to his daughter, [25]
With others whom the rigor of our state
Forced to cry out. [Where I could not be honest,
I never yet was valiant. For this business,
It touches us, as France invades our land,
Not bolds the King, with others whom I fear [30]
Most just and heavy causes make oppose.

EDMUND Sir, you speak nobly.]

REGAN Why is this reasoned?

GONERIL
Combine together ‘gainst the enemy,
For these domestic and particular broils [35]
Are not the question here.

ALBANY Let’s then determine
With the ancient of war on our proceedings.

[EDMUND I shall attend you presently at your tent.]

REGAN Sister, you’ll go with us? [40]

GONERIL No

REGAN ‘Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.

GONERIL O, ho, I know the riddle.—I will go.

Exeunt both the armies. Enter Edgar. [Albany remains]

EDGAR
If e’er your grace had speech with man so poor,
Hear me one word. [45]

ALBANY [to soldiers] I’ll overtake you. [to Edgar] Speak.

EDGAR
Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem,
I can produce a champion that will prove [50]
What is avouched there.If you miscarry,
Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceases. Fortune love you.

ALBANY Stay till I have read the letter.

EDGAR I was forbid it. [55]
When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
And I’ll appear again.

ALBANY Why, fare thee well. I will o’erlook thy paper.

Exit [Edgar] Enter Edmund.

EDMUND
The enemy’s in view; draw up your powers.
Here is the guess of their true strength and forces [60]
By diligent discovery. But your haste
Is now urged on you.

ALBANY We will greet the time.

Exit.

EDMUND
To both these sisters have I sworn my love,
Each jealous of the other, as the stung    [65]
Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed,
If both remain alive. To take the widow
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril,
And hardly shall I carry out my side,    [70]
Her husband being alive. Now then, we’ll use
His countenance for the battle, which being done,
Let her who would be rid of him devise
His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,    [75]
The battle done, and they within our power,
Shall never see his pardon, for my state
Stands on me to defend, not to debate.

Exit