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.

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]

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

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

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

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

She asks if he knows her; he seems not to immediately, asking instead where he has been. He is not sure he is sentient. He tries to move, she restrains him, and he laments his age (80), a less than perfect mind, and that he remembers so little. Finally he says, “I think this lady to be my child Cordelia.”

“And so I am, I am” she replies, and weeps. He stills her tears, and says, “I know you do not love me, for your sisters have, as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause, they have not.”

“No cause, no cause” is her reply. He wonders if he is in France. Assured he is in England, Lear relaxes and at the gentleman’s urging, repairs to rest. Cordelia, Kent, and the gentleman then get to the business of war.

Act IV Scene 6d . . . Act V Scene 1

ACT IV. SCENE VII. A tent in the French camp.

Enter Cordelia, Kent, and Gentleman.

CORDELIA
O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
And every measure fail me.

KENT
To be acknowledged, madam, is o’erpaid.
All my reports go with the modest truth,    [5]
Nor more, nor clipped, but so.

CORDELIA                           Be better suited.
These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
I prithee, put them off.

KENT                          Pardon me, dear madam.  [10]
Yet to be known shortens my made intent.
My boon I make it, that you know me not
Till time and I think meet.

CORDELIA
Then be’t so, my good lord. [To the Gentleman] How does the King?

Gentleman    Madam, sleeps still.    [15]

CORDELIA                                  O you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature.
Th’ untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father.

Gentleman                          So please your majesty    [20]
That we may wake the King? He hath slept long.

CORDELIA
Be governed by your knowledge, and proceed
I’th’ sway of your own will. Is he arrayed?

Enter Lear in a chair carried by servants.

Gentleman
Ay, madam. In the heaviness of his sleep
We put fresh garments on him.     [25]
Be by, good madam, when we do awake him;
I doubt not of his temperance.

[CORDELIA                               Very well.

Gentleman    Please you, draw near. Louder the music there.]

CORDELIA
O my dear father. Restoration hang     [30]
Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss
Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made.

KENT                                    Kind and dear princess.

CORDELIA
Had you not been their father, these white flakes     [35]
Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
To be opposed against the warring winds?
[To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick, cross lightning? To watch—poor perdu—    [40]
With this thin helm?] Mine enemy’s dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire. And wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,
In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!     [45]
‘Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all. He wakes. Speak to him.

Gentleman    Madam, do you. ‘Tis fittest.

CORDELIA    How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

KING LEAR
You do me wrong to take me out o’th’ grave.    [50]
Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead.

CORDELIA                           Sir, do you know me?

KING LEAR   You are a spirit, I know. Where did you die?     [55]

CORDELIA   Still, still far wide!

Gentleman    He’s scarce awake. Let him alone awhile.

KING LEAR
Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?
I am mightily abused. I should ev’n die with pity,
To see another thus. I know not what to say.     [60]
I will not swear these are my hands. Let’s see—
I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured
Of my condition.

CORDELIA    [kneels] O look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o’er me.    [65]
No, sir, you must not kneel.

KING LEAR                           Pray, do not mock me.
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less.
And, to deal plainly,     [70]
I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
Methinks I should know you, and know this man,
Yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is, and all the skill I have
Remembers not these garments. Nor I know not    [75]
Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me,
For, as I am a man, I think this lady
To be my child Cordelia.

CORDELIA                      And so I am, I am.

KING LEAR
Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not.    [80]
If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
I know you do not love me, for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
You have some cause, they have not.

CORDELIA                                        No cause, no cause.    [85]

KING LEAR   Am I in France?

KENT                                     In your own kingdom, sir.

KING LEAR    Do not abuse me.

Gentleman
Be comforted, good madam. The great rage,
You see, is killed in him, and [yet it is danger     [90]
To make him even o’er the time he has lost.]
Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more
Till further settling.

CORDELIA              Will’t please your highness walk?

KING LEAR
You must bear with me.    [95]
Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.

Exeunt [all but Kent and Gentleman]

[Gentleman   Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?

KENT    Most certain, sir.

Gentleman    Who is conductor of his people?

KENT   As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.     [100]

Gentleman
They say Edgar his banished son is with the Earl
of Kent in Germany.

KENT
Report is changeable. ‘Tis time to look about. The
powers of the kingdom approach apace.

Gentleman   The arbitrement is like to be bloody. Fare you well, sir.    [105]

Exit

KENT
My point and period will be throughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought.

Exit]

Act IV Scene 6c . . . Act IV Scene 7

ACT IV. SCENE VI. SEGMENT D.

Enter Steward

OSWALD
A proclaimed prize. Most happy.
That eyeless head of thine was first framed flesh     [245]
To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,
Briefly thyself remember. The sword is out
That must destroy thee.

GLOUCESTER                  Now let thy friendly hand
Put strength enough to’t.   [Edgar interposes] [250]

OSWALD                          Wherefore, bold peasant,
Darest thou support a published traitor? Hence,
Lest that th’infection of his fortune take
Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.

EDGAR   Ch’ill not let go, zir, without vurther ‘casion.    [255]

OSWALD    Let go, slave, or thou diest!

EDGAR
Good gentleman, go your gate, and let poor volk
pass. An chud ha’ bin zwaggered out of my life,
‘twould not ha’ bin zo long as ’tis by a vortnight.
Nay, come not near th’old man. Keep out, che vor    [260]
ye, or Ise try whether your costard or my ballow be
the harder. Ch’ill be plain with you.

OSWALD   Out, dunghill

EDGAR
Ch’ill pick your teeth, zir. Come, no matter vor
your foins.  [They fight, Oswald falls.] [265]

OSWALD
Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse.
If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,
And give the letters which thou find’st about me
To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out
Upon the English party. O, untimely death, death.   [dies] [270]

EDGAR
I know thee well—a serviceable villain,
As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
As badness would desire.

GLOUCESTER   What, is he dead?

EDGAR
Sit you down, father; rest you.     [275]
Let’s see these pocket. The letters that he speaks of
May be my friends. He’s dead. I am only sorry
He had no other deathsman. Let us see.
Leave, gentle wax, and manners blame us not.
To know our enemies’ minds, we rip their hearts.    [280]
Their papers is more lawful. Reads the letter

“Let our reciprocal vows be remembered. You have
many opportunities to cut him off. If your will
want not, time and place will be fruitfully offered.
There is nothing done if he return the conqueror;    [285]
then am I the prisoner, and his bed my goal. From
the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply
the place for your labor. Your (wife, so I would say)
affectionate servant, Goneril.”

O undistinguished space of woman’s will.    [290]
A plot upon her virtuous husband’s life,
And the exchange my brother. Here in the sands
Thee I’ll rake up, the post unsanctified
Of murderous lechers, and in the mature time
With this ungracious paper strike the sight     [295]
Of the death-practiced Duke. For him ’tis well
That of thy death and business I can tell.

GLOUCESTER
The King is mad. How stiff is my vile sense,
That I stand up and have ingenious feeling
Of my huge sorrows? Better I were distract,    [300]
So should my thoughts be severed from my griefs,
And woes by wrong imaginations lose
The knowledge of themselves.

EDGAR                      Give me your hand.   Drum afar off
Far off, methinks, I hear the beaten drum.    [305]
Come, father, I’ll bestow you with a friend.

Exeunt

Act IV Scene 6b . . . Act IV Scene 6d

ACT IV. SCENE VI. SEGMENT C.

Enter a Gentleman [with Attendant]

Gentleman
O, here he is. Lay hand upon him. Sir,
Your most dear daughter—

KING LEAR
No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;     [200]
You shall have ransom. Let me have surgeons;
I am cut to the brains.

Gentleman     You shall have any thing.

KING LEAR                                        No seconds? All myself?
Why, this would make a man a man of salt,      [205]
To use his eyes for garden water-pots,
[Ay, and laying autumn's dust.

Gentleman   Good sir—

KING LEAR
I will die bravely, like a bridegroom.
What? I will be jovial. Come, come.    [210]
I am a king, my masters, know you that.

Gentleman   You are a royal one, and we obey you.

KING LEAR
Then there’s life in’t. Come, an you get it,
You shall get it with running. Sa, sa, sa, sa.

Exit [running, attendants follow]

Gentleman
A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,    [215]
Past speaking of in a king. Thou hast one daughter,
Who redeems nature from the general curse
Which twain have brought her to.

EDGAR    Hail, gentle sir.

Gentleman   Sir, speed you. What’s your will?    [220]

EDGAR                              Do you hear aught,
Sir, of a battle toward?

Gentleman                       Most sure and vulgar.
Every one hears that, which can distinguish sound.

EDGAR
But by your favor, how near’s the other army?     [225]

Gentleman
Near and on speedy foot. The main descry
Stands on the hourly thought.

EDGAR   I thank you, sir. That’s all.

Gentleman
Though that the queen on special cause is here,
Her army is moved on.    [230]

EDGAR   I thank you, sir.

Exit [Gentleman]

GLOUCESTER
You ever gentle gods, take my breath from me.
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please.

EDGAR                              Well pray you, father.     [235]

GLOUCESTER Now, good sir, what are you?

EDGAR
A most poor man made tame to fortune’s blow,
Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand,
I’ll lead you to some biding.    [240]

GLOUCESTER                         Hearty thanks.
The bounty and the benison of heaven
To boot, to boot!