The Tragedy Of King Lear

1 Enter in conquest with drum and colours, Edmund, Lear and Cordelia
2 as prisoners; Officers, Soldiers, &c.
3 EDMUND.
4 Some officers take them away: good guard
5 Until their greater pleasures first be known
6 That are to censure them.
7 CORDELIA.
8 We are not the first
9 Who with best meaning have incurr’d the worst.
10 For thee, oppressed King, I am cast down;
11 Myself could else out-frown false fortune’s frown.
12 Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?
13 LEAR.
14 No, no, no, no. Come, let’s away to prison:
15 We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage:
16 When thou dost ask me blessing I’ll kneel down
17 And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
18 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
19 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
20 Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too,
21 Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
22 And take upon’s the mystery of things,
23 As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out,
24 In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones
25 That ebb and flow by the moon.
26 EDMUND.
27 Take them away.
28 LEAR.
29 Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
30 The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?
31 He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,
32 And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes;
33 The good years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
34 Ere they shall make us weep!
35 We’ll see ’em starve first: come.
36 [_Exeunt Lear and Cordelia, guarded._]
37 EDMUND.
38 Come hither, captain, hark.
39 Take thou this note [_giving a paper_]; go follow them to prison.
40 One step I have advanc’d thee; if thou dost
41 As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
42 To noble fortunes: know thou this, that men
43 Are as the time is; to be tender-minded
44 Does not become a sword. Thy great employment
45 Will not bear question; either say thou’lt do’t,
46 Or thrive by other means.
47 CAPTAIN.
48 I’ll do’t, my lord.
49 EDMUND.
50 About it; and write happy when thou hast done.
51 Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so
52 As I have set it down.
53 CAPTAIN.
54 I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
55 If it be man’s work, I’ll do’t.
56 [_Exit._]
57 Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril,
58 Regan, Officers and Attendants.
59 ALBANY.
60 Sir, you have show’d today your valiant strain,
61 And fortune led you well: you have the captives
62 Who were the opposites of this day’s strife:
63 I do require them of you, so to use them
64 As we shall find their merits and our safety
65 May equally determine.
66 EDMUND.
67 Sir, I thought it fit
68 To send the old and miserable King
69 To some retention and appointed guard;
70 Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
71 To pluck the common bosom on his side,
72 And turn our impress’d lances in our eyes
73 Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;
74 My reason all the same; and they are ready
75 Tomorrow, or at further space, to appear
76 Where you shall hold your session. At this time
77 We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
78 And the best quarrels in the heat are curs’d
79 By those that feel their sharpness.
80 The question of Cordelia and her father
81 Requires a fitter place.
82 ALBANY.
83 Sir, by your patience,
84 I hold you but a subject of this war,
85 Not as a brother.
86 REGAN.
87 That’s as we list to grace him.
88 Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded
89 Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers;
90 Bore the commission of my place and person;
91 The which immediacy may well stand up
92 And call itself your brother.
93 GONERIL.
94 Not so hot:
95 In his own grace he doth exalt himself,
96 More than in your addition.
97 REGAN.
98 In my rights,
99 By me invested, he compeers the best.
100 ALBANY.
101 That were the most, if he should husband you.
102 REGAN.
103 Jesters do oft prove prophets.
104 GONERIL.
105 Holla, holla!
106 That eye that told you so look’d but asquint.
107 REGAN.
108 Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
109 From a full-flowing stomach. General,
110 Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
111 Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:
112 Witness the world that I create thee here
113 My lord and master.
114 GONERIL.
115 Mean you to enjoy him?
116 ALBANY.
117 The let-alone lies not in your good will.
118 EDMUND.
119 Nor in thine, lord.
120 ALBANY.
121 Half-blooded fellow, yes.
122 REGAN.
123 [_To Edmund._] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.
124 ALBANY.
125 Stay yet; hear reason: Edmund, I arrest thee
126 On capital treason; and, in thine arrest,
127 This gilded serpent. [_pointing to Goneril._]
128 For your claim, fair sister,
129 I bar it in the interest of my wife;
130 ’Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
131 And I her husband contradict your bans.
132 If you will marry, make your loves to me,
133 My lady is bespoke.
134 GONERIL.
135 An interlude!
136 ALBANY.
137 Thou art arm’d, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound:
138 If none appear to prove upon thy person
139 Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
140 There is my pledge. [_Throwing down a glove._]
141 I’ll make it on thy heart,
142 Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
143 Than I have here proclaim’d thee.
144 REGAN.
145 Sick, O, sick!
146 GONERIL.
147 [_Aside._] If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.
148 EDMUND.
149 There’s my exchange. [_Throwing down a glove._]
150 What in the world he is
151 That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.
152 Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
153 On him, on you, who not? I will maintain
154 My truth and honour firmly.
155 ALBANY.
156 A herald, ho!
157 Enter a Herald.
158 Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,
159 All levied in my name, have in my name
160 Took their discharge.
161 REGAN.
162 My sickness grows upon me.
163 ALBANY.
164 She is not well. Convey her to my tent.
165 [_Exit Regan, led._]
166 Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound
167 And read out this.
168 OFFICER.
169 Sound, trumpet!
170 [_A trumpet sounds._]
171 HERALD.
172 [_Reads._] ‘If any man of quality or degree within the lists of
173 the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester,
174 that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound
175 of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.’
176 EDMUND.
177 Sound!
178 [_First trumpet._]
179 HERALD.
180 Again!
181 [_Second trumpet._]
182 HERALD.
183 Again!
184 Third trumpet. Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, armed, preceded by
185 a trumpet.
186 ALBANY.
187 Ask him his purposes, why he appears
188 Upon this call o’ the trumpet.
189 HERALD.
190 What are you?
191 Your name, your quality? and why you answer
192 This present summons?
193 EDGAR.
194 Know my name is lost;
195 By treason’s tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.
196 Yet am I noble as the adversary
197 I come to cope.
198 ALBANY.
199 Which is that adversary?
200 EDGAR.
201 What’s he that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester?
202 EDMUND.
203 Himself, what say’st thou to him?
204 EDGAR.
205 Draw thy sword,
206 That if my speech offend a noble heart,
207 Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine.
208 Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
209 My oath, and my profession: I protest,
210 Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
211 Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
212 Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor;
213 False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
214 Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrious prince;
215 And, from the extremest upward of thy head
216 To the descent and dust beneath thy foot,
217 A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou ‘No,’
218 This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
219 To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
220 Thou liest.
221 EDMUND.
222 In wisdom I should ask thy name;
223 But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
224 And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
225 What safe and nicely I might well delay
226 By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.
227 Back do I toss those treasons to thy head,
228 With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart;
229 Which for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise,
230 This sword of mine shall give them instant way,
231 Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!
232 [_Alarums. They fight. Edmund falls._]
233 ALBANY.
234 Save him, save him!
235 GONERIL.
236 This is mere practice, Gloucester:
237 By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
238 An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish’d,
239 But cozen’d and beguil’d.
240 ALBANY.
241 Shut your mouth, dame,
242 Or with this paper shall I stop it. Hold, sir;
243 Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.
244 No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it.
245 [_Gives the letter to Edmund._]
246 GONERIL.
247 Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:
248 Who can arraign me for’t?
249 [_Exit._]
250 ALBANY.
251 Most monstrous! O!
252 Know’st thou this paper?
253 EDMUND.
254 Ask me not what I know.
255 ALBANY.
256 [_To an Officer, who goes out._] Go after her; she’s desperate;
257 govern her.
258 EDMUND.
259 What you have charg’d me with, that have I done;
260 And more, much more; the time will bring it out.
261 ’Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
262 That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt noble,
263 I do forgive thee.
264 EDGAR.
265 Let’s exchange charity.
266 I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
267 If more, the more thou hast wrong’d me.
268 My name is Edgar and thy father’s son.
269 The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
270 Make instruments to plague us:
271 The dark and vicious place where thee he got
272 Cost him his eyes.
273 EDMUND.
274 Thou hast spoken right, ’tis true;
275 The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
276 ALBANY.
277 Methought thy very gait did prophesy
278 A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.
279 Let sorrow split my heart if ever I
280 Did hate thee or thy father.
281 EDGAR.
282 Worthy prince, I know’t.
283 ALBANY.
284 Where have you hid yourself?
285 How have you known the miseries of your father?
286 EDGAR.
287 By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;
288 And when ’tis told, O that my heart would burst!
289 The bloody proclamation to escape
290 That follow’d me so near,—O, our lives’ sweetness!
291 That with the pain of death we’d hourly die
292 Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift
293 Into a madman’s rags; t’assume a semblance
294 That very dogs disdain’d; and in this habit
295 Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
296 Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,
297 Led him, begg’d for him, sav’d him from despair;
298 Never,—O fault!—reveal’d myself unto him
299 Until some half hour past, when I was arm’d;
300 Not sure, though hoping of this good success,
301 I ask’d his blessing, and from first to last
302 Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw’d heart,
303 Alack, too weak the conflict to support!
304 ’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
305 Burst smilingly.
306 EDMUND.
307 This speech of yours hath mov’d me,
308 And shall perchance do good, but speak you on;
309 You look as you had something more to say.
310 ALBANY.
311 If there be more, more woeful, hold it in;
312 For I am almost ready to dissolve,
313 Hearing of this.
314 EDGAR.
315 This would have seem’d a period
316 To such as love not sorrow; but another,
317 To amplify too much, would make much more,
318 And top extremity.
319 Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man
320 Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
321 Shunn’d my abhorr’d society; but then finding
322 Who ’twas that so endur’d, with his strong arms
323 He fastened on my neck, and bellow’d out
324 As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father;
325 Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
326 That ever ear receiv’d, which in recounting
327 His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
328 Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded,
329 And there I left him tranc’d.
330 ALBANY.
331 But who was this?
332 EDGAR.
333 Kent, sir, the banish’d Kent; who in disguise
334 Follow’d his enemy king and did him service
335 Improper for a slave.
336 Enter a Gentleman hastily,
337 with a bloody knife.
338 GENTLEMAN.
339 Help, help! O, help!
340 EDGAR.
341 What kind of help?
342 ALBANY.
343 Speak, man.
344 EDGAR.
345 What means this bloody knife?
346 GENTLEMAN.
347 ’Tis hot, it smokes;
348 It came even from the heart of—O! she’s dead!
349 ALBANY.
350 Who dead? Speak, man.
351 GENTLEMAN.
352 Your lady, sir, your lady; and her sister
353 By her is poisoned; she hath confesses it.
354 EDMUND.
355 I was contracted to them both, all three
356 Now marry in an instant.
357 EDGAR.
358 Here comes Kent.
359 Enter Kent.
360 ALBANY.
361 Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead.
362 This judgement of the heavens that makes us tremble
363 Touches us not with pity. O, is this he?
364 The time will not allow the compliment
365 Which very manners urges.
366 KENT.
367 I am come
368 To bid my King and master aye good night:
369 Is he not here?
370 ALBANY.
371 Great thing of us forgot!
372 Speak, Edmund, where’s the King? and where’s Cordelia?
373 The bodies of Goneril and
374 Regan are brought in.
375 Seest thou this object, Kent?
376 KENT.
377 Alack, why thus?
378 EDMUND.
379 Yet Edmund was belov’d.
380 The one the other poisoned for my sake,
381 And after slew herself.
382 ALBANY.
383 Even so. Cover their faces.
384 EDMUND.
385 I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,
386 Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,
387 Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ
388 Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia;
389 Nay, send in time.
390 ALBANY.
391 Run, run, O, run!
392 EDGAR.
393 To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send
394 Thy token of reprieve.
395 EDMUND.
396 Well thought on: take my sword,
397 Give it the captain.
398 EDGAR.
399 Haste thee for thy life.
400 [_Exit Edgar._]
401 EDMUND.
402 He hath commission from thy wife and me
403 To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
404 To lay the blame upon her own despair,
405 That she fordid herself.
406 ALBANY.
407 The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.
408 [_Edmund is borne off._]
409 Enter Lear with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar,
410 Officer and others following.
411 LEAR.
412 Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone.
413 Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so
414 That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!
415 I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
416 She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass;
417 If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
418 Why, then she lives.
419 KENT.
420 Is this the promis’d end?
421 EDGAR.
422 Or image of that horror?
423 ALBANY.
424 Fall, and cease!
425 LEAR.
426 This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,
427 It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
428 That ever I have felt.
429 KENT.
430 O, my good master! [_Kneeling._]
431 LEAR.
432 Prithee, away!
433 EDGAR.
434 ’Tis noble Kent, your friend.
435 LEAR.
436 A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
437 I might have sav’d her; now she’s gone for ever!
438 Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
439 What is’t thou say’st? Her voice was ever soft,
440 Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
441 I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee.
442 OFFICER.
443 ’Tis true, my lords, he did.
444 LEAR.
445 Did I not, fellow?
446 I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
447 I would have made them skip. I am old now,
448 And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
449 Mine eyes are not o’ the best, I’ll tell you straight.
450 KENT.
451 If Fortune brag of two she lov’d and hated,
452 One of them we behold.
453 LEAR.
454 This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
455 KENT.
456 The same,
457 Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?
458 LEAR.
459 He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that;
460 He’ll strike, and quickly too:. He’s dead and rotten.
461 KENT.
462 No, my good lord; I am the very man.
463 LEAR.
464 I’ll see that straight.
465 KENT.
466 That from your first of difference and decay
467 Have follow’d your sad steps.
468 LEAR.
469 You are welcome hither.
470 KENT.
471 Nor no man else. All’s cheerless, dark and deadly.
472 Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
473 And desperately are dead.
474 LEAR.
475 Ay, so I think.
476 ALBANY.
477 He knows not what he says; and vain is it
478 That we present us to him.
479 EDGAR.
480 Very bootless.
481 Enter an Officer.
482 OFFICER.
483 Edmund is dead, my lord.
484 ALBANY.
485 That’s but a trifle here.
486 You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
487 What comfort to this great decay may come
488 Shall be applied. For us, we will resign,
489 During the life of this old majesty,
490 To him our absolute power;
491 [_to Edgar and Kent_] you to your rights;
492 With boot and such addition as your honours
493 Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
494 The wages of their virtue and all foes
495 The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
496 LEAR.
497 And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!
498 Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
499 And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
500 Never, never, never, never, never!
501 Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.
502 Do you see this? Look on her: look, her lips,
503 Look there, look there!
504 [_He dies._]
505 EDGAR.
506 He faints! My lord, my lord!
507 KENT.
508 Break, heart; I prithee break!
509 EDGAR.
510 Look up, my lord.
511 KENT.
512 Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! He hates him
513 That would upon the rack of this rough world
514 Stretch him out longer.
515 EDGAR.
516 He is gone indeed.
517 KENT.
518 The wonder is, he hath endur’d so long:
519 He but usurp’d his life.
520 ALBANY.
521 Bear them from hence. Our present business
522 Is general woe. [_To Edgar and Kent._] Friends of my soul, you twain,
523 Rule in this realm and the gor’d state sustain.
524 KENT.
525 I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
526 My master calls me, I must not say no.
527 EDGAR.
528 The weight of this sad time we must obey;
529 Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
530 The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
531 Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
532 [_Exeunt with a dead march._]