King Lear

With the hell-hated lie¹⁵⁶ o’erwhelm thy heart,

Which, for they yet glance by¹⁵⁷ and scarcely bruise,

This sword of mine shall give them instant way¹⁵⁸,

Where they shall rest forever. Trumpets, speak!

Draws

Alarums. Fights

Edmund falls

ALBANY    Save him¹⁶⁰, save him!

GONERIL    This is practice¹⁶¹, Gloucester:

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

An unknown opposite: thou art not vanquished,

But cozened and beguiled¹⁶⁴.

ALBANY    Shut your mouth, dame¹⁶⁵,

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

To Goneril

Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.

No tearing, lady: I perceive you know¹⁶⁸ it.

Shows her the letter

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

Who can arraign¹⁷⁰ me for’t.

Exit

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

EDMUND    Ask me not what I know.

ALBANY    Go after her: she’s desperate: govern¹⁷³ her.

[Exit a soldier]

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

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

To Edgar

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

That hast this fortune on¹⁷⁷ me? If thou’rt noble,

I do forgive thee.

EDGAR    Let’s exchange charity¹⁷⁹.

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

If more, the more th’hast¹⁸¹ wronged me.

Removes his helmet

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

The gods are just, and of our pleasant¹⁸³ vices

Make instruments to plague us:

The dark and vicious place where thee he got¹⁸⁵

Cost him his eyes.

EDMUND    Th’hast spoken right: ’tis true,

The wheel¹⁸⁸ is come full circle: I am here.

To Edgar

ALBANY    Methought thy very gait did prophesy¹⁸⁹

A royal nobleness: I must embrace thee.

Let sorrow split my heart if ever I

Did hate thee or thy father!

EDGAR Worthy prince, I know’t.

ALBANY Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

EDGAR    By nursing them, my lord. List¹⁹⁶ a brief tale,

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

The bloody proclamation¹⁹⁸ to escape

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

That we the pain of death would hourly die²⁰⁰

Rather than die at once! — taught me to shift

Into a madman’s rags, t’assume a semblance²⁰²

That very dogs disdained: and in this habit²⁰³

Met I my father with his bleeding rings²⁰⁴,

Their precious stones new lost, became his guide,

Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair²⁰⁶,

Never — O, fault! — revealed myself unto him

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

Not sure, though hoping, of this good success²⁰⁹,

I asked his blessing, and from first to last

Told him our pilgrimage: but his flawed²¹¹ heart —

Alack, too weak the conflict to support —

’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,

Burst smilingly.

EDMUND    This speech of yours hath moved me,

And shall perchance do good: but speak you on:

You look as you had something more to say.

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

For I am almost ready to dissolve²¹⁹,

Hearing of this.

Enter a Gentleman

With a bloody knife

GENTLEMAN    Help, help, O, help!

EDGAR    What kind of help?

ALBANY    Speak, man.

EDGAR    What means this bloody knife?

GENTLEMAN    ’Tis hot, it smokes²²⁵:

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

ALBANY    Who dead? Speak, man.

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

By her is poisoned: she confesses it.

EDMUND    I was contracted to them both: all three

Now marry in an instant.

EDGAR    Here comes Kent.

Enter Kent

ALBANY    Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead:

Goneril and Regan’s bodies brought out

This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Sees Kent

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

To Kent

The time will not allow the compliment²³⁶

Which very manners urges.

KENT    I am come

To bid my king and master aye²³⁹ goodnight:

Is he not here?

ALBANY    Great thing²⁴¹ of us forgot!

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

See’st thou this object²⁴³, Kent?

Points to the bodies

KENT    Alack, why thus?

EDMUND    Yet Edmund was beloved:

The one the other poisoned for my sake

And after slew herself.

ALBANY    Even²⁴⁸ so. Cover their faces.

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

Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send —

Be brief in it — to th’castle, for my writ²⁵¹

Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:

Nay, send in time.

ALBANY    Run, run, O, run!

EDGAR    To who, my lord? Who has the office²⁵⁵?

To Edmund

Send thy token of reprieve.

EDMUND    Well thought on: take my sword,

Give it the captain.

To a Gentleman

EDGAR    Haste thee, for thy life.

[Exit Gentleman]

EDMUND    He hath commission from thy wife and me

To hang Cordelia in the prison and

To lay the blame upon her own despair,

That she fordid²⁶³ herself.

Edmund is borne off