King Lear

ALBANY    The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.

Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms

Gentleman and others following

LEAR    Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:

Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so

That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!

I know when one is dead and when one lives:

She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass:

If that her breath will mist or stain the stone²⁷⁰,

Why, then she lives.

KENT    Is this the promised end²⁷²?

EDGAR    Or image of that horror?

ALBANY    Fall and cease!²⁷⁴

LEAR    This feather stirs: she lives! If it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.

Kneels

KENT    O my good master!

LEAR    Prithee, away.

EDGAR ’Tis noble Kent, your friend.

LEAR    A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have saved her: now she’s gone for ever!—

Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little. Ha?

What is’t thou say’st?— Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.—

I killed the slave²⁸⁶ that was a-hanging thee.

GENTLEMAN    ’Tis true, my lords, he did.

LEAR    Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion²⁸⁹

I would have made him skip: I am old now,

And these same crosses²⁹¹ spoil me.— Who are you?

Mine eyes are not o’th’best: I’ll tell you straight²⁹².

KENT    If fortune brag of two she loved and hated²⁹³,

One of them we behold.

LEAR    This is a dull sight²⁹⁵. Are you not Kent?

KENT    The same,

Your servant Kent: where is your servant Caius²⁹⁷?

LEAR    He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that:

He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.

KENT    No, my good lord, I am the very man—

LEAR    I’ll see that straight³⁰¹.

KENT    That from your first of difference and decay³⁰²

Have followed your sad steps.

LEAR    You are welcome hither.

KENT    Nor no man else³⁰⁵: all’s cheerless, dark and deadly.

Your eldest daughters have fordone³⁰⁶ themselves,

And desperately³⁰⁷ are dead.

LEAR Ay, so I think.

ALBANY    He knows not what he says, and vain is it³⁰⁹

That we present us to him.

Enter a Messenger

EDGAR    Very bootless³¹¹.

MESSENGER    Edmund is dead, my lord.

ALBANY    That’s but a trifle here.

You lords and noble friends, know our intent:

What comfort to this great decay³¹⁵ may come

Shall be applied. For us, we will resign³¹⁶,

During the life of this old majesty,

To Edgar and Kent

To him our absolute power:— you, to your rights

With boot and such addition³¹⁹ as your honours

Have more than merited. All friends shall taste

The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The cup of their deservings.— O, see, see³²²!

LEAR    And my poor fool³²³ is hanged! No, no, no life?

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you undo this button: thank you, sir³²⁷.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there!

He dies

EDGAR    He faints! My lord, my lord!

KENT    Break, heart, I prithee, break.

EDGAR    Look up, my lord.

KENT    Vex not his ghost³³³: O, let him pass! He hates him

That would upon the rack³³⁴ of this tough world

Stretch him out longer³³⁵.

EDGAR    He is gone, indeed.

KENT    The wonder is he hath endured so long:

He but usurped³³⁸ his life.

ALBANY    Bear them from hence. Our present business

Is general woe.—

To Kent and Edgar

Friends of my soul, you twain

Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain³⁴².

KENT    I have a journey³⁴³, sir, shortly to go:

My master calls me, I must not say no.

EDGAR    The weight of this sad time we must obey:

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much nor live so long.

Exeunt with a dead march

TEXTUAL NOTES

Q = First Quarto text of 1608

F = First Folio text of 1623

F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SD = stage direction

SH = speech heading (i.e. speaker’s name)

List of parts = Ed

EDMUNDsometimes spelled Edmond, often referred to in directions and speech headings as Bastard