The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
The British camp near Dover. |
[Enter, in conquest, with drum and colours, EDMUND, | ||
KING LEAR and CORDELIA, prisoners; Captain, | ||
Soldiers, &c] |
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 incurr'd the worst. | 5 | ||
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down; | |||
Myself could else out-frown 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' the 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 wall'd 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. | |||
[Exeunt KING LEAR and CORDELIA, guarded] |
EDMUND | Come hither, captain; hark. | ||
Take thou this note; | 30 | ||
[Giving a paper] | |||
go follow them to prison: | |||
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 | 35 | ||
Does not become a sword: thy great employment | |||
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 hast done. | 40 | |
Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so | |||
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] | |||
[Flourish. Enter ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, another | |||
Captain, and Soldiers] |
ALBANY | Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain, | 45 | |
And fortune led you well: you have the captives | |||
That were the opposites of this day's strife: | |||
We do require them of you, so to use them | |||
As we shall find their merits and our safety | |||
May equally determine. | 50 |
EDMUND | Sir, I thought it fit | ||
To send the old and miserable king | |||
To some retention and appointed guard; | |||
Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, | |||
To pluck the common bosom on his side, | 55 | ||
An turn our impress'd lances in our eyes | |||
Which do command them. With him I sent the queen; | |||
My reason all the same; and they are ready | |||
To-morrow, or at further space, to appear | |||
Where you shall hold your session. At this time | 60 | ||
We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; | |||
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. | 65 |
ALBANY | Sir, by your patience, | ||
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 look'd but a-squint. |
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 | [To EDMUND] 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 | |||
[Pointing to Goneril] | |||
For your claim, fair sister, | |||
I bar it in the interest of my wife: | |||
'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord, | |||
And I, her husband, contradict your bans. | 100 | ||
If you will marry, make your loves to me, | |||
My lady is bespoke. |
GONERIL | An interlude! |
ALBANY | Thou art arm'd, Gloucester: let the trumpet sound: | ||
If none appear to prove upon thy head | 105 | ||
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, | |||
There is my pledge; | |||
[Throwing down a glove] | |||
I'll prove it on thy heart, | |||
Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less | |||
Than I have here proclaim'd thee. | 110 |
REGAN | Sick, O, sick! |
GONERIL | [Aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine. |
EDMUND | There's my exchange: | ||
[Throwing down a glove] | |||
what in the world he is | |||
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies: | 115 | ||
Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach, | |||
On him, on you, who not? I will maintain | |||
My truth and honour firmly. |
ALBANY | A herald, ho! |
EDMUND | A herald, ho, a herald! |
ALBANY | Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers, | 120 | |
All levied in my name, have in my name | |||
Took their discharge. |
REGAN | My sickness grows upon me. |
ALBANY | She is not well; convey her to my tent. | ||
[Exit Regan, led] | |||
[Enter a Herald] | |||
Come hither, herald,--Let the trumpet sound, | 125 | ||
And read out this. |
Captain | Sound, trumpet! | ||
[A trumpet sounds] |
Herald | [Reads] 'If any man of quality or degree within | ||
the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmund, | |||
supposed Earl of Gloucester, that he is a manifold | 130 | ||
traitor, let him appear by the third sound of the | |||
trumpet: he is bold in his defence.' |
EDMUND | Sound! | ||
[First trumpet] |
Herald | Again! | ||
[Second trumpet] |
Herald | Again! | 135 | |
[Third trumpet] | |||
[Trumpet answers within] | |||
[Enter EDGAR, at the third sound, armed, with a | |||
trumpet before him] |
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? | 140 |
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? |
EDGAR | What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester? | 145 |
EDMUND | Himself: what say'st thou to him? |
EDGAR | Draw thy sword, | ||
That, if my speech offend a noble heart, | |||
Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine. | |||
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours, | 150 | ||
My oath, and my profession: I protest, | |||
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence, | |||
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune, | |||
Thy valour and thy heart, thou art a traitor; | |||
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father; | 155 | ||
Conspirant 'gainst this high-illustrious prince; | |||
And, from the extremest upward of thy head | |||
To the descent and dust below thy foot, | |||
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'No,' | |||
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits, are bent | 160 | ||
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, | |||
And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes, | 165 | ||
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; | |||
Which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise, | 170 | ||
This sword of mine shall give them instant way, | |||
Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak! | |||
[Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls] |
ALBANY | Save him, save him! |
GONERIL | This is practise, Gloucester: | ||
By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer | 175 | ||
An unknown opposite; thou art not vanquish'd, | |||
But cozen'd and beguiled. |
ALBANY | Shut your mouth, dame, | ||
Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir: | |||
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil: | 180 | ||
No tearing, lady: I perceive you know it. | |||
[Gives the letter to EDMUND] |
GONERIL | Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine: | ||
Who can arraign me for't. |
ALBANY | Most monstrous! oh! | ||
Know'st thou this paper? | 185 |
GONERIL | Ask me not what I know. | ||
[Exit] |
ALBANY | 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: | |||
'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou | 190 | ||
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; | |||
If more, the more thou hast wrong'd me. | |||
My name is Edgar, and thy father's son. | 195 | ||
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices | |||
Make instruments to plague us: | |||
The dark and vicious place where thee he got | |||
Cost him his eyes. |
EDMUND | Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true; | ||
The wheel is come full circle: I am here. | 200 |
ALBANY | Methought thy very gait did prophesy | ||
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. | 205 |
ALBANY | Where have you hid yourself? | ||
How have you known the miseries of your father? |
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, | 210 | ||
That follow'd me so near,--O, our lives' sweetness! | |||
That we the pain of death would hourly die | |||
Rather than die at once!--taught me to shift | |||
Into a madman's rags; to assume a semblance | |||
That very dogs disdain'd: and in this habit | 215 | ||
Met I my father with his bleeding rings, | |||
Their precious stones new lost: became his guide, | |||
Led him, begg'd for him, saved him from despair; | |||
Never,--O fault!--reveal'd myself unto him, | |||
Until some half-hour past, when I was arm'd: | 220 | ||
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success, | |||
I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last | |||
Told him my pilgrimage: but his flaw'd heart, | |||
Alack, too weak the conflict to support! | |||
'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, | 225 | ||
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; | 230 | |
For I am almost ready to dissolve, | |||
Hearing of this. |
EDGAR | This would have seem'd a period | ||
To such as love not sorrow; but another, | |||
To amplify too much, would make much more, | |||
And top extremity. | 235 | ||
Whilst I was big in clamour came there in a man, | |||
Who, having seen me in my worst estate, | |||
Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding | |||
Who 'twas that so endured, with his strong arms | |||
He fastened on my neck, and bellow'd out | 240 | ||
As he'ld burst heaven; threw him on my father; | |||
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, | 245 | ||
And there I left him tranced. |
ALBANY | But who was this? |
EDGAR | Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise | ||
Follow'd his enemy king, and did him service | |||
Improper for a slave. | 250 | ||
[Enter a Gentleman, with a bloody knife] |
Gentleman | Help, help, O, help! |
EDGAR | What kind of help? |
ALBANY | Speak, man. |
EDGAR | What means that bloody knife? |
Gentleman | 'Tis hot, it smokes; | 255 | |
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 hath confess'd it. |
EDMUND | I was contracted to them both: all three | 260 | |
Now marry in an instant. |
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. | 265 | ||
[Exit Gentleman] | |||
[Enter KENT] | |||
O, is this he? | |||
The time will not allow the compliment | |||
Which very manners urges. |
KENT | I am come | ||
To bid my king and master aye good night: | 270 | ||
Is he not here? |
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: | ||
The one the other poison'd for my sake, | 275 | ||
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, | |||
Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ | 280 | ||
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 | ||
Thy token of reprieve. |
EDMUND | Well thought on: take my sword, | 285 | |
Give it the captain. |
ALBANY | Haste thee, for thy life. | ||
[Exit EDGAR] |
EDMUND | He hath commission from thy wife and me | ||
To hang Cordelia in the prison, and | |||
To lay the blame upon her own despair, | 290 | ||
That she fordid herself. |
ALBANY | The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. | ||
[EDMUND is borne off] | |||
[Re-enter KING LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; | |||
EDGAR, Captain, and others following] |
KING LEAR | Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: | ||
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so | |||
That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever! | 295 | ||
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, | |||
Why, then she lives. |
KENT | Is this the promised end | 300 |
EDGAR | Or image of that horror? |
ALBANY | Fall, and cease! |
KING LEAR | This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, | ||
It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows | |||
That ever I have felt. | 305 |
KENT | [Kneeling] O my good master! |
KING LEAR | Prithee, away. |
EDGAR | 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. |
KING LEAR | A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! | ||
I might have saved her; now she's gone for ever! | 310 | ||
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 kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee. |
Captain | 'Tis true, my lords, he did. | 315 |
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, | |||
And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you? | |||
Mine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight. | 320 |
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? |
KENT | The same, | ||
Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius? | 325 |
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,-- |
KING LEAR | I'll see that straight. |
KENT | That, from your first of difference and decay, | 330 | |
Have follow'd your sad steps. |
KING LEAR | You are welcome hither. |
KENT | Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly. | ||
Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves, | |||
And desperately are dead. | 335 |
KING LEAR | Ay, so I think. |
ALBANY | He knows not what he says: and vain it is | ||
That we present us to him. |
EDGAR | Very bootless. | ||
[Enter a Captain] |
Captain | Edmund is dead, my lord. | 340 |
ALBANY | That's but a trifle here. | ||
You lords and noble friends, know our intent. | |||
What comfort to this great decay may come | |||
Shall be applied: for us we will resign, | |||
During the life of this old majesty, | 345 | ||
To him our absolute power: | |||
[To EDGAR and KENT] | |||
you, to your rights: | |||
With boot, and such addition as your honours | |||
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste | |||
The wages of their virtue, and all foes | 350 | ||
The cup of their deservings. O, see, see! |
KING LEAR | And my poor fool is hang'd! 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! | 355 | ||
Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir. | |||
Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips, | |||
Look there, look there! | |||
[Dies] |
EDGAR | He faints! My lord, my lord! |
KENT | Break, heart; I prithee, break! | 360 |
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. |
EDGAR | He is gone, indeed. | 365 |
KENT | The wonder is, he hath endured so long: | ||
He but usurp'd his life. |
ALBANY | Bear them from hence. Our present business | ||
Is general woe. | |||
[To KENT and EDGAR] | |||
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. |
ALBANY | 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. | |||
[Exeunt, with a dead march] |
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