King Lear - Act 5 - Scene 3

SCENE III. 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.
    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:
    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,
    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.

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;
    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;

    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
    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.
    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,
    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.

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,
    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
    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.

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;
    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,
    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.

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;
    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.

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,
    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.
    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
    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.

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:
    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,
    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,
    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
    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!

    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?

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?

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,
    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;
    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
    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,
    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,
    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
    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:
    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?

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
    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.
    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.

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.

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,
    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
    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:
    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,
    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 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.
    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
    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,
    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.

    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;
    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
    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.

    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:
    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,
    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
    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,
    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,
    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!
    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

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.

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!
    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.

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.

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?

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,
    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.

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.

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,
    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
    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!
    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!

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.

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
    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.
    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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