KING LEAR Act 5

Scene I The British camp, near Dover

	[Enter, with drum and colours, EDMUND, REGAN, Gentlemen, and Soldiers.
EDMUND	Know of the duke if his last purpose hold, Or whether since he is advised by aught To change the course: he's full of alteration And self-reproving: bring his constant pleasure.
	[To a Gentleman, who goes out]
REGAN	Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.
EDMUND	'Tis to be doubted, madam.
REGAN	Now, sweet lord, You know the goodness I intend upon you: Tell me--but truly--but then speak the truth, Do you not love my sister?
EDMUND	In honour'd love.
REGAN	But have you never found my brother's way To the forfended place?
EDMUND	That thought abuses you.
REGAN	I am doubtful that you have been conjunct And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.
EDMUND	No, by mine honour, madam.
REGAN	I never shall endure her: dear my lord, Be not familiar with her.
EDMUND	Fear me not: She and the duke her husband!
	[Enter, with drum and colours, ALBANY, GONERIL, and Soldiers]
GONERIL	[Aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister Should loosen him and me.
ALBANY	Our very loving sister, well be-met. Sir, this I hear; the king is come to his daughter, With others whom the rigor of our state Forced to cry out. Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant: for this business, It toucheth us, as France invades our land, Not bolds the king, with others, whom, I fear, Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
EDMUND	Sir, you speak nobly.
REGAN	Why is this reason'd?
GONERIL	Combine together 'gainst the enemy; For these domestic and particular broils Are not the question here.
ALBANY	Let's then determine With the ancient of war on our proceedings.
EDMUND	I shall attend you presently at your tent.
REGAN	Sister, you'll go with us?
GONERIL	No.
REGAN	'Tis most convenient; pray you, go with us.
GONERIL	[Aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.--I will go.
	[As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised]
EDGAR	If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor, Hear me one word.
ALBANY	I'll overtake you. Speak.
	[Exeunt all but ALBANY and EDGAR]
EDGAR	Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. If you have victory, let the trumpet sound For him that brought it: wretched though I seem, I can produce a champion that will prove What is avouched there. If you miscarry, Your business of the world hath so an end, And machination ceases. Fortune love you.
ALBANY	Stay till I have read the letter.
EDGAR	I was forbid it. When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, And I'll appear again.
ALBANY	Why, fare thee well: I will o'erlook thy paper.
	[Exit EDGAR]
	[Re-enter EDMUND]
EDMUND	The enemy's in view; draw up your powers. Here is the guess of their true strength and forces By diligent discovery; but your haste Is now urged on you.
ALBANY	We will greet the time.
	[Exit]
EDMUND	To both these sisters have I sworn my love; Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd, If both remain alive: to take the widow Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; And hardly shall I carry out my side, Her husband being alive. Now then we'll use His countenance for the battle; which being done, Let her who would be rid of him devise His speedy taking off. As for the mercy Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia, The battle done, and they within our power, Shall never see his pardon; for my state Stands on me to defend, not to debate.
	[Exit]

Scene II A field between the two camps

	[Alarum within. Enter, with drum and colours, KING LEAR, CORDELIA, and Soldiers, over the stage; and exeunt]
	[Enter EDGAR and GLOUCESTER]
EDGAR	Here, father, take the shadow of this tree For your good host; pray that the right may thrive: If ever I return to you again, I'll bring you comfort.
GLOUCESTER	Grace go with you, sir!
	[Exit EDGAR]
	[Alarum and retreat within. Re-enter EDGAR]
EDGAR	Away, old man; give me thy hand; away! King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en: Give me thy hand; come on.
GLOUCESTER	No farther, sir; a man may rot even here.
EDGAR	What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither; Ripeness is all: come on.
GLOUCESTER	And that's true too.
	[Exeunt]

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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