This sword of mine shall give them instant way, Where they shall rest for ever."-Trumpets, speak. [Alarums. They fight. EDMUND falls. Alb. O save him, save him! Gon. This is mere practice, Gloster: By the law of arms, thou wast not bound to answer Alb. Shut your mouth, dame, Or with this paper shall I stop it: - Hold, sir:- [Gives the Letter to EDMUND. Gon. Say, if I do: the laws are mine, not thine: Who shall arraign me for't? [To an Officer, who goes out. Alb. Go after her: she's desperate; govern her. Edm. What you have charg'd me with, that have I done; And more, much more: the time will bring it out; That hast this fortune on me? If thou art noble, Edg. 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 scourge us : The dark and vicious place where thee he got, 8 Where they shall rest for ever.] To that place, where they shall rest for ever; i. e. thy heart. Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true; The wheel is come full circle; I am here. Alb. Methought, thy very gait did prophecy A royal nobleness: - I must embrace thee; Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I Did hate thee, or thy father! Edg. I know it well. + Alb. Worthy prince, Where have you hid yourself? How have you known the miseries of your father? Edg. 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! Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me, And shall, perchance, do good: but speak you on ; You look as you had something more to say. Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this. Edg. This would have seem'd a period +"I know't." MALONE. To such as love not sorrow; but another, To amplify too-much, would make much more, Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, Alb. But who was this? Edg. 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 hastily, with a bloody Knife. Gent. Help! help! O help! Edg. What kind of help? Speak, man. "Tis hot, it smokes ; Alb. Edg. What means that bloody knife? It came even from the heart of — Alb. Who, man? speak. Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady: By her is poison'd; she confesses it.† and her sister Edm. I was contracted to them both; all three Now marry in an instant. 9- This would have seem'd a period, &c.] The sense may probably be this: This would have seemed a period to such as love not sorrow; but—another, i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of conclusion to my story, such as will increase the horrors of what has been already told. + "threw me on my father :- MALONE. +"she hath confess'd it." MALONE. Alb. Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead! — This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble, Touches us not with pity. [Exit Gentleman. To bid my king and master aye good night; Alb. Great thing of us forgot! — Speak, Edmund, where's the king; and where's Cor delia? See'st thou this object, Kent? [The Bodies of GONERIL and REGAN are brought in. Kent. Alack, why thus ? Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd: The one the other poison'd for my sake, And after slew herself. Alb. Even so. Cover their faces. Edm. I pant for life: Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send, Who has the office? send Edg. To who, my lord? Thy token of reprieve. Edm. Well thought on; take my sword, Give it the captain. Alb. Haste thee, for thy life. [Exit Edgar. This judgment, &c.] If Shakspeare had studied Aristotle all his life, he would not perhaps have been able to mark with more precision the distinct operations of terror and pity. TYRWHITT. Edm. 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. 2 Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. [EDMUND is borne off. Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Officer, and Others. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl!-O, you are men of stones; Had I ever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; Is this the promis'd end? Fall, and cease !+ Edg. Or image of that horror?3 Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kent. for O my good master! - [Kneeling. Lear. Pr'ythee, away. Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. 2 That she fordid herself.] To fordo signifies to destroy. 3 Kent. Is this the promis'd end? Edg. Or image of that horror?] By the promised end Kent does not mean that conclusion which the state of their affairs seemed to promise, but the end of the world. + Fall, and cease!] Albany is looking with attention on the pains employed by Lear to recover his child, and knows to what miseries he must survive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images present to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, Rather fall, and cease to be, at once, than continue in existence only to be wretched. |