ACT 1
Scene 1
...King is coming.
Enter King Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and Attendants.
...O vassal! Miscreant!
Dear sir, forbear.
...Come, noble Burgundy.
Flourish. All but France, Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan exit.
Scene 4
...of their betters.
Enter Albany.
...the sea monster!
Pray, sir, be patient.
...go, my people.
My lord, I am guiltless as I am ignorant
Of what hath moved you.
...thankless child.—Away, away!
Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this?
...Within a fortnight?
What’s the matter, sir?
...you mark that?
I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
To the great love I bear you—
...mercy.—Oswald, I say!
Well, you may fear too far.
...for harmful mildness.
How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell.
Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.
... Nay, then—
Well, well, th’ event.
They exit.
ACT 4
Scene 2
...comes my lord.
Enter Albany.
...worth the whistle.
O Goneril,
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face. I fear your disposition.
That nature which contemns its origin
Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.
...text is foolish.
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.
Could my good brother suffer you to do it?
A man, a prince, by him so benefited!
If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offenses,
It will come:
Humanity must perforce prey on itself,
Like monsters of the deep.
...does he so?”
See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity shows not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.
...O vain fool!
Thou changèd and self-covered thing, for shame
Bemonster not thy feature. Were ’t my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones. Howe’er thou art a fiend,
A woman’s shape doth shield thee.
...Enter a Messenger.
What news?
...eye of Gloucester.
Gloucester’s eyes?
...plucked him after.
This shows you are above,
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge. But, O poor Gloucester,
Lost he his other eye?
...read, and answer.
Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
...my lady hither.
He is not here.
...him back again.
Knows he the wickedness?
...the freer course.
Gloucester, I live
To thank thee for the love thou show’d’st the King,
And to revenge thine eyes.—Come hither, friend.
Tell me what more thou know’st.
They exit.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...Duke, her husband.
Enter, with Drum and Colors, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers.
...him and me.
Our very loving sister, well bemet.—
Sir, this I heard: 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 touches us as France invades our land,
Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear,
Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
...the question here.
Let’s then determine
With th’ ancient of war on our proceeding.
...riddle.—I will go.
They begin to exit.
...me one word.
to those exiting
I’ll overtake you.—Speak.
EDGAR, giving him a paper
...Fortune love you.
Stay till I have read the letter.
...I’ll appear again.
Why, fare thee well. I will o’erlook thy paper.
...up your powers.
Giving him a paper.
...urged on you.
We will greet the time.
He exits.
Scene 3
...I’ll do ’t.
Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers and a Captain.
to Edmund
Sir, you have showed today your valiant strain,
And Fortune led you well. You have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day’s strife.
I do require them of you, so to use them
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.
...a fitter place.
Sir, by your patience,
I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.
...to enjoy him?
The let-alone lies not in your goodwill.
...in thine, lord.
Half-blooded fellow, yes.
...my title thine.
Stay yet, hear reason.—Edmund, I arrest thee
On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
This gilded serpent.—For your claim, fair sister,
I bar it in the interest of my wife.
’Tis she is subcontracted to this lord,
And I, her husband, contradict your banns.
If you will marry, make your loves to me.
My lady is bespoke.
... An interlude!
Thou art armed, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound.
If none appear to prove upon thy person
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
There is my pledge.He throws down a glove.
I’ll make it on thy heart,
Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaimed thee.
...and honor firmly.
A herald, ho!
...ho, a herald!
Trust to thy single virtue, for thy soldiers,
All levied in my name, have in my name
Took their discharge.
...grows upon me.
She is not well. Convey her to my tent.
Enter a Herald.
Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,
And read out this.
He hands the Herald a paper.
...Enter Edgar armed.
to Herald
Ask him his purposes, why he appears
Upon this call o’ th’ trumpet.
...come to cope.
Which is that adversary?
...Edmund falls, wounded.
to Edgar
Save him, save him!
...cozened and beguiled.
Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stopple it.—Hold, sir.—
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.
No tearing, lady. I perceive you know it.
...me for ’t?
Most monstrous! O!
Know’st thou this paper?
...what I know.
Go after her, she’s desperate. Govern her.
...I am here.
to Edgar
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!
...I know ’t.
Where have you hid yourself?
How have you known the miseries of your father?
...more to say.
If there be more, more woeful, hold it in,
For I am almost ready to dissolve,
Hearing of this.
...left him tranced.
But who was this?
...kind of help?
to Gentleman
Speak, man!
...Of—O, she’s dead!
Who dead? Speak, man.
... Enter Kent.
to the Gentleman
Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead.
This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,
Touches us not with pity. O, is this he?
To Kent.
The time will not allow the compliment
Which very manners urges.
...he not here?
Great thing of us forgot!
Speak, Edmund, where’s the King? And where’s Cordelia?
Goneril and Regan’s bodies brought out.
Seest thou this object, Kent?
...after slew herself.
Even so.—Cover their faces.
...send in time.
Run, run, O, run!
...she fordid herself.
The gods defend her!—Bear him hence awhile.
...of that horror?
Fall and cease.
...so I think.
He knows not what he says, and vain is it
That we present us to him.
...dead, my lord.
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; you to your rights,
With boot and such addition as your Honors
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings. O, see, see!
...usurped his life.
Bear them from hence. Our present business
Is general woe. To Edgar and Kent.
Friends of my soul, you twain
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.
...live so long.
They exit with a dead march.