The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 380
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 walled prison packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.
EDMOND (to soldiers)
Take them away.
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 goodyear shall devour them, flesh and fell,
Ere they shall make us weep. We’ll see ’em starved
first. Come. Exeunt all but Edmond and the Captain
EDMOND Come hither, captain. Hark.
Take thou this note. 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‘It do’t,
Or thrive by other means.
CAPTAIN
I’ll do’t, my lord.
EDMOND
About it, and write ‘happy’ when thou’st done.
Mark, I say, instantly, and carry it so
As I have set it down.
Exit the Captain
Flourish. Enter the Duke of Albany, Goneril, Regan, ⌈drummer, trumpeter⌉ and soldiers
ALBANY
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.
EDMOND
Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable King
To some retention and appointed guard,
Whose age had charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side
And turn our impressed lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen,
My reason all the same, and they are ready
Tomorrow, or at further space, t’appear
Where you shall hold your session.
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.
ALBANY
That were the most if he should husband you.
REGAN
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
GONERIL
Holla, holla—
That eye that told you so looked but asquint.
REGAN
Lady, I am not well, else I should answer
From a full-flowing stomach. (To Edmond) General,
Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony.
Dispose of them, of me. The walls is 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.
EDMOND
Nor in thine, lord.
ALBANY
Half-blooded fellow, yes.
REGAN (to Edmond)
Let the drum strike and prove my title thine.
ALBANY
Stay yet, hear reason. Edmond, I arrest thee
On capital treason, and in thy attaint
This gilded serpent. (To Regan) 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.
GONERIL
An interlude!
ALBANY
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.
REGAN Sick, O sick!
GONERIL (aside) If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.
EDMOND (to Albany, ⌈throwing down a glovel⌉
There’s my exchange. What in the world he is
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.
Call by the trumpet. He that dares, approach;
On him, on you,—who not?—I will maintain
My truth and honour firmly.
ALBANY
A herald, ho!
Enter a Herald
(To Edmond) 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 one or more with Regan
Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,
And read out this.
A trumpet sounds
HERALD (reads) ‘If any man of quality or degree within the lists of the army will maintain upon Edmond, 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.’
First trumpet
Again.
Second trumpet
Again.
Third trumpet.
Trumpet answers within. Enter Edgar, armed
ALBANY (to the Herald)
Ask him his purposes, why he appears
Upon this call o’th’ trumpet.
HERALD (to Edgar)
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 Edmond, Earl of Gloucester?
EDMOND
Himself. What sayst thou to him?
EDGAR
Draw thy sword,
That if my speech offend a noble heart
Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.
He draws his sword
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honour,
My oath, and my profession. I protest,
Maugre thy strength, place, youth, 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 th’extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot
A mos
t 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.
EDMOND
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 demand
By rule of knighthood I disdain and spurn.
Back do I toss those 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. Edmond is vanquished
⌈ALL⌉
Save him, save him!
GONERIL
This is practice, Gloucester.
By th’ law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquished,
But cozened and beguiled.
ALBANY
Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stopple it.
⌈To Edmond⌉ Hold, sir, thou worse than any name:
read thine own evil.
(To Goneril) No tearing, lady. I perceive you know it.
GONERIL
Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine.
Who can arraign me for’t?
Exit
ALBANY Most monstrous!—
O, know’st thou this paper?
EDMOND
Ask me not what I know.
ALBANY
Go after her. She’s desperate. Govern her.
Exit one or more
EDMOND
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. (To Edgar) 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, Edmond.
If more, the more thou’st wronged me.
⌈He takes off his helmet⌉
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.
EDMOND
Thou‘st spoken right. ’Tis true.
The wheel is come full circle. I am here.
ALBANY (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.
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 followed 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, t’assume a semblance
That very dogs disdained; and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new-lost; became his guide,
Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair;
Never—O fault!—revealed myself unto him
Until some half hour past, when I was armed.
Not sure, though hoping, of this good success,
I asked his blessing, and from first to last
Told him our pilgrimage; but his flawed heart—
Alack, too weak the conflict to support—
’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
Burst smilingly.
EDMOND
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.
Enter a Gentleman with a bloody knife
GENTLEMAN
Help, help, O help!
EDGAR
What kind of help?
ALBANY
Speak, man.
EDGAR
What means this 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 confesses it.
EDMOND
I was contracted to them both; all three
Now marry in an instant.
EDGAR
Here comes Kent.
Enter the Earl of Kent as himself
ALBANY
Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead.
Goneril’s and Regan’s bodies brought out
This judgement 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.
KENT
I am come
To bid my king and master aye good night.
Is he not here?
ALBANY
Great thing of us forgot!—
Speak, Edmond; where’s the King, and where’s
Cordelia?-
Seest thou this object, Kent?
KENT Alack, why thus?
EDMOND Yet Edmond was beloved.
The one the other poisoned for my sake,
And after slew herself.
ALBANY
Even so.—Cover their faces.
EDMOND
I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,
Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send,
Be brief in it, to th’ 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 has the office? Send Thy token of reprieve.
EDMOND
Well thought on! Take my sword. The captain, Give it the captain.
EDGAR
Haste thee for thy life.
Exit ⌈the Gentleman⌉
EDMOND (to Albany)
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 a while.
Exeunt some with Edmond
Enter King Lear with Queen Cordelia in his arms,
⌈followed by the Gentleman⌉
LEAR
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.
Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d 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.
⌈He lays her down⌉
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.
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!
LEAR
Prithee, away.
EDGAR
’Tis noble Kent, your friend.
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 sayst?—Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.—
I killed the slave that was a-hanging thee.
GENTLEMAN
’Tis true, my lords, he did.
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. (To Kent) Who are
you?
Mine eyes are not o’th’ best, I’ll tell you straight.
KENT
If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.
LEAR
This’ a dull sight.
Are you not Kent?
KENT The same, your servant Kent.
Where is your servant Caius?
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—
LEAR I’ll see that straight.
KENT
That from your first of difference and decay
Have followed your sad steps.
LEAR
You’re welcome hither.
KENT
Nor no man else. All’s cheerless, dark, and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
And desperately are dead.
LEAR
Ay, so think I.
ALBANY
He knows not what he says; and vain is it
That we present us to him.
Enter a Messenger
EDGAR
Very bootless.
MESSENGER (to Albany)
Edmond 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