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]