Enter a Herald. Alb. She is not well; convey her to my tent. [Exit REGAN, led. Come hither, herald,-Let the trumpet sound,- Off. 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 Gloster, that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear at the third sound of the trumpet: He is bold in his defence. Edm. Sound. Her. Again. [1 Trumpet. [2 Trumpet. [3 Trumpet. [Trumpet answers within. Enter EDGAR, armed, preceded by a Trumpet. Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears Upon this call o'the trumpet. Her. What are you? Your name, your quality? and why you answer Edg. Know, my name is lost; By treason's tooth bare-gnawn, and canker-bit : I am come to cope withal. Alb. Which is that adversary? Edg. What's he, that speaks for Edmund earl of Gloster? Edm. Himself ;-What say'st thou to him? Edg. Draw thy sword; That, if my speech offend a noble heart, Thy arm may do thee justice: here is mine. [9] The privilege of this oath means the privilege gained by taking the cath administered in the regular initiation of a knight professed. JOHNS. To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak, Edm. In wisdom, I should ask thy name; 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? Alb. Most monstrous ! Know'st thou this paper? Gon. Ask me not what I know. [Exit. Alb. Go after her: she's desperate; govern her. [To an Officer, who goes out. Edm.What you have charg'd 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 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 dark and vicious place where thee he got, Edm. Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true; [1] 'Say for essay, some shew or probability, POPE. -Say is sample, & taste. STEEVENS. 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. Worthy prince, I know it well. Alb. Where have you hid yourself! How have you known the miseries of your father? That follow'd me so near, (O our lives' sweetness! Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me, Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; Hearing of this. Edg. This would have seem'd a period Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father: His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life 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? Alb. Speak, man. Edg. What means that bloody knife? Gent. 'Tis hot, it smokes ; It came even from the heart of Alb. Who, man? speak. Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady: and her sister By her is poison'd; she confesses it. Edm. I was contracted to them both; all three Now marry in an instant. 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. Enter KENT. Edg. Here comes Kent, sir. Alb. O! it is 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? Alb. Great thing of us forgot! Speak, Edmund, where's the king? and where's Cordelia ! See'st thou this object, Kent? [The bodies of GON. and REG. 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 :-Some good I mean to do, Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send, Be brief in it,-to the castle; for my writ Alb. Run, run, O, run- Edg. To who, my lord ?-Who has the office? send Thy token of reprieve. Edm. Well thought on; take my sword. Give it the captain. Alb. Haste thee, for thy life. [Exit EDGAR. 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, Officers, and others. 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 :-O, she is gone for ever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; Kent. Is this the promis'd end? [2] To fordo signifies to destroy by suicide. STEEVENS. [3] it appears to me that 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. In St. Mark's Gospel, when Christ foretels to his disciples the end of the world, and is describing to them the signs which were to precede, and mark the approach of, our final dissolution, he says, "For in those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the crea tion which God created unto this time, neither shall be:" and afterwards he says, "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death." Kent in contemplating the unexampled scene of exquisite affliction which was then before him, and the unnatural attempt of Goneril and Regan against their father's life, recollects these passages, and asks, whether that was the end of the world that had been foretold to us? To which Edgar adds, or only a representation or resemblance of that horror? So Macbeth, when he calls upon Banquo, Malcolm, &c. to view Duncan murdered, says "-up, up, and see "The great doom's image! Malcolm ! Banquo! "As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights, There is evidently an allusion to the same passages in scripture, in a speech of Gloster's, which he makes in the second scene of the first Act: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us ;-love cools; friendship falls off; brothers divide; in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son |