GONORIL

Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine.

Who shall arraign me for’t?

ALBANY Most monstrous!

Know’st thou this paper?

GONORIL Ask me not what I know.

Exit

ALBANY

Go after her. She’s desperate. Govern her.

Exit one or more

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. (To Edgar) But what art thou,

That hast this fortune on me? If thou beest noble,

I do forgive thee.

EDGAR Let’s exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund.

If more, the more ignobly thou hast 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 scourge us.

The dark and vicious place where thee he got

Cost him his eyes.

EDMUND Thou hast spoken truth.

The wheel is come full circled. 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 I did ever 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 with 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 disdained; and in this habit

Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

The precious stones new-lost; became his guide,

Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair;

Never—O father!—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 my pilgrimage; but his flawed 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 seemed 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,

Shunned my abhorred society; but then, finding

Who ’twas that so endured, with his strong arms

He fastened on my neck and bellowed out

As he’d 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 banished Kent, who in disguise

Followed his enemy king, and did him service

Improper for a slave.

Enter [Second] Gentleman with a bloody knife

FSECONDl GENTLEMEN Help, help!

ALBANY What kind of help?

What means that bloody knife?

⌈SECOND⌉ GENTLEMAN It’s hot, it smokes. It came even from the heart of—

ALBANY Who, man? Speak.

[SECOND] GENTLEMAN

Your lady, sir, your lady; and her sister

By her is poisonèd—she hath confessed it.

EDMUND

I was contracted to them both; all three

Now marry in an instant.

ALBANY

Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead.

This justice of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Touches us not with pity.

Enter Kent as himself

EDGAR Here comes Kent, sir.

ALBANY

O, ’tis he; the time will not allow

The compliment that 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?

The bodies of Gonoril and Regan are brought in

Seest thou this object, Kent?

KENT Alack, why thus?

EDMUND Yet Edmund was beloved.

The one the other poisoned 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 my own nature. Quickly send,

Be brief in’t, 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 hath the office? Send

Thy token of reprieve.

EDMUND

Well thought on! Take my sword. The captain,

Give it the captain.

ALBANY Haste thee for thy life.

Exit [Second Captain]

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 a while.

Exeunt some with Edmund

Enter King Lear with Queen Cordelia in his arms,

[followed by the Second Captain]

LEAR

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.