The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

Who with best meaning have incurr’d the worst.

For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down; Myself could else outfrown false Fortune’s frown.

Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.

We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.

When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too-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 wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

Edm. 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 goodyears shall devour ‘em, flesh and fell, Ere they shall make us weep! We’ll see ‘em starv’d first.

Come. Exeunt [Lear and Cordelia, guarded].

Edm. Come hither, Captain; hark.

Take thou this note [gives a paper]. Go follow them to prison.

One step I have advanc’d 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’lt do’t, Or thrive by other means.

Capt. I’ll do’t, my lord.

Edm. About it! and write happy when th’ hast done.

Mark-I say, instantly; and carry it so As I have set it down.

Capt. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; If it be man’s work, I’ll do’t. Exit.

Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers.

Alb. Sir, you have show’d to-day your valiant strain, And fortune led you well. You have the captives Who were the opposites of this day’s strife.

We do require them of you, so to use them As we shall find their merits and our safety May equally determine.

Edm. Sir, I thought it fit

To send the old and miserable King

To some retention and appointed guard; Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, To pluck the common bosom on his side And turn our impress’d 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. At this time We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs’d By those that feel their sharpness.

The question of Cordelia and her father Requires a fitter place.

Alb. Sir, by your patience,

I hold you but a subject of this war, Not as a brother.

Reg. 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.

Gon. Not so hot!

In his own grace he doth exalt himself More than in your addition.

Reg. In my rights

By me invested, he compeers the best.

Gon. That were the most if he should husband you.

Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Gon. Holla, holla!

That eye that told you so look’d but asquint.

Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer From a full-flowing stomach. General, Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine.

Witness the world that I create thee here My lord and master.

Gon. Mean you to enjoy him?

Alb. The let-alone lies not in your good will.

Edm. Nor in thine, lord.

Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes.

Reg. [to Edmund] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.

Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and, in thine attaint, This gilded serpent [points to Goneril]. 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 banes.

If you will marry, make your loves to me; My lady is bespoke.

Gon. An interlude!

Alb. Thou art arm’d, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound.

If none appear to prove upon thy person Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, There is my pledge [throws down a glove]! I’ll prove it on thy heart,

Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less Than I have here proclaim’d thee.

Reg. Sick, O, sick!

Gon. [aside] If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.

Edm. There’s my exchange [throws 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.

Alb. A herald, ho!

Edm. A herald, ho, a herald!

Alb. Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers, All levied in my name, have in my name Took their discharge.

Reg. My sickness grows upon me.

Alb. 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.

Capt. Sound, trumpet! A trumpet sounds.

Her. (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.’

Edm. Sound! First trumpet.

Her. Again! Second trumpet.

Her. Again! Third trumpet.

Trumpet answers within.

Enter Edgar, armed, at the third sound, a Trumpet before him.

Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears Upon this call o’ th’ trumpet.

Her. What are you?

Your name, your quality? and why you answer This present summons?

Edg. 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.

Alb. Which is that adversary?

Edg. What’s he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?

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.

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 th’ extremest upward of thy head To the descent and dust beneath 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.

Edm. 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 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. Fight. [Edmund falls.]

Alb. Save him, save him!

Gon. This is mere practice, Gloucester.

By th’ law of arms thou wast not bound to answer An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquish’d, But cozen’d and beguil’d.

Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,

Or with this paper shall I stop it. [Shows her her letter to Edmund.]- [To Edmund]. Hold, sir.

[To Goneril] Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.

No tearing, lady! I perceive you know it.

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

Who can 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.

[Exit an Officer.]

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’rt noble, I do forgive thee.

Edg. Let’s exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; If more, the more th’ 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 scourge us.

The dark and vicious place where thee he got Cost him his eyes.

Edm. Th’ hast spoken right; ‘tis true.

The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

Alb. 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!

Edg. Worthy prince, I know’t.

Alb. Where have you hid yourself?

How have you known the miseries of your father?

Edg. 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 with 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 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, sav’d 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.

Edm. This speech of yours hath mov’d me, And shall perchance do good; but speak you on; You look as you had something more to say.

Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve,

Hearing of this.

Edg. 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 a man, Who, having seen me in my worst estate, Shunn’d my abhorr’d society; but then, finding Who ‘twas that so endur’d, 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 receiv’d; 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 tranc’d.

Alb. But who was this?

Edg. Kent, sir, the banish’d Kent; who in disguise Followed his enemy king and did him service Improper for a slave.

Enter a Gentleman 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-O! she’s dead!

Alb. Who dead? Speak, man.

Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady! and her sister By her is poisoned; she hath confess’d it.

Edm. I was contracted to them both. All three Now marry in an instant.

Enter Kent.

Edg. Here comes Kent.

Alb. Produce their bodies, be they