See'st thou this object, Kent? Kent. Alack, why thus? Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd: The one the other poison'd for my sake, 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 Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia : 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. Alb. The gods defend her!-Bear him hence awhile. [Edmund is borne off. Re-enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Officer, and others following. 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!- Kent. Is this the promis'd end? Alb. Fall, and cease! Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows Edg. [Kneeling. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! What is't thou say'st?-Her voice was ever soft, Off. 'Tis true, my lords, he did. Lear. Did I not, fellow? I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion The same, Lear. This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent? Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that; Kent. That, from your first of difference and decay, Have follow'd your sad steps. Lear. You are 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 I think. Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain is it That we present us to him. Edg. Very bootless. Enter an Officer. Off. Edmund is dead, my lord. That's but a trifle here. You lords and noble friends, know our intent. To him our absolute power :-you, to your rights; [To Edgar and Kent. With boot, and such addition as your honours Have more than merited.-All friends shall taste The cup of their deservings.-O, see, see! Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life! And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Pray you, undo this button :-thank you, sir. Do you see this? Look on her,-look,-her lips,- Edg. [Dies. He faints!--My lord, my lord!— Kent. Break, heart; I prithee, break! Edg. Look up, my lord. Kent. Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him That would upon the rack of this tough (90) world Stretch him out longer. Edg. He is gone, indeed. Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long: He but usurp'd his life. Alb. Bear them from hence.-Our present business Is general woe.-Friends of my soul, you twain [To Kent and Edgar. Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain. My master calls me,-I must not say no. Alb. The weight (91) of this sad time we must obey; Shall never see so much, nor live so long. [Exeunt, with a dead march. P. 604. (1) So the quartos.-The folio has "more then word can," &c., which is retained by Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier; and by Delius, who defends it by citing as parallel, from act iii. sc. 2, "When priests are more in word than matter :”Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier at least, being Englishmen, ought to have felt that here the author must have used the plural. (Perhaps in the present passage, 66 more than words can wield the matter," &c. "Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter," &c. as also in a later one, p. 623, "In rank and not-to-be-endurèd riots. Sir," &c. the "Sir" ought to stand in a line by itself.) P. 605. (2) "What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be silent.” So the quartos.-The folio has "What shall Cordelia speake? Loue, and be silent;" which is retained by Mr. Knight, Mr. Collier, and Delius. (“The quartos," says Mr. Knight, "read What shall Cordelia do?' reading destroys the force of the answer, 'Love, and be silent'." thinking, "the answer" shows most distinctly that the reading is the wrong one.) This feebler Now, to my of the folio P. 605. (*) "Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak." So the quartos.-The folio omits "Speak :" but Lear has concluded his address to Goneril with "speak first;" and he afterwards finishes that to Cordelia with "Speak." (In Regan's reply, perhaps the reading of the quartos has the greater propriety of expression, The folio has, What can you say to win a third, more opulent "Now our Ioy, Although our last and least: to whose young loue, with a flagrant error in the second line, which (instead of correcting it by means of the quartos) Mr. Knight, Mr. Collier, and Delius retain. The two former editors do not tell us how they understand "Although our last and least:" but Delius boldly says that “least” means-smallest, youngest! (“So, in the old anonymous play, King Leir speaking to Mumford; 'to thee last of all; Not greeted last, 'cause thy desert was small".". STEEVENS. "Again in The Spanish Tragedy, written before 1593; 'The third and last, not least, in our account'." MALONE.) P. 606. (5) "good my lord." So the quartos.-The folio has “my good lord:" but compare Cordelia's preceding speech. So the second folio.-The quartos have "The mistresse of," &c.; while the first folio has "The miseries of," &c. "These words are in all the [modern] editions directed to Cordelia, which undoubtedly are addressed to Kent. For in the next words Lear sends for France and Burgundy, in order to tender them his youngest daughter," &c. HEATH. And compare what Lear afterwards says to Kent, "Out of my sight!" p. 607.—Malone, however, has no doubt that the direction “ To Cordelia" is right; and he remarks truly enough, that "Kent has hitherto said nothing that could extort even from the choleric king so harsh a sentence," &c. So the folio.-The quartos have "Reuerse thy doome," &c.-"I am inclined to think that reverse thy doom was Shakespeare's first reading, as more apposite to the present occasion, and that he changed it afterwards to reserve thy state, which conduces more to the progress of the action." JOHNSON. |
