уильям шекспир - King Lear

GENTLEMAN Your lady, sir, your lady; and her sister

By her is poisoned: she confesses it.

EDMUND I was contracted to them both: all three

Now marry in an instant.

EDGAR Here comes Kent.

Enter Kent

ALBANY Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead:

Goneril and Regan’s bodies brought out

This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble,

Sees Kent

Touches us not with pity.— O, is this he?—

To Kent

The time will not allow the compliment 236

Which very manners urges.

KENT I am come

To bid my king and master aye 239goodnight:

Is he not here?

ALBANY Great thing 241of us forgot!

Speak, Edmund, where’s the king? And where’s Cordelia?—

See’st thou this object 243, Kent?

Points to the bodies

KENT Alack, why thus?

EDMUND Yet Edmund was beloved:

The one the other poisoned for my sake

And after slew herself.

ALBANY Even 248so. 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 th’castle, for my writ 251

Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia:

Nay, send in time.

ALBANY Run, run, O, run!

EDGAR To who, my lord? Who has the office 255?

To Edmund

Send thy token of reprieve.

EDMUND Well thought on: take my sword,

Give it the captain.

To a Gentleman

EDGAR Haste thee, for thy life.

[Exit Gentleman]

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 263herself.

Edmund is borne off

ALBANY The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.

Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms

Gentleman and others following

LEAR 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!

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 270,

Why, then she lives.

KENT Is this the promised end 272?

EDGAR Or image of that horror?

ALBANY Fall and cease! 274

LEAR This feather stirs: she lives! If it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.

Kneels

KENT O my good master!

LEAR Prithee, away.

EDGAR ’Tis noble Kent, your friend.

LEAR A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have saved her: now she’s gone for ever!—

Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little. Ha?

What is’t thou say’st?— Her voice was ever soft,

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.—

I killed the slave 286that was a-hanging thee.

GENTLEMAN ’Tis true, my lords, he did.

LEAR Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion 289

I would have made him skip: I am old now,

And these same crosses 291spoil me.— Who are you?

Mine eyes are not o’th’best: I’ll tell you straight 292.

KENT If fortune brag of two she loved and hated 293,

One of them we behold.

LEAR This is a dull sight 295. Are you not Kent?

KENT The same,

Your servant Kent: where is your servant Caius 297?

LEAR He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that:

He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.

KENT No, my good lord, I am the very man—

LEAR I’ll see that straight 301.

KENT That from your first of difference and decay 302

Have followed your sad steps.

LEAR You are welcome hither.

KENT Nor no man else 305: all’s cheerless, dark and deadly.

Your eldest daughters have fordone 306themselves,

And desperately 307are dead.

LEAR Ay, so I think.

ALBANY He knows not what he says, and vain is it 309

That we present us to him.

Enter a Messenger

EDGAR Very bootless 311.

MESSENGER Edmund is dead, my lord.

ALBANY That’s but a trifle here.

You lords and noble friends, know our intent:

What comfort to this great decay 315may come

Shall be applied. For us, we will resign 316,

During the life of this old majesty,

To Edgar and Kent

To him our absolute power:— you, to your rights

With boot and such addition 319as your honours

Have more than merited. All friends shall taste

The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The cup of their deservings.— O, see, see 322!

LEAR And my poor fool 323is hanged! No, no, no life?

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you undo this button: thank you, sir 327.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there!

He dies

EDGAR He faints! My lord, my lord!

KENT Break, heart, I prithee, break.

EDGAR Look up, my lord.

KENT Vex not his ghost 333: O, let him pass! He hates him

That would upon the rack 334of this tough world

Stretch him out longer 335.

EDGAR He is gone, indeed.

KENT The wonder is he hath endured so long:

He but usurped 338his life.

ALBANY Bear them from hence. Our present business

Is general woe.—

To Kent and Edgar

Friends of my soul, you twain

Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain 342.

KENT I have a journey 343, sir, shortly to go:

My master calls me, I must not say no.

EDGAR The weight of this sad time we must obey:

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young

Shall never see so much nor live so long.

Exeunt with a dead march

TEXTUAL NOTES

Q = First Quarto text of 1608

F = First Folio text of 1623

F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SD = stage direction

SH = speech heading (i.e. speaker’s name)

List of parts= Ed

EDMUND sometimes spelled Edmond, often referred to in directions and speech headings as Bastard

1.1.30 SD one … then = Q. Not in F 33 lord= F. Q = Liege 36 fast= F. Q = first 37 age= F. Q = state 38 Conferring= F. Q = Confirming strengths= F. Q = yeares 38–43 while … now= F. Not in Q 47–48 Since … state= F. Not in Q 57 found= F. Q = friend 62–63 and … rivers= F. Not in Q 66 of Cornwall= F. Q = to Cornwell , speake 77 ponderous= F. Q = richer 81 conferred= F. Q = confirm’d 82 our … love= F. Q = the last, not least in our deere loue 84 interessed= Ed. F = interest draw= F. Q = win 87 SH LEAR Nothing? … Nothing. = F. Not in Q 103 sisters= F. Q = sisters, to loue my father all. 110 mysteries= F2. F = miseries. Q = mistresse night= F. Q = might 118 shall … bosom= F. Q = Shall 136 shall= F. Q = still 151 falls= F. Q = stoops Reserve thy state= F. Q = Reuerse thy doome 158 pawn= F. Q = a pawne 159 ne’er= F. Q = nor 164 SH LEAR= Q. F = Kear . 165 SH KENT= Q. F = Lent . 167 Miscreant= F. Q = recreant 168 SH ALBANY … forbear. = F. Not in Q SH CORDELIA some editors expand F’s Cor. to Cornwall 170 gift= F. Q = doome 175 strained= F. Q = straied 176 sentences= F corrected . F uncorrected , Q = sentence 179 Five= F. Q = Foure 180 disasters= F. Q = diseases 181 sixth= F. Q = fift 182 next= Ed. F, Q = tenth 187 Freedom= F. Q = Friendship 194 SH CORDELIA= F (corrected). Some editors expand to Cornwall . Q = Glost . 213 Dowered= F. Q = Couered 225 object= F. Q = best obiect 234 Should= F. Q = Could 237 will= F. Q = well 238 make known= F. Q = may know 248 but= F. Q = no more but 252 regards= F. Q = respects 255 king= F. Q = Leir 263 respect and fortunes= F. Q = respects / Of fourtune 270 my= F. Q = thy 286 Love= F. Q = vse 291 SH REGAN= F (Regn) . Q = Gonorill 292 SH GONERIL= F. Q = Regan 295 want= F. Q = worth 296 plighted= F. Q = pleated 297 with shame derides= F. Q = shame them derides 306 not been= Q. F = beene 319 sit= F. Q = hit