Told him my pilgrimage: But his flaw'd heart, 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 woeful, 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, Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, 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. Alb. What kind of help? Edg. What means that bloody knife? Speak, man. This would have seem'd a period, &c.] The sense may probably be this: This would have seemed u period to such as love not sorrow; but—another, i. e. but I must add another, i. e. another period, another kind of conclusion to my story such as will increase the horrors of what has already been told.MALONE. Gent. "Tis hot, it smokes ; Who, man? speak. It came even from the heart of Alb. 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 Cor See'st thou this object, Kent? [delia ?— [The Bodies of GONERIL and REGAN 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 Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia :- Nay, send in time. Alb. Run, run, O, run Edg. To who, my lord ?-Who has the office? send Thy token of reprieve. This judgment, &c.] If Shakspeare had studied Aristotle all his life, he would not perhaps have been able to mark with more precision the distinct operations of terror and pity.-TYRWHITT. 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 fordide herself. Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. [EDMUND is borne off. Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Officer, 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? Edg. Or image of that horror? Alb. Fall, and cease! Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, - fordid,] i. e. Destroyed. Kent. Is this the promis'd end? Edg. Or image of that horror?] 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 that 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 creation 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 affliction before him, recollects these passages, and asks, whether that was the end of the world that had been foretold to us: to which Edgar adds, only a representative or resemblance of that horror.M. MASON. This note deserves the highest praise.-STEEVENS. Fall and cease! Albany is looking with attention on the pains employed by Lear to recover his child, and knows to what miseries he must survive, when he finds them to be ineffectual. Having these images present to his eyes and imagination, he cries out, Rather fall, and cease to be, at once, than continue in existence only to be wretched.-STEEVENS. It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kent. O my good master! Lear. Pr'ythee, away. [Kneeling. Edg. 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 faulchion I would have made them skip: I am old now, And these same crosses spoil me.-Who are you? Mine eyes are none o'the best :-I'll tell you straight. Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated, One of them we behold.h Lear. This is a dull sight: Are you not Kent? Kent. The same; Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius ? 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. Kent. That, from your first of difference1 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 fore-doom'd themselves, Lear. Ay, so I think. If fortune brug of two she lov'd and hated, One of them we behold.] i. e. If Fortune, to display the plenitude of her power, should brag of two persons, one of whom she had highly elevated, and the other she had wofully depressed, we now behold the latter.-M. MASON. i difference—] i. e. Reverse of fortune. *Nor no man else ;] Kent means, I welcome! No, nor no man else.-MALONE. Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain it is That we present us to him. Edg. Very bootless. Enter an Officer. Off. Edmund is dead, my lord. Alb. 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 The cup of their deservings.-O, see, see! Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd!" No, no, no life; Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!— Pray you, undo this button: Thank you, sir. Do you see this?-Look on her,-look, her lips,- Edg. [He dies. He faints! My lord, my lord, Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break! Edg. Look up, my lord. Kent. Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer. [him, Edg. O, he is gone, indeed. 1 - this great decay may come,] This great decay is Lear, whom Shakspeare poetically calls so, and means the same as if he had said, this piece of decay'd royalty, this ruin'd majesty.—STEEVENS. With boot,] With advantage. And my poor fool is hang'd!] This is an expression of tenderness for his dead Cordelia, on whose lips he is still intent, and dies away while he is searching there for indications of life. Poor fool, in the age of Shakspeare, was an expression of endearment.-STEEVENS. • Pray you, undo this button:] The Rev. Dr. J. Warton judiciously observes, that the swelling and heaving of the heart is described by this most expressive circumstance. |