National Theatre Live: King Lear (2018) - full transcript

Yet better thus, and known to be despised,
Than still despised and flattered

To be worst,
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,

Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear

The lamentable change is from the best,
The worst returns to laughter

Welcome then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace

The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts

But who comes here?

My father, poorly led?

World, world, O world!

O my good lord, I have been your tenant,
And your father's tenant, these fourscore years

Away, get thee away: good friend, be gone



Thy comforts can do me no good at all:
Thee they may hurt

You cannot see your way

I have no way, and therefore want no eyes.
I stumbled when I saw

O my dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father's wrath,

Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I'd say I had eyes again

How new? Who's there?

O gods! Who is it can say 'I am at the worst'?
I am worse than ever I was

'Tis a poor mad Tom

And worse I may be yet: the worst is not,
So long as we can say 'This is the worst'

Fellow, where guest?

Is it a beggar-man?
- Madman, and beggar too

He has some reason, else he could not beg

In last night's storm I such a fellow saw,
Which made me think a man a worm

My son came then into my mind, and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him



I have heard more since

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods:
They kill us for their sport

Bless thee, master

Is that the naked fellow?
- Ay, my lord

Then prithee get thee away. If, for my sake,

Thou wilt o'ertake us hence a mile or twain
I'the way toward Dover, do it for ancient love,

And bring some covering for this naked soul
Which I'll entreat to lead me

Mack, sir, he is mad

'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind

I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have,
Come on't what will

Sirrah, naked fellow-

Poor Tom's a-cold
(I cannot daub it further)

Come hither, fellow

(And yet I must)

Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed

Know'st thou the way to Dover'?

Poor Torn hath been scared out of his good wits

Dost thou know Dover'?
- Ay, master

There is a cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully into the confined deep

Bring me but to the very brim of it,

And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear
With something rich about me

From that place I shall no leading need

Give me thy arm

Poor Torn shall lead thee

Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband
Not met us on the way

Now, where's your master'?

Ma'am, within, but never man so changed

I told him of the army that was landed:
He smiled at it

I told him you were coming:
His answer was, 'The worse'

Of Gloucester's treachery,
And of the loyal service of his son,

When I informed him, then he called me sot,
And told me I had turned the wrong side out

Then shall you go no further

It is the cowish terror of his spirit
That dares not undertake

Back, Edmund, to my brother,
Hasten his musters, and conduct his powers

I must change arms at home, and give the distaff
Into my husband's hands

This trusty servant shall pass between us

Ere long you are like to hear (if you dare venture
in your own behalf) a mistress's command

Wear this: spare speech, decline your head

This kiss, if it durst speak,
Would raise thy spirits up into the air

Conceive, and fare thee well

Yours in the ranks of death

My most dear Gloucester!

O, the difference of man and man

To thee a woman's services are due:
A fool usurps my bed

Ma'am, here comes my lord

I have been worth the whistling

O Goneril, you are not worth the dust
which the rude wind blows in your face

No more: the text is foolish

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile:
Filths savour but themselves. What have you done?

Tigers, not daughters, what have you perfumed?

A father, and a gracious aged man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,

Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded

If that the heavens do not their visible spirits
Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,

It will come

Humanity must perforce prey on itself
Like monsters of the deep

Milk-livered man! Where's thy drum?
France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,

Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still, and cries
'Alack, why does he so?'

See thyself, devil!

Proper deformity shows not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman

O vain fool!

Thou changed and self-covered thing, for shame,
Be-monster not thy feature

Were't my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,

They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones

However thou art a fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee

Marry, your manhood! Mew!

What news?

O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall's dead,

Slain by his servant, going to put out
The other eye of Gloucester

Gloucester's eyes?
- Both, both, my lord

This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer:
'Tis from your sister

One way I like this well:
But being widow, and my Edmund with her,

May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life

Another way the news is not so tan.
I'M read and answer

Where was his son when they did take his eyes?

Come with my lady hither

He is not here?
- No, my good lord, I met him back again

Knows he the wickedness?
- Ay, my good lord. 'Twas he informed against him,

And quit the house on purpose that their punishment
Might have the freer course

Gloucester, I live
To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the King,

And to revenge thine eyes

Come hither, friend,
Tell me what more thou know'st

Did my letter pierce Cordelia
to any demonstration of grief?

You have seen sunshine and rain at once:
her smiles and tears were like a better way

Made she no verbal question?

Faith, once or twice she heaved the name of 'father'
Pantingly forth, as if it pressed her heart,

Cried 'Sisters! Sisters! Shame of ladies! Sisters!
Kent! Father! Sisters! What, I'the storm, I'the night?'

Then away she started
To deal with grief alone

It is the stars,
The stars above us govern our conditions

You spoke not with her since?
- No

Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's in the town,

Who sometime in his better tune remembers
What we are come about,

and by no means will yield to see his daughter

Why, good lady?

A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness,
That stripped her from his benediction,

turned her to foreign casualties,
gave her dear rights to his dog-hearted daughters

These things sting his mind so venomously
that burning shame detains him from Cordelia

Alack, poor gentleman!

Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not?

They are afoot

Well, sir, let us go seek Cordelia

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now,
As mad as the vexed sea, singing aloud,

Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn

A century send forth

Search every acre in the high-grown field
And bring him to our eye

What can man's wisdom
In the restoring his bereaved sense?

He that helps him, take all my outward worth

There is means, madam. Our foster-nurse of nature
is repose, the which he lacks

All blest secrets,
All you unpublished virtues of the earth,

Spring with my tears! Be aidant and remediate
In the good man's distress. Seek, seek for him,

Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it

News, madam:
The British powers are marching hitherward

'Tis known before. Our preparation stands
In expectation of them

O dear father,
It is thy business that I go about

Therefore great France
My mourning and importuned tears hath pitied

No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our aged father's right

Soon may I hear and see him!

Kent!

It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,
To let him live

Where he arrives he moves all hearts against us

Edmund, I think, is gone, in pity of his misery,
to dispatch his nighted life:

Moreover, to discover the strength of the enemy

I must needs after him, ma'am, with my letter

But are my brother's powers set forth?
- Ay, ma'am

Our troops set forth tomorrow. Stay with us:
The ways are dangerous

I may not, ma'am.
My lady charged my duty in this business

Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you
Transport her purposes by word?

Belike some thing, I know not what

I'll love thee well,
Let me unseal the letter

Madam, I had rather-

I know your lady does not love her husband,
I am sure of that: and at her late being here,

She gave strange œillades and most speaking looks
To noble Edmund

“mow you axe oi her bosom

I, ma'am?
- I speak in understanding: you are, I know't

Therefore I do advise you, take this note

My lord is dead: Edmund and I have talked,

And more convenient is he for my hand
Than for your lady's

You may gather more:
If you do find him, I pray you give him this

And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
I pray desire her call her wisdom to her

So, fare you well

If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,

Preferment falls on him that cuts him off

Would I could meet him, ma'am, I would show
What lady I do follow

Fare thee well

When shall I come to the top of that same hill?

You do climb up it now. Look how we labour

Methinks the ground is even

Horrible steep. Hark...

Do you hear the sea?

No, truly

Why then, your other senses grow imperfect
By your eyes' anguish

So may it be indeed

Methinks thy voice is altered, and thou speak'st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst

You are much deceived: in nothing am I changed
But in my garments

Methinks you are better spoken

Come on, sir, here's the place. Stand still

How fearful and dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low,

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles

Halfway down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head

The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice

The murrnuring surge,
That on the unnumbered idle pebble chafes,

Cannot be heard so high

I'll look no more, lest my brain turn,
and the deficient sight topple down headlong

Set me where you stand

You are now within a foot
Of the extreme verge

Let go my hand. Here, friend, another purse:
in it, a jewel well worth a poor man's taking

Go thou further off,
Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going

Now fare ye well, good sir
- With all my heart

Why I do trifle thus with his despair,
ls done to cure it

O you mighty gods!

This world I do renounce, and in your sights
Shake patiently my great affliction off

If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,

My snuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out

If Edgar live, O, bless him

Now, friend, fare thee well

Good sir. Farewill

And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life,

when life itself yields to the theft

Had he been where he thought,
By this had thought been past

Alive or dead?

Ho, you sir! Friend!

Hear you, sir'? Speak

Thus might he pass indeed

Yet he revives

What are you, sir?
- Away, and let me die

Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,

So many fathom down precipitating,
Thou'dst shivered like an egg

But thou dost breathe:
Thy life's a miracle. Speak yet again

But have I fallen or no?

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn

Look up a-height, the shrill-gorged lark so far
Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up

Mack, I have no eyes

ls wretchedness deprived that benefit
To end itself by death?

Give me your hand

Up... up...

So, how is it? Feel you your legs? You stand

Too well, too well
- This is above all strangeness

Upon the crown o'the cliff, what thing was that
Which parted from you?

A poor unfortunate beggar

As I stood here below, methought his eyes
Were two full moons

He had a thousand noses,
Horns whelked and waved like the enridged sea

It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,

Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
Of men's impossibilities, have preserved thee

I do remember now: henceforth I'll bear affliction,
till it do cry out itself 'Enough, enough', and die

That thing you speak of, I took it for a man

Often 'twould say 'The fiend, the fiend'.
He led me to that place

Bear free and patient thoughts

No, they cannot touch me for coining
- But who comes here?

I am the King himself

O thou side-piercing sight!

Nature's above an, in that respect.
There's your press-money

That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.
Draw me a clothier's yard

Look... look, a mouse

Peace, this piece of toasted cheese will do it

There's my gauntlet... I'll prove it on a giant.
Bring up the brown bills

O, well flown, bird. I'the clout, I'the clout:
Hewgh! Give the word

Sweet marjoram
- Pass

I know that voice

Ha! Goneril, with a white beard?

They flattered me like dogs, and told me I had the
white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there

When the rain came to wet me once,
and the wind to make me chatter,

when the thunder would not peace at my bidding,
there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out

Go to, they are not men of their words:
they told me I was everything

'Tis a lie: I am not ague-proof

The trick of that voice I do well remember:
ls't not the King?

Ay, every inch a king

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes

I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause?
Adultery? Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery?

No, the wren goes to it, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight. Let copulation thrive,

for Gloucester's bastard son was kinder to his father
than my daughters got between the lawful sheets

To it, lechery, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers

Behold yond simpering dame,

That minces virtue, and does shake the head
To hear of pleasure's name

The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to it
With a more riotous appetite

Down from the waist they are centaurs,
Though women all above

But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends'

There's hell, there's darkness, there is the
sulphurous pit: burning, scalding, stench, consumption

Fie, fie, fie! Pah, pah!

Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary:
sweeten my imagination. There's money for thee

O let me kiss that hand

Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality

O ruined piece of nature, this great world
Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me?

I remember thine eyes well enough

Dost thou squinny at me?
No, do thy worst, blind Cupid, I'll not love

Read thou this challenge, mark but the penning of it

Were all the letters suns, I could not see one

I would not take this from report: it is,
And my heart breaks at it

Read
- What with, the case of eyes?

O ho, are you there with me?
No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse?

Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light

Yet you see how this world goes

I see it feelingly

What, art mad?
A man may see how this world goes with no eyes

Look with thine ears:
see how yon justice rails upon yond simple thief

Hark in thine ear: change places, and handy-dandy,
which is the justice, which is the thief?

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
- Ay, sir

And the creature run from the our'?

There thou mightst behold the great image of authority:
A dog's obeyed in office

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand.
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thy own back

Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp'st her

The usurer hangs the cozener

Through tattered clothes great vices do appear:
Robes and furred gowns hide all

Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician
seem to see the things thou dost not

Now... Pull off my boots. Harder, harder, so

O matter and impertinency mixed:
Reason in madness!

If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes

I know thee well enough, thy name is Gloucester

Thou must be patient

We came crying hither: thou know'st,
the first time that we smell the air we wawl and cry

I will preach to thee: mark me

Alack, alack the day

When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools

This is a good block

It were a delicate stratagem
to shoe a troop of horse with felt

I'll put it in proof,
And when I have stolen upon these sons-in-laws,

Then kW, kW, kW, kW, kW, kW!

Here he is: lay hand upon him, sirs

Sir! Your most dear daughter -

No rescue? What, am I a prisoner? I am even
The natural fool of fortune

Use me well, you shall have ransom

Let me have surgeons, I am cut to the brains

You shall have anything

No seconds? All myself?
- Good sir...

I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom

I will be jovial. Come, come, I am a king,
My masters, know you that?

You are a royal one, and we obey you

Then there's life in it. Come, an you get it,
you shall get it by running

Sir, do you hear aught of a battle toward?

Everyone hears that,
Which can distinguish sound

But, by your favour,
How near's the other army?

Near, and on speedy foot
- I thank you, sir

You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me

Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please

Well pray you, father

Now, good sir, what are you?

A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows,

Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Am pregnant to good pity

Give me your hand, I'll lead you to some biding

Hearty thanks

Thou old, unhappy traitor,
Briefly thyself remember

The steel is out that must destroy thee

Now let thy friendly hand
Put strength enough to it

Wherefore, bold peasant,
Darest thou support a published traitor?

Hence, lest that the infection of his fortune take
Like hold on thee. Let go his arm

I'll not let go, sir

Let go, slave, or thou dies!
- I'M pick your teeth, sir

Out, dunghill!

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,

And give the letters which thou find'st about me
To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester

Seek him out upon the British party

I know thee well. A serviceable villain,

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
As badness would desire

What, is he dead?

Sit you down, father: rest you

Let's see these pockets. The letters that he speaks of
May be my friends. Let us see

My dearest Edmund,
Let our reciprocal vows be remembered

You have many opportunities to cut him off if you are
willing, time and place will be fruitfully offered

If he return the conqueror,
then am I the prisoner, and his bed my gaol,

from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me

Your - wife, so I would say -
affectionate servant, Goneril

Here in the sands, thee I'll rake up,
the post unsanctified of murderous lechers:

and with this ungracious paper
strike the sight of the death-practised Duke

For him 'tis well
That of thy death and business I can tell

The King is mad: better I were distract,
So should my thoughts be severed from my griefs,

And woes by wrong imaginations lose
The knowledge of themselves

Give me your hand:
Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum

Come, father, I'M bestow you with a friend

O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
To match thy goodness?

My life will be too short,
And every measure fail me

To be acknowledged, madam, is o'er-paid

Be better suited:
These weeds are memories of those worser hours

I prithee, put them off

Pardon, dear madam:
Yet to be known shortens my made intent

My boon I make it, that you know me not,
Till time and I think meet

Then be it so, my good lord

How does the King?

Madam, sleeps still

O you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature

The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father

So please your majesty,
That we may wake the King? He hath slept long

Be governed by your knowledge, and proceed
In the sway of your own will

Be by, good madam, when we do awake him:
I doubt not of his temperance

Very well

Please you, draw near. Louder the music there

O my dear father! Restoration, hang
Thy medicine on my lips,

and let this kiss repair those violent harms
that my two sisters have in thy reverence made

Kind and dear princess!

Was this a face
To be opposed against the jarring winds?

To stand against the deep dread-batted thunder,

In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick cross lightning?

Mine enemy's dog, though he had bit me,
should have stood that night against my fire

And wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,

In short and musty straw? Alack, alack,

'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
Had not concluded all

He wakes

Speak to him

Madam, do you: 'Us fittest

How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

You do me wrong to take me out of the grave

Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire,

that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead

Sir, do you know me?

You are a spirit, I know: where did you die?

Still, Still, far wide

He's scarce awake, let him alone awhile

Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight?

I am mightily abused: I should even die with pity
To see another thus

I know not what to say.
I will not swear these are my hands... Let's see

I felt that pin-prick. Would I were assured
Of my condition

O look upon me, sir,
And hold your hand in benediction o'er me

No, sir, you must not kneel

Pray do not mock me. I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less

And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind

Methinks I should know you... and know this man

Yet I am doubtful: for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is,

and all the skill I have remembers not these garments,
Nor I know not where I did lodge last night

Do not laugh at me,

For, as I am a man, I think this lady
To be my child... Cordelia

And so I am: I am

Be your tears wet?

Yes, faith: I pray, weep not

I know you do not love me, for your sisters
Have, as I do remember, done me wrong

You have some cause, they have not

No cause, no cause

Am I in France?

In your own kingdom, sir

Do not abuse me

Be comforted, good madam: the great rage
You see is killed in him

And yet it is danger
To make him even o'er the time he has lost

Desire him to go in: trouble him no more
Till further settling

Will it please your highness walk?

You must bear with me

I pray you now, forget and forgive

I am old and foolish

'Tis time to look about.
The powers of the kingdom approach apace

The arbitrement is like to be bloody

My point and period will be throughly wrought,
Or well or ill, as this days battle's fought

Now, sweet lord,
You know the goodness I intend upon you

Tell me but truly, but then speak the truth,
Do you not love my sister?

In honoured love

But have you never found my brother's way
To the forfended place?

That thought abuses you

I am doubtful that you have been conjunct
And bosomed with her, as far as we call hers

No, by mine honour, madam

I never shall endure her: dear my lord,
Be not familiar with her

Our very loving sister, well be-met

Sir, this I heard, the King is come to his daughter,

With others, whom the rigour of our state
Forced to cry out

Where I could not be honest,
I never yet was valiant

For this business,
It touches us as France invades our land,

Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear,
Most just and heavy causes make oppose

Sir, you speak nobly

Why is this reasoned?
- Combine together 'gainst the enemy

For these domestic and particular broils
Are not the issue here

Let's then determine
With the ancient of war on our proceeding

I shall attend you presently at your tent

Sister, you'll go with us?

No

'Tis most convenient: I pray you, go with us

O ho, I know the riddle. I will go

My lord

If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,
Hear me one word

I'll overtake you. Speak

Before you fight the battle, ope this letter

If you have victory, let the signal sound
For him that brought it

Wretched though I seem, I can produce a champion
that will prove what is avouched there

If you miscarry,

Your business of the world hath so an end,
And machination ceases

Fortune love you

Stay till I have read the letter
- I was forbid it

When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
And I'll appear again

Why, fare thee well, I will o'erlook thy paper

The enemy's in view, draw up your powers

Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
By diligent discovery

But your haste is now urged on you

We will greet the time

To both these sisters have I sworn my love:

Each jealous of the other, as the stung
Are of the adder

Which of them shall I take?
Both? One? Or neither?

Neither can be enjoyed
If both remain alive

To take the widow
Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril

And hardly shall I carry out my side,
Her husband being alive

Now then, we'll use
His countenance for the battle: which being done,

Let her who would be rid of him devise
His speedy taking off

As for the mercy
Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia,

The bathe done, and they within our power,
Shah never see his pardon

For my stale
Stands on me to defend, not to debate

Follow me

Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host: pray that the right may thrive

If ever I return to you again, I'll bring you comfort

Grace go with you, sir

Away, old man! Give me thy hand: away

King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter taken.
Give me thy hand: come on

No further, sir: a man may rot even here

What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither

Ripeness is all

Come on

And that's true too

Some officers take them away

We are not the first
Who with best meaning have incurred the worst

For thee, oppressed King, I am cast down:
Myself could else out-frown false Fortune's frown

Shall we not see these daughters, and these sisters?

No, no, no, no. Come, let's away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds in the 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 us the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies

Take them away

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 good years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
Ere they shall make us weep

We'll see them starved first. Come

Come hither, captain

Hark. Take thou this note, go follow them to prison

One step I have advanced 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 it, or thrive by other means
- I'll do it, my lord

About it, and write happy when thou has! done.
Carry it so as I have set it down

If it be man's work I'll do it

Sir, you have the captives
Who were the opposites of this day's strife

I do require them of you, so to use them...

...As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine

Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable King...

...To some retention and appointed guard

With him I sent the Queen, and they are ready
To appear tomorrow,

or at further space,
where you shall hold your session

Sir, by your patience,
I hold you but a subject of this war, not as a brother

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

Not so hot: in his own grace he doth exalt himself
More than in your advancement

In my rights, by me invested, he compeers the best

That were the most, if he should husband you

Jesters do oft prove prophets

Holla, holla!
That eye that told you so looked but asquint

Lady, I am not well, else I should answer
From a full-flowing stomach

General... Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony

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

Mean you to enjoy him then?

The let-alone lies not in your good will
- Nor in thine, lord

Half-blooded fellow, yes

Let the drum strike, and prove my We thine

Stay yet, hear reason

Edmund, I arrest thee on capital treason:

and, in thy attaint, this gilded serpent

For your claim, fair sister,
I bar it in the interest of my wife

'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
And I her husband contradict your banns

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

An interlude

Thou art armed, Edmund

If none appear to prove upon thy head
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,

There is my pledge. I'll prove it on thy heart

Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaimed thee

Sick, O sick!

If not, I'M ne'er trust poison

There's my exchange. What in the world he is
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies

He that dares, approach

On him, on you, who not, I will maintain
My truth and honour firmly

My sickness grows upon me

She is not well, convey her to my tent

Trust to thy single virtue,

for thy soldiers, all levied in my name,
have in my name took their discharge

Let the signal be called

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 signal.
He is bold in his defence. Sound!

Again

Again

Hold!

Ask him his purposes, why he appears
Upon this signal

What are you? Your name, your quality,
and why you answer this present summons?

Know, my name is lost,
yet am I noble as the adversary I come to cope withal

Which is that adversary?

What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?

Himself: what sayst thou to him?
- Thou art a traitor

False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant against this high illustrious prince,

And from the extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,

A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'no',

This staff, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,

Thou liest

Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,
Which for they yet glance by, and scarcely bruise,

This blade of mine shall give them instant way,
Where they shall rest for ever

Save him, save him!

This is mere practice, Gloucester

By the law of war, thou wast not bound to face
An unknown opposite

Thou art not vanquished,
But cozened and beguiled

Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it

Hold, sir!
Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil

Nay, no tearing, lady, I perceive you know it

Say if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:
Who can arraign me for it?

Most monstrous! Know'st thou this paper'?
- Ask me not what I know

Go after her. She's desperate, govern her

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

But what art thou that hast this fortune on me?
If thou'rt noble, I do forgive thee

Let's exchange charity

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund

If more, the more thou hast wronged me

My name is Edgar, and thy father's son

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us

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

The wheel is come full circle: I am here

I must embrace thee

Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I
Did hate thee, or thy father

Worthy prince, I know it

How have you known the miseries of your father?

By nursing them, my lord

List a brief tale,
And when 'tis told, O that my heart would burst

The bloody proclamation taught me to shift
Into a madman's rags,

and in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,

Their precious stones new lost:

became his guide,
Led him, begged for him, saved him from despair

Never - O fault! - revealed myself unto him,
Until some half hour past,

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, }oy and grief,

Burst smilingly

If there be more, more woeful, hold it in,
For I am almost ready to dissolve, hearing of this

Help, help: O help!
- What kind of help?

Speak, man
- What means this Moody knife?

'Tis hot, it smokes,
It came even from the heart of - O, she's dead

Who dead? Speak, man

Your lady sir, your lady. And her sister
By her is poisoned: she confesses it

I was contracted to them both: all three
Now marry in an instant

Produce the bodies, be they alive or dead

This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble,
Touches us not with pity

But who comes here?

Sir, the banished Kent
- Is this she?

I am come to bid my King and master aye goodnight.
Is he not here?

Great thing of us forgot!
Speak, Edmund, where's the King? And where's Cordelia?

See'st thou this object, Kent?

Mack, why thus?

Yet Edmund was behaved

The one the other poisoned for my sake,
And after slew herself

Cover their faces

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
- Run, run, O run!

To who, my hard? Who has the office?
Send thy token of reprieve

Well thought on: take my blade,
Give it the captain

Haste thee for thy life

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

The gods defend her

Hawk hawk hawk hawk!

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,
Why, then she lives

Is this the promised end?
- Or image of that horror'?

Fall and cease

This feather stirs, she lives

If it be so, it is a chance which does redeem
all sorrows that ever I have felt

O, my good master
- Prithee, away

'Tis noble Kent, your friend

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'! thou sayst?

Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman

I killed the slave that was a-hanging thee

'Tis true, my lords, he did
- Did I not, fellow?

I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
I would have made them skip

I am old now,
And these same crosses spoil me

Who are you?
Mine eyes are not of the best, I'll tell you straight

If Fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold

Are you not Kent?

The same, your servant Kent.
Where is your servant Caius?

He's a good fellow, I can tell you that.
He'll strike and quickly too. He's dead and rotten

No, my good lord, I am the very man...

I'M see that straight

...That from your first of difference and decay,
Have followed your sad steps

You're welcome hither

Nor no man else. All's cheerless, dark, and deadly

Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
And desperately are dead

Ay, so I think

He knows not what he says, and vain is it
Thai we present us to him

Edmund is dead, my lord

That's but a trifle here:
You lords and noble friends, know our intent

What comfort to this great decay may come
Shall be applied

For us, we will resign, during the life
of this old majesty, to him our absolute power

All friends shall taste the wages of their virtue,
and all foes the cup of their deservings

O see, see!

And my poor Fool is hanged. No, no, no life?

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all?

Tnou'It 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,
Look there, look there

My lord, my lord!

Break, heart, I prithee break

Look up, my lord

Vex not his ghost, O let him pass

He hates him that would upon the rack
of this tough world stretch him out longer

He is gone indeed

The wonder is, he hath endured so long:
He but usurped his life

Friends of my soul, you twain,
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain

I have a journey, sir, shortly to go:
My master calls me, I must not say no

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