What in the world he is
that names me traitor,
villain-like he lies.
- A herald, ho!
- Come hither, herald!
Let the trumpet sound,
and read out this.
If any man of quality or degree
within the lists of the army
will maintain
upon Edmund, supposed Earl of
Gloster, that he's a manifold traitor,
let him appear by the third
sound of the trumpet.
Ask him his purposes, why he appears
upon this call of the trumpet.
What are you? Your name, your
quality?
And why you answer this present
summons?
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.
Which is that adversary?
Thou art a traitor!
And, from thy head to the descent
and dust below thy foot,
a most toad-spotted traitor.
Back do I toss these treasons
to thy head!
Trumpets, speak!
- Save him, save him!
- Thou art but cozen'd and beguiled.
Shut your mouth, dame!
Or with this paper shall I stop it!
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.
But what art thou?
The wheel is come
full circle.
Let sorrow
split my heart,
if ever I did hate thee
or thy father!
I know it.
Where have you hid yourself? How
have you known thy father's miseries?
By nursing them.
O, our lives' sweetness!
That we the pain of death
would hourly die
rather than die at once!
- What now?
- O, she's dead!
Who dead? Speak, man.
Your lady, sir.
And her sister
by her is poisoned.
She hath confest it.
Produce their bodies.
This judgement of the heavens,
that makes us tremble.
I was contracted to them both.
All three now marry
in an instant.
I pant for life.
Some good I mean to do,
despite of mine own nature.
Quickly send to the castle!
For my writ is on the life
of Lear and on Cordelia.
Quickly send to the castle!
For my writ is on the life
of Lear and on Cordelia.
Run, run, O, run!
Howl, howl, howl, howl!
O, you are men of stone!
Had I your tongues and eyes,
I'ld 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.
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.
A plague upon you, murderers,
traitors all!
I might have saved her!
Now she's gone for ever!
Cordelia, Cordelia!
Stay a little!
What is't thou say'st?
Her voice was ever soft, gentle,
and low, -
an excellent thing in woman.
Who are you? Mine eyes are not
o'the best.
- Your servant Kent.
- He was a good fellow.
He'll strike, and quickly too...
He's dead and rotten.
No, my good lord. I am the very man.
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?
Thou'lt 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 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.
Bear them from hence.
Our present business
is general woe.
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 End