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The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

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Part 4 out of 4

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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 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 a Officer.]

Off.
Edmund is dead, my lord.

Alb.
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:--[to Edgar and Kent] you to your
rights;
With boot, and such addition as 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!

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? 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 there!--

[He dies.]

Edg.
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 him
That would upon the rack of this rough 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.--[To Kent and Edgar.] Friends of my soul, you
twain
Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.

Kent.
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me,--I must not say no.

Alb.
The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest have borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march.]

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