Posted by Sigismund on July 17, 2009, at 1:43:24
In reply to Re: Seriously Does Anyone Think Of Their Own Death?, posted by olivepit on July 16, 2009, at 23:40:24
It's scary alright. In my miserable boarding school I had a good English teacher. This is the end of King Lear. Lear, having ruined everything, having been united with the daughter he damned, has finally rescued her from being hanged, but she is dead. Kent, the most good man in the play, also does not get what he wants, which is recognition. Life is many things, one of which is hell.
King Lear
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
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. Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why, then she lives.KENT
Is this the promised endEDGAR
Or image of that horror?ALBANY
Fall, and cease!KING LEAR
This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,
It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.KENT
[Kneeling] O my good master!KING LEAR
Prithee, away.EDGAR
'Tis noble Kent, your friend.KING 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 kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.Captain
'Tis true, my lords, he did.KING LEAR
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 o' the best: I'll tell you straight.KENT
If fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.KING LEAR
This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?KENT
The same,
Your servant Kent: Where is your servant Caius?KING 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,--KING LEAR
I'll see that straight.KENT
That, from your first of difference and decay,
Have follow'd your sad steps.KING LEAR
You are welcome hither.KENT
Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves,
And desperately are dead.KING LEAR
Ay, so I think.ALBANY
He knows not what he says: and vain it is
That we present us to him.EDGAR
Very bootless.Enter a Captain
Captain
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 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!KING 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!Dies
EDGAR
He faints! My lord, my lord!KENT
Break, heart; I prithee, break!EDGAR
Look up, my lord.KENT
Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.EDGAR
He is gone, indeed.KENT
The wonder is, he hath endured so long:
He but usurp'd his 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.KENT
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.ALBANY
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
poster:Sigismund
thread:907077
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090706/msgs/907187.html