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Scene III

The British camp, near Dover.

[Enter, in conquest, with drum and colors, Edmund, King Lear and Cordelia, prisoners; Captain, Soldiers, etc.]

EDMUND:

Some officers take them away: good guard,
Until their greater pleasures first be known
That are to censure them.

CORDELIA:

We are not the first
Who, with best meaning, have incurred the worst.(5)
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

KING LEAR:

No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:(10)
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,(15)
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.(20)

EDMUND:

Take them away.

KING LEAR:

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;(25)
The good-years shall devour them, flesh and fell,
Ere they shall make us weep: we'll see 'em starved first.
Come.

[Exeunt King Lear and Cordelia, guarded]

EDMUND:

Come hither, captain; hark.
Take thou this note.(30)

[Giving a paper]

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(35)
Does not become a sword: thy great employment
Will not bear question; either say thou'lt do 't,
Or thrive by other means.

CAPTAIN:

I'll do 't, my lord.

EDMUND:

About it; and write happy when thou hast done.(40)
Mark, I say, instantly; and carry it so
As I have set it down.

CAPTAIN:

I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
If it be man's work, I'll do 't.

[Exit]

[Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, another Captain, and Soldiers]

ALBANY:

Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain,(45)
And fortune led you well: you have the captives
That were the opposites of this day's strife:
We do require them of you, so to use them
As we shall find their merits and our safety
May equally determine.(50)

EDMUND:

Sir, I thought it fit
To send the old and miserable king
To some retention and appointed guard;
Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
To pluck the common bosom on his side,(55)
An turn our impressed lances in our eyes
Which do command them. With him I sent the queen;
My reason all the same; and they are ready
Tomorrow, or at further space, to appear
Where you shall hold your session. At this time(60)
We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness:
The question of Cordelia and her father
Requires a fitter place.(65)

ALBANY:

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

REGAN:

That's as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded,(70)
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.

GONERIL:

Not so hot:(75)
In his own grace he doth exalt himself,
More than in your addition.

REGAN:

In my rights,
By me invested, he compeers the best.

GONERIL:

That were the most, if he should husband you.(80)

REGAN:

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

GONERIL:

Holla, holla!
That eye that told you so looked but a-squint.

REGAN:

Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
From a full-flowing stomach. General,(85)
Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine:
Witness the world, that I create thee here
My lord and master.

GONERIL:

Mean you to enjoy him?(90)

ALBANY:

The let-alone lies not in your good will.

EDMUND:

Nor in thine, lord.

ALBANY:

Half-blooded fellow, yes.

REGAN:

[To Edmund]

Let the drum strike, and prove my title
thine.(95)

ALBANY:

Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee
On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
This gilded serpent. [Points to Goneril]
For your claim, fair sister,
I bar it in the interest of my wife:(100)
'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,
And I, her husband, contradict your bans.
If you will marry, make your loves to me,
My lady is bespoke.

GONERIL:

An interlude!(105)

ALBANY:

Thou art armed, Gloucester: let the trumpet
sound:
If none appear to prove upon thy head
Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
There is my pledge; [Throwing down a glove] I'll make it(110)
on thy heart,
Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
Than I have here proclaimed thee.

REGAN:

Sick, O, sick!

GONERIL:

[Aside]

If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.(115)

EDMUND:

There's my exchange. [Throwing down a glove] What
in the world he is
That names me traitor, villain-like he lies:
Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
On him, on you, who not? I will maintain(120)
My truth and honor firmly.

ALBANY:

A herald, ho!

EDMUND:

A herald, ho, a herald!

ALBANY:

Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,
All levied in my name, have in my name(125)
Took their discharge.

REGAN:

My sickness grows upon me.

ALBANY:

She is not well; convey her to my tent.

[Exit Regan, led]

[Enter a Herald]

Come hither, herald,—Let the trumpet sound,
And read out this.(130)

CAPTAIN:

Sound, trumpet!

[A trumpet sounds]

HERALD:

[Reads]

'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 sound of the
trumpet: he is bold in his defense.'(135)

EDMUND:

Sound!

[First trumpet]

HERALD:

Again!

[Second trumpet]

HERALD:

Again!

[Third trumpet]

[Trumpet answers within]

[Enter Edgar, at the third sound, armed, with a trumpet before him]

• sentence
• gold-covered
• torch
• swordsman
• imprisonment
• hired
• soldiers
• like
• upraise
• equals
• i.e., from anger
• power to interfere
• accusation
• marriage announcements
• a joke
• less guilty
• poison
• enlisted
• in many ways

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
4. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
5. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
6. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
   6. Scene VI
   7. Scene VII
7. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
8. Copyright