Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, Ay, so I think. Very bootless. Enter a Captain Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord. That 's but a trifle here. 300 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, 310 Look there, look there! [Dies. Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord ! Kent. Break, heart; I prithee, break! Edg. 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. Edg. Kent. The wonder is, He but usurp'd his life. He is gone, indeed. he hath endured so long: Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present busi ness Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you twain Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain. Edg. The weight of this sad time we must obey; [Exeunt, with dead march. 320 NOTES ABBREVIATIONS Abbott . Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. F1 First Folio (1623) of Shakespeare's plays. F2 Second Folio (1632). F3 Third Folio (1663 and 1664). F4 Fourth Folio (1685). Ff The four Folios. Kellner Kellner's Historical Outlines of English Syntax. O. E. Old English (Anglo-Saxon). M. E. Middle English. E. E. Elizabethan English. Mod. E. Modern English. Q1 First Quarto (1608) of King Lear. Q2 Second Quarto (1608 [?]1619). Qq The two Quartos. For the meaning of words not given in these notes, the student is referred to the Glossary at the end of the volume. The numbering of the lines corresponds to that of the Globe edition; this applies also to the scenes in prose. Dramatis Personæ. This list is not in the Quartos or Folios. It was first given by Rowe (1709). The division into acts and scenes is not marked in the Quartos. . ACT I-SCENE 1 The first scene of King Lear is of unusual importance. It both enacts the events on which the whole play is founded and brings out prominently the characters of all the principal actors. As a general rule the first scene is confined to giving information necessary for the understanding of the story; or it may, as in Macbeth, symbolize the drama. But in King Lear Kent. Vex not his ghost: 0, let him pass! he hates him much He is gone, indeed. Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present busi ness 320 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. Edg. 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 dead march. NOTES ABBREVIATIONS Abbott . Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. F1 First Folio (1623) of Shakespeare's plays. F2 Second Folio (1632). F3 Third Folio (1663 and 1664). Fourth Folio (1685). Ff The four Folios. Kellner Kellner's Historical Outlines of English Syntax. O. E. Old English (Anglo-Saxon). M. E. Middle English. E. E. Elizabethan English. Mod. E. Modern English. Q1 First Quarto (1608) of King Lear. Q2 Second Quarto (1608 [?]1619). Qq The two Quartos. For the meaning of words not given in these notes, the student is referred to the Glossary at the end of the volume. The numbering of the lines corresponds to that of the Globe edition; this applies also to the scenes in prose. Dramatis Personæ. This list is not in the Quartos or Folios. It was first given by Rowe (1709). The division into acts and scenes is not marked in the Quartos. . ACT I – SCENE 1 The first scene of King Lear is of unusual importance. It both enacts the events on which the whole play is founded and brings out prominently the characters of all the principal actors. As a general rule the first scene is confined to giving information necessary for the understanding of the story; or it may, as in Macbeth, symbolize the drama. But in King Lear |