Annotated Text

Paper prepared for the Shakespeare Association of America, 2001.
Previous | Table of Contents | Next

---

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.