I never shall endure her…Be not familiar with her | Reg tells Edmond she won’t ‘endure’ Gon… |
Neither can be enjoyed / If both remain alive | Edmond says if he’s to enjoy either sister, one must die; his pragmatism typified |
my state / Stands on me to defend, not to debate | Edmond; my state… showing typical Machiavellian qualities and thirst for power |
a man may rot even here | G; ‘a man may…’ lapses into ‘ill thoughts’ (despair) again |
Men must endure / Their going hence even as their coming hither: / Ripeness is all | Men must…is all; Edgar tells G importance of ripeness |
with best meaning have incurred the worst | C: with best…worst; C’s attempt to be virtuous and uphold justice have been futile |
Come, let’s away to prison. / We two alone will sing like birds i’th’cage…and laugh / At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues / Talk of court news…Who loses and who wins | L: come, let’s…court news, envisioning future in prison w. Cordelia (butterflies = lavishly adorned courtiers), true entrapment is w/n court life, subversion of C’s lang. as the ‘rogues’ are in face the ones trapped at court, mere material pretence that they are better than ‘wretched creatures’, court comp. to a capricious game/trivial spectacle, not to be taken seriously |
I’ll kneel down / And ask of thee forgiveness | L: I’ll kneel…. again subversion of kingly authority image, comp. to Regan |
packs and sects of great ones / That ebb and flow by th’moon | L believes in prison C will be better off protected from the vicissitudes of court life, ever-shifting power and positions |
to be tender-minded / Does not become a sword | Edmond Machiavellian brutality, tells Captain not to be tender…. |
Jesters do oft prove prophets | Reg: Jesters…prophets |
Half-blooded fellow | Alb calls Edmond half…fellow |
gilded serpent | Alb calls Gon a gilded… |
What in the world he is / That names me traitor, villain-like he lies…I will maintain / My truth and honour firmly | Edmond maintains to Alb that he is not a traitor; what in the…he lies…I will…firmly; blurring of distinctions b/w honesty and deceit highlighted through Ed’s use of lang., claims to be virtuous to the last |
my name is lost | Edgar steps forward to speak against Edmond; ‘my name…’ |
toad-spotted traitor | Edgar calls Edmond a traitor |
Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince | Edgar calls Edmond ‘conspirant’ against Albany, we see how far his ambitions for power reach |
If thou’rt noble, / I do forgive thee | If…thee; ‘Edmond implicitly repudiates his stance…and reverts to traditional concepts of nobility and breeding’ Hunter |
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices / Make instruments to plague us | Edgar: The gods…plague us; believes gods are implementing justice |
The wheel is come full circle; I am here | Edmond: ‘The wheel…’; wheel of fortune, Ed has fallen |
Methought thy very gait did prophesy / A royal nobleness | ‘Methought…nobleness’; Alb says he recognises nobility in Edgar’s ‘gait’ |
saved him from despair | Edgar ‘saved…despair’; his father |
his flawed heart…’Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, / Burst smilingly | ‘his flawed…smilingly’; G dies |
I am almost ready to dissolve | Alb: ‘I…dissolve’; theme of dissolution & disintegration |
her sister / By her is poisoned | G poisoned Reg before killing herself (Alb had ordered for both her and Edmond’s arrest, has recognised she will lose all) |
This judgement of the heavens…Touches us not with pity | This…pity; Alb r.e. deaths of Gon and Reg; believing in prov. justice |
Great thing of us forgot! | Alb: Great…forgot!; darkly farcical, tragedy enhanced by mistiming |
Yet Edmond was beloved | Ed’s final boast |
Some good I mean to do, / Despite of mine own nature | Ed’s final act of good |
The gods defend her | Alb asks gods to defend C after Edmond tells him of his orders to hang her (and blame it on suicide); irony, one line before L enters howling that Cordelia has died |
Howl, howl, howl, howl! | L’s howls; bestial self |
She’s dead as earth | C dead |
Is this the promised end? / Or image of that horror? / Fall and cease | K / E / Alb; allusion to Judgement Day |
A plague upon you murderers, traitors all | A plague… L sees whole world as corrupted |
He’s dead and rotten | L says servant Caius (Kent) is dead…; theme of decay etc. |
from your first of difference and decay / Have followed your sad steps | ‘from your…steps; Kent’s unbending loyalty, and L’s decline of fortune; futile attempts to uphold L |
All’s cheerless, dark, and deadly. / Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves / And desperately are dead | Kent: ‘All’s….’ dental alliteration emph. death |
He knows not what he says, and vain is it / That we present us to him Very bootless | Alb recognising futility of attempts to reconcile L to sanity; He knows not…Edgar reaffirms; very useless |
That’s but a trifle here | When informed by Messenger that Edmond is dead, Alb says… |
know our intent. / What comfort to this great decay may come / Shall be applied…we will resign / During the life of this old majesty / To him our absolute power | Alb: ‘know…power’, ‘intent’; ‘Again the wheel comes full circle’ Halio; just as we may be able to glean sight of ‘comfort’, L is about to die, emph. tragedy; still trying to restore L, his death ironically straight after this highlights futility |
All friends shall taste / The wages of their virtue, and all foes / The cup of their deservings | Alb believing in implementation of justice; All…deservings |
Never | As L holds C, he repeats this word 5 times, underlining arguable sense of nihilism in the play |
undo this button | L asks Kent to undo…; reminds us of ‘Come, unbutton here’ |
Look on her! Look, her lips. / Look there, look there | ‘In 1.1, Lear, egocentric, demanded that everyone’s attention be focused upon himself’ and daughters to proclaim their love for him, in his final words he directs attention onto Cordelia; ‘finally, he directs attention not to himself, but to the Other, to Cordelia, now more precious to him than his own life’ |
Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass. He hates him / That would upon the rack of this tough world / Stretch him out longer | Kent after L dies ‘Vex….longer’; ‘rack’ = torture machine on which victim was bound and stretched, ref. to L’s suffering; K finally recognises futility of trying to prolong L’s life |
Our present business / Is general woe | Alb: Our…woe, ending on note of despair/pessimism |
the gored state sustain | the…sustain |
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go: / My master calls me; I must not say no | Kent’s final lines, chooses not to futilely ‘sustain’ state |
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 | Edgar’s final speech, ending play; ‘we’ could be royal plural as Edgar puts on crown |
dead march | in stage directions play ends w. a… music played at funeral procession |
King Lear quotes Act 5
July 11, 2019