1 Priest

Her obsequies have been as far enlarged

As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her:
Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,

Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.

Laertes

Must there no more be done?

1 Priest

-

No more be done:

We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace parted souls.

Laertes

Lay her i' the earth:

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,

When thou liest howling.

Enter LEAR with CORDELIA dead in his arms; EDGAR, Captain, and others following.

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 forever!
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
Edgar-

Is this the promised end?

Or image of that horror?

Albany

Lear

Fall, and cease!

This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt.

A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!

I might have saved her! now she's gone forever!
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 killed the slave that was a-hanging thee.

Captain

'Tis true, my lords, he did.

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.

Lear

This's a dull sight. — Are you not Kent? Kent

The same,

Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius ?

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,

That from your first of difference and decay
Have followed your sad steps. —

Lear

Kent

You are welcome hither.

Nor no man else. All's cheerless, dark, and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
And desperately are dead.

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 honors

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 hanged! 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!

Edgar

Kent

[Dies.

He faints. My lord, my lord.

Break, heart; prithee, break!

Edgar

Kent

Look up, my lord.

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

Kent

He is gone, indeed.

The wonder is that he hath endured so long:

He but usurped his life.

Albany

Bear them from hence.

Is general woe. -[To

soul, you twain

Our present business

KENT and EDGAR] Friends of my

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.

[Dead march.

CALIBAN AND THE SAILORS.

Caliban

BY SHAKESPEARE.

(From "The Tempest.")

Enter CALIBAN, with a burden of wood.

All the infections that the sun sucks up

From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him
By inchmeal a disease! His spirits hear me,

And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid them; but
For every trifle are they set upon me:
Sometime like apes that moe and chatter at me,
And after, bite me; then like hedgehogs, which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount
Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
All wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues,
Do hiss me into madness: Lo! now! lo!

Enter TRINCULO.

Here comes a spirit of his; and to torment me,
For bringing wood in slowly; I'll fall flat;

Perchance, he will not mind me.

HEC

Trinculo-Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off any weather at all, and another storm brewing; I hear it sing i' the wind: yond' same black cloud, yond' huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it should thunder, as it did before, I know not where to hide not choose but fall by pailfuls. fish? dead or alive? A fish: he

my head: yond' same cloud canWhat have we here? a man or a smells like a fish; a very ancient