King Lear

by William Shakespeare

LEAR Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever! 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 stone270, Why, then she lives. KENT Is this the promised end272? EDGAR Or image of that horror? ALBANY Fall and cease!274 LEAR This feather stirs: she lives! If it be so, It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows That ever I have felt. Kneels KENT O my good master! LEAR Prithee, away. EDGAR ’Tis noble Kent, your friend. LEAR A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! I might have saved her: now she’s gone for ever!— 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 slave286 that was a-hanging thee.