Edmund. Take them away.
Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
The gods themselves throw incense.
The concluding events are sad, painfully sad; but their pathos is
extreme. The oppression of the feelings is relieved by the very
interest we take in the misfortunes of others, and by the
reflections to which they give birth. Cordelia is hanged in prison
by the orders of the bastard Edmund, which are known too late to be
countermanded, and Lear dies broken-hearted, lamenting over her.
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? O, thou wilt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!--
Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.---
He dies, and indeed we feel the truth of what Kent says on the
occasion--
Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him,
That would upon the rack of the rough world
Stretch him out longer.
Yet a happy ending has been contrived for this play, which is
approved of by Dr. Johnson and condemned by Schlegel. A better
authority than either, on any subject in which poetry and feeling
are concerned, has given it in favour of Shakespeare, in some
remarks on the acting of Lear, with which we shall conclude this
account.
The Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted.
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