Edmund has Cordelia and
Lear as prisoners. He wants them guarded well.
Cordelia says she is not the first who with best meaning incurred the worst. She is not referring to Kent here, but to her husband France who has died in the battle. Kent's motivation was not the "best" in terms of this play. He was out for acknowledgment and reward. An audience might also think back to the Fool and wonder what became of "him".
Cordelia wants to go and confront Goneril and Regan. But Lear wants simply to go to prison. He won't face Goneril and Regan for he already knows their intentions. Edmund sends them to prison.
Edmund offers a captain promotion if he will do as he is ordered. The captain says he will do it, and leaves with written instructions.
Albany, Goneril and Regan discuss Edmund's valiant performance. Albany asserts his authority over Edmund insisting that the prisoners be delivered to him. Edmund finds he has the two sisters each wanting to invest him with authority and continues to exalt himself against Albany.
Albany confronts Edmund's treason. He points out that Goneril is married to him and calls for the trumpet to sound to call anyone that will prove Edmund's treason. If no one appears he will prove it himself in a trial by combat. Edmund accepts his challenge.
Regan is ill having been poisoned by Goneril.
Albany has Regan taken to his tent.
Albany orders the sounding of the trumpet to call his informant who had brought Goneril's letter before the battle.
Edgar appears disguised now as a knight. He says his name is lost (as are others'!) and declares that he is as noble as Edmund, and ready to prove upon Edmund's heart his treason against Albany.
Edmund says that it would be wise for him to ask his name but since he appears to be noble he will not bother. Edmund fights Edgar and loses.
Edmund is mortally wounded, but his life is spared by Albany's intervention.
Albany shows the incriminating
letter to Goneril who doesn't deny it. She says that she is above the law, and storms out.
Albany has one of his men go to look after her. He says she is desperate.
Edmund admits guilt to all of the charges and more which he says time will bring out - cf. Cordelia's words "Time shall unfold..."
Edgar reveals himself to Edmund, and they reflect on justice having been done.
Albany praises Edgar. He had thought that there was something noble about Edgar just by the way he walked.
Albany never held a grudge against him or Gloucester.
Edgar tells the story of how he,
as Poor Tom, had met with his father and guided him and saved him from his despair. But then he had not long before made the mistake in revealing to his father what he had done for him, and the shock was so great for Gloucester that he died of a heart attack.
Edmund likes Edgar's story and
suggests that his story might lead him to do some good. He wants to hear more.
Edgar then tells how Kent came upon him and told him what had happened to Lear, and how he had served Lear. Kent spoke about his service of Lear with such emotion that he nearly died himself in the retelling of it.
It is reported that Goneril killed herself after admitting to poisoning Regan, and Edmund reflects that he and the sisters who competed for him will all be united in death.
Albany has the bodies of Regan
and Goneril brought in just as Kent appears. There is mention of the judgement of the heavens.
Kent's appearance reminds Albany
of Lear and Cordelia. Precious time is lost telling Kent what had happened, and commending Kent, and then Edmund confesses that he had ordered Cordelia to be hanged in a manner that would suggest she suicided.
Another captain is sent to the castle with a reprieve of execution for Cordelia and Lear. But the reprieve comes moments too late. Lear is released first and kills the man that was in the process of hanging Cordelia.
Lear appears with his dead Cordelia in his arms. He puts her down and calls for a mirror to check to see if she is breathing. The mirror could remind us of the mirror that Fool had been looking into earlier.
Kent and Edgar speak of the possibility that what they are seeing is the "promised end" of the world, or "image of that horror", which of course, keeps alive any thoughts of judgement.
Attempts to console Lear are met with allegations of their being murders. Lear tells us that Cordelia's voice was "ever soft gentle and low" which would have aided her in her disguise as Fool.
Kent then moves in to identify himself to Lear and receive acknowledgement of his service. He wants this despite hearing the doctor's warning only a few hours before of the danger of making Lear go over what he had gone through, and seeing Gloucester dead after learning of Edgar's disguised service.
Kent is looking at Lear but Lear is looking at Cordelia when Kent says:
If Fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,
One of them we behold.
He is referring to himself and Lear. But Lear and we could be focussed on Cordelia - one of two - herself and the Fool whom Fortune loved and hated.
Lear looks up from the dull sight of Cordelia and recognizes Kent. Kent then identifies himself as Caius. This is the first time we hear that name.
Lear welcomes him with polite indifference, but Kent wants greater acknowledgment.
An officer comes and reports that Edmund is dead.
Albany wants to turn the crown back over to Lear and promises reward and punishment to friend and foe.
Lear is looking at the face of Cordelia and suddenly reacts in a manner that causes Albany to draw attention to his behaviour. Lear then cries out:
And my poor Fool is hang'd! ...
Thou'lt come no more....
Look on her, look, her lips....
Here he is trying to "make known" to those around him that Cordelia had been the Fool, but his heart breaks, as Gloucester's had, as the force of what his daughter had done for him hit home.
Albany tells Kent and Edgar that
they are now in charge of Britain. But Kent declines stating, piously, that his master, God, is about to call him to heaven and he must not say no. Those who have seen the principle of Matthew 6:1-4 at work in the play might wonder at the possibility of a reward for Kent in heaven, having sought his reward here on earth. On the other hand, there have been plenty of moments when they might have been caused to reflect on Cordelia's reward in heaven given that she served her father as his Fool and was not even acknowledged, let alone rewarded, while she was alive.
Edgar, who along with everyone else has not seen Cordelia as the Fool, says:
The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath born most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
If the audience has seen Cordelia disguised as Fool, and they are going to speak what they feel, rather than what they ought to say, then they are going to protest that Cordelia bore most. The language of the last line reflects Cordelia's own words earlier when she met up with Kent, "My life will be too short."
