usic, and, seeing Cordelia, does not
believe she is a living being, thinks she is an apparition, does not
believe that he himself is alive. Cordelia assures him that she is his
daughter, and begs him to bless her. He falls on his knees before her,
begs her pardon, acknowledges that he is as old and foolish, says he is
ready to take poison, which he thinks she has probably prepared for him,
as he is persuaded she must hate him. ("For your sisters," he says,
"have done me wrong: you have some cause, they have not.") Then he
gradually comes to his senses and ceases to rave. His daughter suggests
that he should take a walk. He consents and says: "You must bear with
me. Pray you now forget and forgive: I am old and foolish." They depart.
The gentleman and Kent, remaining on the scene, hold a conversation
which explains to the spectator that Edmund is at the head of the troops
and that a battle must soon begin between Lear's defenders and his
enemies. So the fourth act closes.

In this fourth act, the scene between Lear and his daughter might have
been touching if it had not been preceded in the course of the earlier
acts by the tediously drawn out, monotonous ravings of Lear, and if,
moreover, this expression of his feelings constituted the last scene.
But the scene is not the last.

In the fifth act, the former coldly pompous, artificial ravings of Lear
go on again, destroying the impression which the previous scene might
have produced.

The first scene of the fifth act at first represents Edmund and Regan;
the latter is jealous of her sister and makes an offer. Then come
Goneril, her husband, and some soldiers. The Duke of Albany, altho
pitying Lear, regards it as his duty to fight with the French who have
invaded his country, and so he prepares for battle.

Then Edgar enters, still disguised, and hands to the Duke of Albany the
letter he had received from Goneril's dying steward, and tells him if he
gains the victory to sound the trumpet, saying that he can produce a
champion who will confirm the contents of the letter.

In the second scene, Edgar enters leading his father Gloucester, seats
him by a tree, and goes away himself. The noise of battle is heard,
Edgar runs back and says that the battle is lost and Lear and Cordelia
are prisoners. Gloucester again falls into despair. Edgar, still
without disclosing himself to his father, counsels endurance, and
Gloucester immediately agrees with him.

The third scene ope