King Lear V.iii

Slight clarification of my last, about the difference between Q and F

I realized that in Monday’s post I should have documented the difference between Q and F that I discuss there. The difference in this moment is of particular interest to me because Q shows how Shakespeare switches gears fairly smoothly: Edgar can reintroduce Kent whom we haven’t seen for a while, and stress his recognition of Kent’s participation in the tragic circumstances. This isn’t particularly more woeful, but it returns Kent to the sorrowful story.

So here’s the Quarto version:

     Bast. This speech of yours hath moued me,
And shall perchance do good, but speake you on,
You looke as you had something more to say,
     Alb. If there be more, more wofull, hold it in,
For I am almost ready to dissolue, hearing of this,
     Edg. This would haue seemd a periode to such
As loue not sorow, but another to amplifie too much,
Would make much more, and top extreamitie
Whil’st I was big in clamor, came there in a man,
Who hauing seene me in my worst estate,
Shund my abhord society, but then finding
Who twas that so indur’d with his strong armes
He fastened on my necke and bellowed out,
As hee’d burst heauen, threw me on my father,
Told the most pitious tale of Lear and him,
That euer eare receiued, which in recounting
His griefe grew puissant and the strings of life,
Began to cracke twice, then the trumpets sounded.
And there I left him traunst.
     Alb. But who was this.
     Ed. Kent sir, the banisht Kent, who in diguise,
Followed his enemie king and did him seruice
Improper for a slaue.
                                      Enter one with a bloudie knife,
     Gent. Helpe, helpe,

But Shakespeare can also double-clutch or double downshift, as we used to say, and skip the necessity for Edgar to say anything else at all. Albany’s worry about any more woeful news is enough of a preparation for the increasing body count that’s started with Gloucester¹ and will now include Regan and Goneril. Here’s the much more rapid Folio version, which goes straight from Albany’s asking Edgar to hold in any more woeful news to the entry of the Gentleman, omitting Edgar’s two speeches (comprising sixteen lines, and of course leaving out Albany’s question as well):

     Bast. This speech of yours hath mou’d me,
And shall perchance do good, but speake you on,
You looke as you had something more to say.
     Alb. If there be more, more wofull, hold it in,
For I am almost ready to dissolue,
Hearing of this.
                             Enter a Gentleman.
Gen. Helpe, helpe: O helpe.

Again, this is all to say that Shakespeare may well have made the Folio cuts because of time constraints in this very long play (his third longest), but that they clearly are cuts, and that preserving Q’s lines gives us a more complete version of what the play is doing here. (On the other hand, as we’ll see, the Folio version really revs the engine, Albany’s hopes disengaged from the gears of reality in this last scene.)

1. The deaths of Cornwall and the servant are long enough ago that we don’t count tend to count them here.