Tuesday, November 1, 2022

 


 

                                                     At this time
We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his

 friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed

By those that feel their sharpness:--

 

-Edmund

King Lear                        Act V, Scene iii, Line 56

 

Edmund is talking about the situation that exists after a battle is done, and a battle has indeed just been fought. It really is a very fine couple of lines, and it is an apt description, except for the fact that Edmund has no friends and is probably not experiencing any of this sharpness that he speaks of. He’s just saying this to put off Albany when the latter tells Edmund to present the prisoners, Lear and Cordelia. Edmund doesn’t want to present them, because he’s just sent them off to be surreptitiously murdered. 


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