电子课文 Unit 2 (Workbook) Reading Task King Lear Part 6

Unit 2 King Lear(Workbook)READING TASK1 Read the final part of the play in groups with each person taking the part of a different character. If theres anything you dont understand, ask the group to help you.KING LEARPart 6NARRATOR: Kent brings the mad King Lear to Cordelia. Her doctors give him medicine tohelp take away the madness and to make him sleep. (Scene: The camp of the French army. Cordelia, Kent and a doctor are waiting. Enter King Lear carried in a chair by two soldiers who put him down near Cordelia.)CORDELIA: Oh, the poor, poor man. (She kisses him.) Doctor, I hope your medicine and his daughters kiss will bring him to his senses. My dear father, how are you now?LEAR: Where am I? I feel so strange. If I didnt know better, I would say youre my daughter, Cordelia.CORDELIA: And so I am.LEAR: Dont cry, my dear. Just bring me some poison and I will drink it. I deserve to die for the wrong Ive done you.CORDELIA: Father, dont be upset. Everythings all right now. DOCTOR: Madame, I believe the madness has gone. Why dont you take him inside and keep him quiet for a while. NARRATOR: There is a war between the French troops and Goneril and Regans army. The French soldiers lose and Cordelia and Lear are taken prisoner. (Scene: Outside Regans castle. Enter Lear and Cordelia, hands tied, walking between two soldiers.)CORDELIA: Shall we ask to see my sisters, your daughters?LEAR: No, no, let us go to prison and live out the rest of our lives alone. We will sing like birds in a cage and tell each other stories and I shall ask again and again for your forgiveness. We shall never be apart again. (Exit Lear, Cordelia and soldiers.)NARRATOR: After the two sisters win the battle against the French army, they begin to argue. Goneril poisons Regan and then kills herself out of shame for what she has done. Gonerils husband, the Duke of Albany, discovers that before her death she ordered the captain of the prison to hang Cordelia and to make her death look like suicide. (Enter Albany and a soldier.)ALBANY: Run, run. Quickly. To the prison and stop the execution before its too late. (Exit the soldier, running. Albany anxiously walks up and down. After a short while Lear enters carrying the dead Cordelia in his arms, followed by Kent and the soldier who was sent to the prison.) LEAR: Oh, oh! Shes gone! Shes dead as earth! She is no more! But wait, lend me a mirror. Ill put it close to her mouth and if her breath shows on the glass, Ill know she lives.KENT: Oh, master. (He tries to take Cordelia.)LEAR: Get away. Youre all murderers. I could have saved her but now shes gone forever. Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little longer. What are you saying? Your voice is so soft. I killed the dog who was trying to hang you.SOLDIER: (talking to Albany) He did too, I saw him.LEAR: (turning to Kent) I know you, dont I?KENT: Im Kent.LEAR: No. Hes gone, I sent him away.KENT: Dont you know me, Your Majesty. I have been with you all the time. I am your servant, Caius.LEAR: Then you are a welcome sight. Look, look here my Cordelia. She will never breathe again. Never, never, never, never, never. (Lear falls to the ground.)ALBANY: Hes fainted. My Lord! My Lord!KENT: Stop. Let him go. He hates this world and cannot bear to live in it any longer.ALBANY: Hes dead. Soldiers! Take them away, gentl