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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

King Lear Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes

If there be more, more woeful, hold it in,
For I am almost ready to dissolve,
Hearing of this.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Albany is brought to the point of tears after listening to Edgar’s account of his father’s death from shock and joy when he is reunited with his son Edgar.

Kent, sir, the banished Kent, who in disguise
Followed his enemy king, and did him service
Improper for a slave.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edgar reveals to Albany how Kent disguised himself as the servant Caius so that he could continue to serve Lear, even though the King had banished him. This shows Kent’s great loyalty to his "enemy king" and his campacity for forgiveness.

I pant for life: some good I mean to do
Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send –
Be brief in it, to th’ castle; for my writ
Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia.
Nay, send in time!

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. As Edmund takes his last breaths he makes an effort to redeem himself by showing his desire to do good despite his evil nature. He admits that he has ordered the executions of Lear and Cordelia and urges that a messenger be quickly sent to the castle to intervene to save them. Even though Edmund is one of the villains in the play, he shows in the face of imminent death that he may still possess some small shred of humanity.

Break, heart, I prithee, break!

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Kent reacts to an inconsolable Lear collapsing at the death of his beloved daughter Cordelia. Kent may be referring to his own suffering or Lear’s when he yearns for the peace of death – "Break, heart." The ever loyal Kent is greatly upset by his master’s suffering.

Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. The compassionate Kent has great sympathy for Lear’s suffering and is loyal to him beyond death. He asks Edgar not to trouble his departing spirit and to allow him pass on. Kent would hate anyone who made him stay in this torturous world any longer, he says.

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