Is there divine justice in King Lear?

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Originally Posted by Gladys

Duke of Albany. The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest have borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

The 'we' in 'we that are young' must include Albany and likely includes Kent, given that he was the last person Albany addressed.

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Ah but look at the lines directly preceding this:

ALBANY
Friends of my soul, you twain
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.

KENT
I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.


Kent clearly declines Albany's request that he should rule with Edgar. Kent is obviously in no disposition to take the throne. His extreme vivacity, throughout the play, has always been in defence, or in service, to Lear. With Lear dead, Kent must soon follow his master into the afterlife.

As for Albany's closing lines:

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

These are hardly lines spoken in optimism - they are a grim admittance of the reality that Albany and Edgar face. The acknowledgement that the next generation will not "live so long" is last note - the completion of the nihilistic themes that are pervasive throughout the play.

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

With Lear dead, Kent must soon follow his master into the afterlife.

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So Kent is faithful even beyond death. A fable indeed!

I don't think this means anything, but the last lines are spoken by Edgar, not Albany.

There seem to be conflicting views in the play itself: Gloucester says "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport." (IV.i.37-38) However Edmund's soliloquy at the start does, in my opinion, deliver Shakespeare's own view, despite the "bad" nature of Edmund — who does in the end see what he has done.
To me, Cordelia's death acts as a reminder of virtue, and can be seen as a direct consequence of Lear's pride and foolishness. The last lines reinforce hope and perhaps an assurance of such events, "this sad time", never to repeat themselves, since they "obey" it and "speak what we feel, not what we ought to say".

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Originally Posted by zomgmouse

...the last lines are spoken by Edgar, not Albany

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From www.observer.com/node/45138

Professor Tiffany spoke as well of the cryptic final quatrain of King Lear . It's a kind of coda to the tragedy, one delivered by Albany (the highest civil authority) in the 1608 Quarto of Lear and by Edgar (the highest moral authority) in the 1623 Folio text version. It's the one that begins, in both versions:

The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

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Originally Posted by zomgmouse

To me, Cordelia's death acts as a reminder of virtue

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The gods aside, her death also poses the imponderable question, "Why do the good suffer in this world?"

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

Kent and Albany are old - their way is finished. ... ... With the majority of the cast dead, and two of the remaining near death - or just plain beaten and tired - Edgar is the future.

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I can now appreciate your position if, as in my previous post, Edgar rather than Albany has delivered the closing lines of the play.