The first scene takes place at the battle between the British and French.

Edmund has command of

Regan’s troops now that Cornwall is dead and he wants to know if Albany is on their side. Albany says
he is because some people are attacking not in support of Lear but because they have other
problems with the country. Regan confronts Edmund about his relationship with Goneril. ‘Do you not
love my sister?’ Edmund insists his only love for Goneril is ‘In honoured love.’ Regan still doesn’t
believe him when he says he is not having an affair with Goneril and she tells him ‘Be not familiar
with her.’ Goneril and Albany arrive. Goneril says to herself that she will not let Regan come between
her and Edmund. However, she says ‘combine together ‘gainst the enemy; for these domestic and
particular broils are not the question here’ as all of them want France defeated. Then, we see Edgar
tell Albany ‘if you have victory, let the trumpet sound’ and that, when the time comes, he can prove
what is in the letter he gives Albany. In a soliloquy, Edmund tells the audience ‘To both these sisters
have I sworn my love’ and asks ‘which of them shall I take?’ He also says he will disregard the pardon
Albany is planning to give Lear for siding with France in the battle: ‘they within our power, shall never
see his pardon,’

In the second scene, the battle rages on and Edgar leaves Gloucester to rest. He soon returns with
the news that ‘King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta’en’. Gloucester wants to stay where he is,
saying ‘a man may rot even here’, but Edgar leads him away.

In the last scene of the play, Edmund calls for his officers to lock up Lear and Cordelia. Cordelia tells
her father ‘We are not the first who, with best meaning, have incurred the worst’ acknowledging bad
things can happen to good people. Lear replies ‘let’s away to prison’ where they will live ‘As if we
were God’s spies’ hearing ‘poor rogues talk of court news’. He is just happy to have been reunited
with Cordelia and tells her ‘wipe thine eyes’. Edmund secretly sends his captain after them with a
note to ensure that they are both put to death, telling the captain ‘take thou this note; Go follow
them to prison’ and ‘to be tender-minded does not become a sword’ and that if he doesn’t complete
this task he will have to ‘thrive by other means.’ The captain agrees to do it because it would be
difficult for him to find another job. Albany enters, looking for Lear and Cordelia. Edmund tells him
he sent the king to prison for his own good and that Albany can speak to him no earlier than ‘to-
morrow’. Regan and Goneril arrive and Regan says Edmund is effectively her husband because he
‘bore the commission of my place and person.’ However, Goneril retorts ‘in his own grace he does
exalt himself’ and he doesn’t need Regan. They continue to argue over who Edmund’s should be
with.

Then, Regan says ‘I am not well; else I should answer from a full-flowing stomach’. Goneril later
admit s to the audience that she poisoned Regan: ‘if not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine.’ Regan announces
that she wishes to make Edmund her ‘lord and master’ and give him everything. Suddenly, Albany
has Edmund arrested for ‘capital treason’, and calls Goneril Edmund’s ‘gilded serpent’ for her betrayal
in promising to marry Edmund if he kills her husband. He says Goneril cannot marry Albany: ‘my lady
is bespoke’ A trumpet sounds and Albany says to Edmund that someone will appear after three
soundings of the trumpet ‘to prove upon thy head thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons.’ Albany
also tells Edmund that he has discharged all Edmund’s soldiers so he is on his own. Edgar steps
forward, in armour which hides his face. Edgar publicly tells Edmund ‘thou art a traitor’. Edmund and
Edgar fight and Edmund is defeated. Goneril claims he has not truly been defeated as he was tricked
by the unknown man who challenged him. Albany turns completely against Goneril, saying ‘shut your
mouth, dame’ and she leaves. Then, Edmund admits ‘What you have charged me with, that have I
done, and more.’
Edgar confronts Edmund, declaring ‘ I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmun; If more, the more
thou hast wrong’d me.’ He reveals who he is really is and how he changed ‘into a madman’s rags;t’
assume a semblance that very dogs disdain’d,’ calling himself 'Poor Tom.’ He also tells everyone how
he looked after his father and ‘became his guide’. Edgar describes how he finally told his father
everything and ‘asked his blessing’ to fight this duel with Edmund but that ‘’Twixt two extremes of
passion, joy and grief’ Gloucester’s heart ‘Burst smilingly’ and he died. Edgar also reveals how Kent
helped Lear and how much they suffered. Listening to all this as he dies, Edmund says ‘I must
embrace thee: Let sorrow split my heart, if ever I did hate thee or thy father’ and ‘This speech of
yours hath moved me and shall perchance do good’ but they are interrupted by a gentleman who
runs on with a bloody knife taken from Goneril’s heart and tells Albany that Goneril died after
confessing that ‘her sister by her is poisoned’. Edmund exclaims ‘I was contracted to them both: all
three now marry in an instant’ as he is dying.

Kent arrives dressed as himself again. He asks for the king ‘to bid my king and master aye good night’
as he is also dying. This reminds Albany that he doesn’t know where Lear and Cordelia are and he
asks Edmund. However, Albany had ordered the bodies of Goneril and Regan to be brought in and
on seeing them, Edmund is distracted, saying ‘Yet Edmund was beloved: The one the other poisoned
for my sake And after slew herself.’ Then, Edmund confesses that the Captain ‘hath commission from
thy wife and me to hang Cordelia in the prison and to lay the blame upon her own despair’ and
Albany quickly dispatches men to try and save her and Lear. Edmund says that by admitting this
‘some good I mean to do, despite mine own nature.’ He is taken away just before Lear enters with
Cordelia, dead, in his arms

Lear is crying ‘Howl, howl, howl’ and says ‘she’s gone forever’. However, he is denial, trying to prove
that she is still breathing. Kent tries to tell Lear who he is and that his older daughters ‘have fordone
themselves, and desperately are dead’, but Lear won’t listen, crying ‘murderers, traitors all.’ He also
reveals that he killed the slave who hung Cordelia. Although Lear does eventually recognise Kent in
some capacity, Albany tells Kent that Lear ‘knows not what he says, and vain is it that we present us
to him.’ It is announced that Edmund is dead and Albany decides power will be handed back to Lear
for the rest of his life. However, a moment later, Lear dies, still distraught at the thought of Cordelia
being dead. Kent says ‘let him pass!’ as he doesn’t want Lear to suffer anymore and Kent wonders
how ‘he hath endured so long’. Kent takes his own life, saying ‘My master calls me; I must not say no.’
Albany and Edgar are left with a kingdom to rule but their ‘present business is general woe.’ Albany
ends the play wisely, saying that from then on they should ‘Speak what we feel, not what we ought
to say’.