O you mighty gods!
This world I do renounce, and in your sights
Shake patiently my great affliction off.
If I could bear it longer, and not fall
To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
My snuff and loathèd part of nature should
Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
Now, fellow, fare thee well.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. Gloucester kneels and makes a final prayer to the gods before he attempts to kill himself. He renounces this world and all his troubles and torments. If he could bear them better then he says that he would wait until he died naturally. After blessing Edgar and saying goodbye to Poor Tom, he then falls forward, thinking that he is jumping off the cliff at Dover to his death. In reality he is on flat ground!