ALBANY: Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it – Hold, sir:
[Gives the letter to Edmund] Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.
[To Goneril] No tearing, lady: I perceive you know it.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. This passage by Albany comes after Edmund is wounded by Edgar and Goneril becomes hysterical. Albany shows his moral mettle and takes charge and is not the meek and mild-mannered man we met earlier in the play. Having arrested Edmund and his wife Goneril for treason, he tells Goneril to shut up and brandishes the letter that she wrote to Edmund plotting against Albany’s life. At this stage Albany is the last remaining figure of authority in Britain. He is also a highly moral person.