Explain what Albany says at the end of King Lear.

Albany's final speech makes up the last four lines of the play. With almost all of the play's major figures, barring himself, Kent, and Edgar, dead, Albany says:

The weight of this sad time we must obey;Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.The oldest hath borne most: we that are youngShall never see so much, nor live so long.

The first two lines are fairly self-explanatory. He seems to...

Albany's final speech makes up the last four lines of the play. With almost all of the play's major figures, barring himself, Kent, and Edgar, dead, Albany says:

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

The first two lines are fairly self-explanatory. He seems to mean that the situation requires a certain amount of seriousness, gravity, and honesty. However, the second part is more difficult, because we don't know exactly who he is talking about when he says "the oldest". He could be talking about Lear, who has just died of grief and strain over the lifeless body of Cordelia, or he could be referring to Kent himself, who has just implied that he, too, will die soon. By "bourne most," he means "suffered most," and obviously both men have suffered a lot in the play. The scholars who argue that he was referring to Kent say that his statement was a direct response to the old man, who, as mentioned above, has just said that he is about to die:

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

Albany's response in this context would mean something like this: "You are the oldest, and you have been through things that even younger men like us could not bear."