When their trial is over, Lear decides to finally sleep. Gloucester returns and tells Kent that he overheard a plot to kill the king. He urges the men to take him to Dover and meet up with the French forces where he will be safe. Cornwall gives a copy of the incriminating French letter to Goneril and instructs her to take it to her husband, the Duke of Albany. He sends men to find the traitor Duke of Gloucester and sends Edmund with Goneril so he will not have to witness his father s demise.
Word comes in that the king is being taken to Dover to meet up with the French forces.
Cornwall issues more orders and Gloucester enters no knowing he is considered a traitor. They bind him and torture him by forcing out his eyes. One of the servants tries to stop Cornwall but is killed. Gloucester calls for Edmund, but the Duchess tells him that his son was their informant. The Earl realizes that Edgar was innocent and it was his brother who betrayed him.