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Shakespeare on Stage
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Henry IV, Part One. To Jun. 24, 2012.
American Shakespeare Center, A Midsummer Night's Dream. To Jun. 14, 2012.
Folger Shakespeare Library, The Taming of the Shrew. To Jun. 10, 2012.
American Shakespeare Center, The Merchant of Venice. To Nov. 23, 2012.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Comedy of Errors. To Jul. 29, 2012.
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King Lear (Quarto 1, 1608)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Michael Best
Not Peer Reviewed
The Historie of King Lear.
The mistresse of Heccat, and the might,
By all the operation of the orbs,
From whome we doe exsist and cease to be
120Heere I disclaime all my paternall care,
Propinquitie and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hould thee from this for euer: the barbarous Scythyan,
Or he that makes his generation
125Messes to gorge his appetite
Shall bee as well neighbour'd, pittyed and relieued
As thou my sometime daughter.
Kent. Good my Liege.
Lear. Peace Kent, come not between the Dragon &
I lou'd her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nurcery, hence and auoide my sight?
So be my graue my peace as here I giue,
Her fathers heart from her, call France, who stirres?
135Call Burgundy, Cornwell, and Albany,
With my two daughters dower digest this third,
Let pride, which she cals plainnes, marrie her:
I doe inuest you iointly in my powre,
Preheminence, and all the large effects
140That troope with Maiestie, our selfe by monthly course
With reseruation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustayn'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turnes, onely we still retaine
The name and all the additions to a King,
145The sway, reuenue, execution of the rest,
Beloued sonnes be yours, which to confirme,
This Coronet part betwixt you.
Kent. Royall Lear,
Whom I haue euer honor'd as my King,
150Loued as my Father, as my maister followed,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers.
Lear. The bow is bẽt & drawen make from the shafte.
Kent. Let it fall rather,
Though the forke inuade the region of my heart,
155Be Kent vnmannerly when Lear is man,
What