Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Michael Best
Not Peer Reviewed

King Lear (Folio 1, 1623)

Scena Quinta.
1970Enter Cornwall, and Edmund.
Corn. I will haue my reuenge, ere I depart his house.
Bast. How my Lord, I may be censured, that Nature
thus giues way to Loyaltie, something feares mee to
thinke of.
1975Cornw. I now perceiue, it was not altogether your
Brothers euill disposition made him seeke his death: but
a prouoking merit set a-worke by a reprouable badnesse
in himselfe.
Bast. How malicious is my fortune, that I must re-
1980pent to be iust? This is the Letter which hee spoake of;
which approues him an intelligent partie to the aduanta-
ges of France. O Heauens! that this Treason were not;
or not I the detector.
Corn. Go with me to the Dutchesse.
1985Bast. If the matter of this Paper be certain, you haue
mighty businesse in hand.
Corn. True or false, it hath made thee Earle of Glou-
cester: seeke out where thy Father is, that hee may bee
ready for our apprehension.
1990Bast. If I finde him comforting the King, it will stuffe
his suspition more fully. I will perseuer in my course of
Loyalty, though the conflict be sore betweene that, and
my blood.
Corn. I will lay trust vpon thee: and thou shalt finde
1995a deere Father in my loue. Exeunt.