21Enter Kent, Gloucester, and [the] Bastard. 43I thought the King had more affected the
5Duke of
4Albany than Cornwall.
It did always seem so to us, but
7now in the
6division of the kingdoms it
8appears not which of
7the dukes he values
9most, for equalities are so weighed that
8curiosity in
10neither can make choice of either's moiety.
Is not this your son, my lord?
His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have
13so
11often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am
14brazed to it.
I cannot conceive you.
Sir, this young fellow's mother could,
17whereupon she
14grew round-wombed, and had indeed, sir, a
18son for her cradle
15ere she had a husband for her bed.
19Do you smell a fault?
I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
21being so
17proper.
But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some
23year
19elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my
24account. Though this
20knave came something saucily into the
25world before he was
21sent for, yet was his mother fair,
26there was good sport at his
22making, and the whoreson must
27be acknowledged.--Do you know
23this noble
28gentleman, Edmund?
No, my lord.
My lord of Kent.
31Remember him hereafter as my
26honorable friend.
My services to your lordship.
I must love you, and sue to know you better.
Sir, I shall study deserving.
He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
3631again. The King is coming.
3732Sound a sennet. Enter one bearing a coronet, then Lear, then the 3833Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; next Goneril, Regan, [and] 38.134Cordelia, with followers. Attend my lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
I shall, my liege.
[Exit Gloucester.]
Meantime we will express our darker purposes.
4238The map there. Know we have divided
4339In three our kingdom; and 'tis our first intent
4440To shake all cares and business of our state,
4541Confirming them on younger years
2, while we 46Unburdened crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
47And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
48We have this hour a constant will to publish
49Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
42The two great princes France and Burgundy,
5143Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
5244Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
5345And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters--
54Since now we will divest us both of rule,
55Interest of territory, cares of state--
5646Which of you shall we say doth love us most,
5747That we our largest bounty may extend
5848Where merit doth most challenge it.
5949Goneril, our eldest born, speak first.
Sir, I do love you more than words can wield the matter;
6151Dearer than eyesight, space or liberty,
6252Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare,
6353No less than life; with grace, health, beauty, honor,
6454As much a child e'er loved or father found;
6555A love that makes breath poor and speech unable.
6656Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
[Aside] What shall Cordelia do? Love and be silent.
Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
6959With shady forests and
6with champaigns riched 70With plenteous rivers and 5wide-skirted meads,
7160We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issue
7261Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
7362Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
Sir, I am made of the self same mettle
That my sister is,
7564And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
7665I find she names my very deed of love,
77Only she came short,
66that I profess
78Myself an enemy to all other joys
7967Which the most precious square of sense possesses,
8068And find I am alone felicitate
81In your dear highness' love.
In your dear highness' love. [Aside] Then poor Cordelia--
83And yet not so, since I am sure
70my love's
84More richer than my tongue.
To thee and thine hereditary ever
8672Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,
8773No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
8874Than that confirmed on Goneril. But now our joy,
8975Although the last, not least in our dear love,
90The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
91Strive to be interessed, 76What can you say to win
92a third, more opulent
Nothing my lord.
How? Nothing can come of nothing. Speak again.
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
98My heart into my
81mouth. I love your majesty
99According to my bond, nor more nor
82less.
Go to, go to. Mend your speech a little
10184Lest it may mar your fortunes.
Lest it may mar your fortunes. Good my lord,
10386You have begot me, bred me, loved me.
10487I return those duties back as are right fit;
10588Obey you, love you, and most honor you.
10689Why have my sisters husbands if they say
90Haply when I shall wed,
108that lord whose hand
91Must take my plight shall carry
109half my love with him,
92Half my care and duty.
110Sure I shall never
93Marry like my sisters, to
4.1love my father all.
4.2 But goes this with thy heart?
But goes this with thy heart? Ay, good my lord.
So young and so untender.
So young, my lord, and true.
Well, let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower;
11699For by the sacred radiance of the sun,
117100The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
118101By all the operation of the orbs
119102From whom we do exist and cease to be,
120103Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
121104Propinquity and property of blood,
122105And as a stranger to my heart and me
123106Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
124107Or he that makes his generation
108messes
109Shall
126be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved
127110As thou my sometime daughter.
As thou my sometime daughter. Good my liege--
Peace, Kent!
130Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
131113I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
132114On her kind nursery.
[To Cordelia] Hence and avoid my sight!--
133115So be my grave my peace, as here I give
134116Her father's heart from her. Call France. Who stirs?
[Exit an attendant.]
Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
136118With my two daughters' dowers digest this third.
137119Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
138120I do invest you jointly in my power,
139121Preeminence, and all the large effects
140122That troop with majesty. Ourself by monthly course,
141123With reservation of a hundred knights
142124By you to be sustained, shall our abode
143125Make with you by due turns; only we still retain
144126The name and all the additions to a king.
127The sway,
145revenue, execution of the rest,
146128Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm,
147129This coronet part betwixt you.
This coronet part betwixt you. Royal Lear,
149131Whom I have ever honored as my king,
150132Loved as my father, as my master followed,
151133As my great patron thought on in my prayers--
The bow is bent and drawn. Make from the shaft.
Let it fall rather,
136though the fork invade
154The region of my heart.
137Be Kent unmannerly
155When Lear is mad.
138What wilt thou do old man?
156Think'st thou that duty
139shall have dread to speak
157When power to flattery bows?
158140To plainness honor's bound
159When majesty stoops to folly.
141Reverse thy doom,
160And in thy best consideration
142check
161This hideous rashness. Answer my life
143my judgment;
162Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
163144Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
Reverbs no hollowness. Kent, on thy life no more.
My life I never held but as a pawn
167148To wage against thy enemies, nor fear to lose it
168149Thy safety being the motive.
Thy safety being the motive. Out of my sight!
See better, Lear, and let me still remain
171152The true blank of thine eye.
The true blank of thine eye. Now by Apollo--
Now, by Apollo, King,
174thou swear'st thy gods in vain.
[Threatening Kent] Vassal, recreant!
176Albany, [Cornwall or Cordelia] Dear sir, forbear!
Do. Kill thy physician,
157And the fee bestow
178upon the foul disease.
158Revoke thy doom,
179or whilst I can vent clamor
159From my throat
180I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
Hear me. On thy allegiance hear me.
182161Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
183162Which we durst never yet, and with strayed pride
184163To come between our sentence and our power,
185164Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
186165Our potency made good, take thy reward.
187166Four days we do allot thee for provision
188167To shield thee from dis-eases of the world,
189168And on the fifth to turn thy hated back
190169Upon our kingdom. If on the next day following
191170Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,
192171The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,
193172This shall not be revoked.
Why fare thee well, King, since thus thou wilt appear,
195174Friendship lives hence, and banishment is here.
196175[To Cordelia] The gods to their protection take thee, maid,
197176That rightly thinks and hast most justly said.
198177[To Goneril and Regan] And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
199178That good effects may spring from words of love.
200179Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
201180He'll shape his old course in a country new.
[Exit.]
202181Enter France and Burgundy with Gloucester [and an attendant.] Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
My lord of Burgundy,
206we first address towards you,
184Who with a king
207hath rivaled for our daughter.
185What in the least
208will you require in present
186Dower with her,
209or cease your quest of love?
Royal majesty,
211I crave no more than what
188Your highness offered;
212nor will you tender less.
Right noble Burgundy,
214when she was dear to us
215But now her price is fallen.
191Sir, there she stands.
216If aught within that little-
192seeming substance,
217Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced
218193And nothing else, may fitly like your grace,
219194She's there, and she is yours.
She's there, and she is yours. I know no answer.
Sir, will you with those infirmities she owes,
222197Unfriended, new adopted to our hate,
223198Covered with our curse and strangered with our oath,
Take her or leave her? Pardon me, royal sir,
226Election makes not up
201on such conditions.
Then leave her, sir, for by the power that made me
228203I tell you all her wealth.
[To France] For you, great king,
229204I would not from your love make such a stray
230205To match you where I hate. Therefore, beseech you
231206To avert your liking a more worthier way
232207Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
233208Almost to acknowledge hers.
Almost to acknowledge hers. This is most strange,
235That she, that even but now
210was your best object,
236The argument of your praise,
211balm of your age,
237Most best, most dearest,
212should in this trice of time
238Commit a thing
213so monstrous to dismantle
239So many folds of favor.
214Sure her offence
240Must be of such unnatural degree
241215That monsters it, or your fore-vouched affections
242216Fallen into taint; which to believe of her
243217Must be a faith that reason without miracle
244218Could never plant in me.
I yet beseech your majesty,
246220If for I want that glib and oily art,
247221To speak and purpose not--since what I well intend
248222I'll do't before I speak--that you may know
249223It is no vicious blot, murder or foulness,
250224No unclean action or dishonored step
251225That hath deprived me of your grace and favor,
252226But even for want of that for which I am rich--
253227A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue,
254228As I am glad I have not--though not to have it,
255229Hath lost me in your liking.
Hath lost me in your liking. Go to, go to. Better thou hadst
257Not been born,
231than not to have pleased me better.
Is it no more but this? A tardiness in nature
259233That often leaves the history unspoke
260That it intends to do?
234My lord of Burgundy,
261What say you to the lady?
235Love is not love
262When it is mingled with respects that stands
263236Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry. Royal Lear,
266Give but that portion
239which yourself proposed,
267And here I take Cordelia
240by the hand,
Duchess of Burgundy. Nothing. I have sworn.
[To Cordelia] I am sorry then you have so lost a father
271243That you must lose a husband.
Peace be with Burgundy;
273since that respects
245Of fortune are his love,
274I shall not be his wife.
Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor,
276247Most choice, forsaken, and most loved, despised,
277248Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon.
278249Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
279250Gods, gods! 'Tis strange, that from their coldest neglect
280251My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
281252Thy dowerless daughter, King, thrown to thy chance,
282253Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.
283254Not all the dukes in waterish Burgundy,
284255Shall buy this unprized precious maid of me.
285256Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind.
286257Thou losest here, a better where to find.
Thou hast her, France. Let her be thine,
259For we
288have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
289260That face of hers again. Therefore be gone,
290261Without our grace, our love, our benison.
262Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, [and others]. Bid farewell to your sisters.
The jewels of our father,
265with washed eyes
294Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are,
295266And like a sister am most loath to call
296Your faults
267as they are named. Use well our father.
297268To your professèd bosoms I commit him;
298269But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
299270I would prefer him to a better place.
300271So farewell to you both.
Prescribe not us our duties.
Prescribe not us our duties. Let your study
303Be to content your lord,
274who hath received you
304At fortune's alms.
275You have obedience scanted,
305276And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
Time shall unfold what pleated cunning hides,
307278Who covers faults, at last shame them derides.
Well may you prosper. Come, fair Cordelia.
Exeunt France and Cordelia.
Sister, it is not a little I have to say
311282of what most nearly appertains to us both.
312283I think our father will hence tonight.
That's most certain, and with you; next month with us.
You see how full of changes his age is. The
315observation we
286have made of it hath not been little. He always
316loved our sister
287most, and with what poor judgment he
317hath now cast her
288off appears too gross.
'Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but
319290slenderly known himself.
The best and soundest of his time hath been but
321rash.
292Then must we look to receive from his age not
322alone the
293imperfection of long-engrafted condition, but
323therewithal unruly
294waywardness that infirm and
324choleric years bring with them.
Such unconstant starts are we like to have from
326him as
296this of Kent's banishment.
There is further compliment of leave taking
328between
298France and him. Pray let's hit together. If our
329father carry
299authority with such dispositions as he bears,
330this last surrender of his
300will but offend us.
We shall further think on't.
We must do something, and i'th'heat.