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Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
Longinourcourt have made their amorous sojourn,
And here are to be answer.d.-Tell me,mydaugh-
(Since now we will divest us, both of rule, [ters,
Interest of territory, cares of state,)
Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most?
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge.-Go-
Our eldest born, speak first.

Gon. Sir, I

They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall carry

Half my love with him, half my care, and duty: 5 Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, To love my father all.

[neril,

[ter, 10

Do love you more than words can wield the mat-
Dearer than eye-sight, space and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued rich or rare; [nour:
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, ho-
As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
Cor. What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be
silent.
[Aside.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?
Cor. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. So young, and so untender?

Cor. So young, my lord, and true.

[dower:

Lear. Let it be so-Thy truth then be thy
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operations of the orbs,

15 From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this", "for ever. The barbarous
Scythian,

Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line 20
to this,

With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers, and white-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: To thine and Albany's issue
Bethis perpetual.--What says our second daughter, 25
Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.

Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find, she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,

Which the most precious square of sense pos-
And find, I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness' love.
Cor. Then poor Cordelia !

(sesses;

30

[Aside. 35

And yet not so; since I am sure, my love's
More pond'rous than my tongue.

Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever,
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that confirm'd on Goneril.-Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love,
The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy,
Strive to be interess'd; what can you say, to draw

Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,
As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent. Good my liege,-
Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath:
I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery.-Hence, and avoid my
sight!-
[To Cordelia.
So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her!-Call France ;—
Who stirs ?

Call Burgundy.Cornwall, and Albany,
With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects [course,
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly
40 With reservation of an hundred knights,

[tain

By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only, we shall re-
The name, and all the addition to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest',

A third, more opulent than your sisters? Speak. 45 Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,

Cor. Nothing, my lord.

Lear. Nothing?

Cor. Nothing.

[again.

Lear. Nothing can come of nothing: speak
Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to any bond; nor more, nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech
a little,

Lest it may mar your fortunes.

Cor. Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say,

1 That is, beyond all assignable quantity.

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60 When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;

2 That seems to stand without relation, but is referred

to find; the first conjunction being inaccurately suppressed.-I find that she names my deed, I find

that I profess, &c. Square here means compass, comprehension.

i. e. from this time. gi, e. the execution of all the other business.

Validity, for worth, value.

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5

10

15

20

Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow, 25 (Which we durst never yet,) and, with strain'd

pride',

To come betwixt our sentence and our power*,
(Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,)
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee for provision
To shield thee from disasters of the world;
And, on the sixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if on the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death: Away! By Jupiter,
This shall not be revok'd.

Kent. Why, fare thee well, king: since thus
thou wilt appear,

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Bur. I know no answer.

[owes',

[oath,

Lear. Sir, will you, with those infirmities she
Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our
Take her, or leave her?

Bur. Pardon me, royal sir;

Election makes not up on such conditions.
Lear. Then leave her, sir; for by the power
that made me,

I tell you all her wealth.-For you, great king,
[To France.
I would not from your love make such a stray,
To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
To avert your liking a more worthier way
Than on a wretch whom nature is asham'd
Almost to acknowledge hers.

France. This is most strange!

That she, who even but now was your best object,
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
The best, the dearest, should in this trice of time
30 Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour! Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,

35

40

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.-
The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
[To Cordelia.
That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said.-
And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
[To Regan and Goneril. 45
That good effects may spring from words of love.
Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
He'll shape his old course in a country new. [Exit.

- Re-enter Gloster, with France, Burgundy, and
Attendants.

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Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with this king
Have rivall'd for our daughter; What, in the least,
Will you require in present dower with her,
Or cease your quest of love'?

Bur. Most royal majesty,

Means the same as reverberates.

50

55

That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
Fall into taint': which to believe of her,
Must be of faith, that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

Cor. I yet beseech your majesty,

(If for I want that glib and oily art,

[tend,

To speak and purpose not; since what I well in-
I'll do't before I speak) that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour:
But even for want of that, for which I am richer:
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
That I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.

Lear. Better thou

[better. Hadst not been born, than not to have pleas'd me France. Is it no more but this? a tardiness in

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2 The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. See better, says Kent, and keep me always in your view. i. e. pride exorbitant; pride passing due bounds. i. e. our power to execute that sentence. "Quest of love is amorous expe dition. The term originated from romance. A quest was the expedition in which a knight was engaged. Seeming is specious. 'i. e. is possessed of. i. e. makes not advances. is here used for corruption and for disgrace. 10 Entire for single.

6

302

8

9 Taint

Ani

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
Dutchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing; I have sworn: I am firm. Bur. I am sorry then you have so lost a father, That you must lose a husband.

Cor. Peace be with Burgundy!

Since that respects of fortune are his love,
I shall not be his wife.

France. Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich,
being poor;

Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd!
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
Be it lawful, I take up
what's cast away.
Gods, gods! 'tis strange, that from their cold'st

neglect

My love should kindle to inflam'd respect.
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my
chance,

Is queen of us, and ours, and our fair France:
Not all the dukes of wat'rish Burgundy
Shall buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me.-
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
Thou losest here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine;
for we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of her's again:-Therefore be gone,
Without our grace, our love, our benizon.-
Come, noble Burgundy.

Gon. You see how full of changes his age is! the observation we have made of it hath not been little! he always lov'd our sister most; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off, 5 appears too grossly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.

Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look to receive 10 from his age, not alone the imperfections of longengrafted condition, but thesewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to 15have from him, as this of Kent's banishment.

Gon. There is further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: If our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last sur20 render of his will but offend us.

25

[Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, &c. 30
France. Bid farewell to your sisters.
Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are:
And, like a sister, am most loth to call [ther:
Your faults, as they are nam'd. Use well our fa-35
To your professing bosoms I commit him:
But yet, alas! stood I within his grace,
I would prefer him to a better place.
So farewell to you both.

Reg. Prescribe not us our duties.
Gon. Let your study

Be, to content your lord; who hath receiv'd you
At fortune's alms: You have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the want that you have

wanted2.

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Reg. We shall further think of it.
Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat
[Exeunt.

SGENE II.

A Castle belonging to the Earl of Gloster.
Enter Edmund, with a letter.

7

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Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound: Wherefore should I
stand in the plague of custom; and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-
shines
[base?
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
40 More composition, and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating of a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake?-Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund,.
As to the legitimate: Fine word,-legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow I prosper:-
50Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

1451

Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next 55 month with us.

Enter Gloster.

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Here and where have the power of nouns.-Thou losest this residence to find a better residence in another place. The meaning is, "You well deserve to meet with that want of love from your husband, which you have professed to want for our father." 3i. e. complicated, involved cunning. i. e. We must strike while the iron's hot. That is, Wherefore should I ac'Curiosity, in the time of Shak

* i, e. agree. quiesce, submit tamely to the plagues and injustice of custom? speare, was a word that signified an over-nice scrupulousness in manners, dress, &c.-The curiosity of nations means, the idle, nice distinctions of the world. To deprive was, in our author's time, synonymous to disinherit. ? Subscrib'd for transferred, alienated. 10 Exhibition is allowance.

Upon the gad! Edmund! How now? what the letter!

news?

Edm. So please your lordship, none.

[Putting up the letter.

Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that 5
letter?

Edm. I know no news, my lord.
Glo. What paper were you reading?
Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Glo. No? What needed then that terrible dis-10 patch of it into your pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let's see: Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; 15 and for so much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your overlooking.

Glo. Give me the letter, sir.

Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are 20 to blame.

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Glo. Let's see, let's see.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an assay or taste of my virtue. Glo. [reads.] "This policy, and reverence of 25 age, makes the world bitter to the best of our “ times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our old-| "ness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle " and fond 'bondage in the oppression of aged ty"ranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but 30 "as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may

speak more. If our father would sleep 'till I "wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue "for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, "Edgar."---Hum!---Conspiracy!-- Sleep, 'till 135 "wak'd him!-you shall enjoy half his reve"nue!"My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in?-When came this to you? Who brought it?

Edm. It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glo. You know the character to be your brother's?

Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not.

Glo. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope, his heart is not in the contents. [this business? Glo. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in Edm. Never, my lord: But I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

Glo. O villain, villain!-Iis very opinion in

Abhorred villain! Unnatural, de

tested, brutish villain! worse than brutish!--Go, sirrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him :-Abominable yillain!-Where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

Glo. Think you so?

Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evenGlo. He cannot be such a monster. Edm. Nor is not, sure.

[ing.

Glo. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth !--Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own wisdom: I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution *.

Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; conveys the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.

Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourg'd by the frequent effects'; love cools, triendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of na40ture; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves!-Find out this villain, Edmund: it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully: 45-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his offence, honesty!Strange! strange! [Exit.

50

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are sick in fortune, (often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains, by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, lyars, and adulterers, by an enforc'd obedience of planetary 55 influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whore

To do upon the gad, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung by the gad-fly. i. e. weak and foolish. Pretence is design, purpose. 4 The meaning is, according to Dr. Johnson, Do you frame the business, who can act with less emotion; I zcould unstate myself; it would in me be a departure from the paternal character, to be in a due resoLution, to be settled and composed on such an occasion.—Mr. Steevens comments on this passage thus: "Edgar has been represented as wishing to possess his father's fortune, i. e. to unstate him; and therefore his father says, he would unstate himself to be sufficiently resolved to punish him."-To enstate is to confer a fortune. To convey, here means to manage artfully. That is, though natural philosophy can give account of eclipses, yet we feel their consequences.

303

master

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and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a 10 sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O,these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi—

Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you in?

Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses.

Edg. Do you busy yourself with that ?

15

Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of, succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between 20 the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities, divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.

Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical?

Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last?

Edg. Why, the night gone by.
Edm. Spake you with him?
Edg. Ay, two hours together.

Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance? Edg. None at all.

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The Duke of Albany's Palace.
Enter Goneril, and Steward.

[Exit.

Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?

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[Horns within.

Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows; I'd have it come to ques
If he dislike it, let him to my sister, [tion:
25 Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-rul'd. Idle old man,
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away!-Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd
30 With checks as flatteries when they are seen ab
Remember what I have said.

35

Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him: and at my entreaty, forbear his presence, until some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it 40 would scarcely allay.

Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong.

Edm. That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance, 'till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my lod-45 ging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my ford speak: Pray you, go; there's my key:—If you do stir abroad, go arm'd.

Edg. Arm'd, brother!

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best; go|50| arm'd; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do serve you in this business.—

[Exit Edgar.

A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms,

55

Stew. Very well, madam.

[us'd',

Gen. And let his knights have colder looks

among you;

[so: What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, That I may speak :- -I'll write straight to my

sister

To hold my very course:-Prepare for dinner. [Exeunt,

SCENE IV.

An open Place before the Palace.

Enter Kent, disguised.

Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow,
That can my speech diffuse 2, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue
For which I raz'd my likeness.-Now, banish'd
[demn'd,
If thou canst serve where thou dost stand con-
(So may it come!) thy master, whom thou lov'st,
Shall find thee full of labours.

Kent,

Horns within. Enter Lear, Knights, and Attend

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The sense, according to Dr. Johnson, is this: "Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are seen to be deceived with flatteries: or, when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be used with checks. There is a play on the words used and abused.—To abuse is, in our author, very requently the same as to deceive." 2 Thát is, If I can change my speech as well as I have changed my dress.-To diffuse speech, signifies to disorder it, and so to disguise it.

Lear

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