Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my 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, loved 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
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall

carry

my

100

Half love with him, half my care and duty: Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor.

With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we st
The name, and all the additions to a king:
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm
This coronet part betwixt you. [Giving the on
Kent.
Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master fellow d
As my great patron thought on in my prayes-
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, ma

the shaft.

Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork in The region of my heart: be Kent unmar When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, all mar Think'st thou that duty shall have dread tem When power to flattery bows? To ph honour's bound,

When majesty falls to folly. Reverse by
And, in thy best consideration, check
This hideous rashness: answer my life my

ment,

Thy youngest daughter does not love thet int Nor are those empty-hearted whese low so Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear. Kent, on thy life, man Kent. My life I never held but as a powe To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to wei Thy safety being the motive.

Lear.

Out of

my

Ay, good my

Dear sir, forbear.

dower:

Kent. Do:

Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. So young, my lord, and true.

Lear

For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs

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.
Scythian,

110

The barbarous

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom:
Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my thrust,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said! ToRegan and Goneril] And your large speeches may your deeds approve,

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.
Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with FRANCE,
BURGUNDY, and Attendants.

Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. 191

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with this king

Hath 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,

I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd,
Nor will you tender less.
Lear.
Right noble Burgundy,
When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
If aught within that little seeming substance, 201
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
She's there, and she is yours.

Bur.

I know no answer.

Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she

Hath lost me in your liking.
Lear.
Better thou
Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me
better.

France. Is it but this,-a tardiness in nature
Which often leaves the history unspoke
That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love's not love 241
When it is mingled with regards that stand
Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.
Bur.
Royal Lear,

Give but that portion which yourself proposed, And here I take Cordelia by the hand, Duchess 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! 250 Since that respects of fortune are his love, I shall not be his wife.

France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor:

Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
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 inflamed respect.
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my
chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: 260
Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unprized 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 hers again. Therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt all but France,
Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.
France. Bid farewell to your sisters.
Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd

eyes

20

Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named.

father:

Use well our

To your professed 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 279
Be to content your lord, who hath received you
At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the want that you have
wanted.

Cor. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:

Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
Well may you prosper!
France.

Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt France and Cordelia. Gon. Sister, it is not a little I have to say of

what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night.

Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. 290 Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath not been little: he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off 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 from his age, not alone the imperfections of longengraffed condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

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

Gon. There is further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let's hit together: if our father carry authority with !such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us. 310

Reg. We shall further think on't.
Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter.

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 moonshines

Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
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
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating 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:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Enter GLOUCester.

Glou Kent banish'd thus! and France choler parted!

20

in

And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!

Confined to exhibition! All this done
Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?
Edm. So please your lordship, none.
[Putting up the letter.
Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up
that letter?

Edm. I know no news, my lord.
Glou.

What paper were you reading?

Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Glou. No? What needed, then, that term dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality nothing hath not such need to hide itsel Le see: come, if it be nothing, I shal x = spectacles.

Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: =^. letter from my brother, that I have not a read; and for so much as I have perused, 1. it not fit for your o'er-looking.

Glou. Give me the letter, sir.

Edm. I shall offend, either to detain a re it. The contents, as in part 1 understand ther are to blame.

Glou. Let's see, let's see.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's justificant he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my

Glou. [Reads] This policy and revers age makes the world bitter to the best times; keeps our fortunes from us till our st cannot relish them. I begin to find an ide fond bondage in the oppression of aged tym who sways, not as it hath power, but as suffered. Come to me, that of this I may co more. If our father would sleep till I wake! you should enjoy half his revenue for ever.. live the beloved of your brother, Engas Hum-conspiracy-Sleep till I waked you should enjoy half his revenue.'-M Edgar! Had he a hand to write this a and brain to breed it in?-When came i you? who brought it?

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

Glou You know the character to be** brother's?

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

Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I h heart is not in the contents.

Glou. Hath he never heretofore somet in this business?

Edm. Never, my lord: but I have heart oft maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfe and fathers declining, the father shoo! * ward to the son, and the son manage his rever:

Glou. O villain, villain! His very op the letter! Abhorred villain! Unnature tested, brutish villain! worse than brutish sirrah, seek him: I'll apprehend him: a able villain! Where is he?

Edm. I do not well know, my lord i shall please you to suspend your indi against my brother till you can derive fr better testimony of his intent, you shall ri certain course; where, if you violently pr against him, mistaking his purpose, it woul a great gap in your own honour, and shair pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare z down my life for him, that he hath wrote t feel my affection to your honour, and to a ther pretence of danger.

Glou. Think you so!

Glow. These late eclipses in the sun and moon ortend no good to us: though the wisdom of naure can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds tself scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, riendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, muinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; nd the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This illain of mine comes under the prediction; there's on against father: the king falls from bias of ature; there's father against child. We have een the best of our time: machinations, hollowess, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow s disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, dmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it careully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent anished! his offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,-often he surfeit of our own behaviour,--we make guilty f our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: s if we were villains by necessity; fools by heaenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, y spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and dulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary nfluence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine hrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the harge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my naivity was under Ursa major; so that it folows, I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I should Lave been that I am, had the maidenliest star n the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar

Enter EDGAR.

and pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old omedy: my cue is villanous melancholy, with a igh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do rtend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.

Edg. How now, brother Edmund! what seious contemplation are you in?

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

Edg. Do you busy yourself about that? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of cceed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between he child and the parent; death, dearth, dissoluions of ancient amities; divisions in state, meices and maledictions against king and nobles; deedless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know but what

Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical?

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

170

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.

Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence till 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 would scarcely allay.

180

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 lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my key: if you do stir abroad, go armed. Edg. Armed, brother!

Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best; go armed: 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.

199

A credulous father! and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms,
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy! I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's meet that I can fashion fit. [Exit.
SCENE III. The Duke of Albany's palace.
Enter GONERIL, and OSWALD, her steward.
Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for
chiding of his fool?

He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it:
His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
On every trifle. When he returns from hunting,
I will not speak with him; say I am sick:
If you come slack of former services,
You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer.
Osw. He's coming, madam; I hear him.
[Horns within.

Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows; I'ld have it come to question:

If he dislike it, let him to our sister,
Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one,
Not to be over-ruled. 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 used
With checks as flatteries,-when they are seen
abused.
Remember what I tell you.

20

Osw.
Well, madam.
Gon. And let his knights have colder looks

among you;