Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour! Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,

That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
Fall'n into taint; 39 which to believe of her,
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

Cord.

I yet beseech your Majesty,

(If for I want 40 that glib and oily art,

To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak,) that you make known
It is no vicious blot, nor other foulness,

No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,

That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
But even the want of that for which I'm richer,
A still-soliciting eye,11 and such a tongue

As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.

Hadst not been born than not t' 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

89 "Must be fall'n " is the meaning. Taint for attaint or attainder. "The affection which you before professed must have fallen under reproach or impeachment as fickle or false.". 'Of such unnatural degree, that monsters it," is of such unnatural degree as to be monstrous, or prove her a monster. 40 That is, "If it be because I want," or " If you are doing this because I want." The use of for in the sense of because is very frequent.

41 " A soliciting eye" here means a greedy, self-seeking, covetous eye. The Poet often has still in the sense of ever or continually.· - The preceding line will hardly bear a grammatical analysis, but the sense is plain enough. "The want of that for which means, simply, "that want for which," or, if you please," the want of that for the want of which."

"

When it is mingled with regards 42 that stand

Aloof from th' entire point. Will you have her
She is herself a dowry.

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'm 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, that art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!

Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon :

Be't 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:
Not all the dukes of waterish 43 Burgundy
Can buy this únprized 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.44

42 Regards for considerations or inducements. The same with respects in the fourth speech after. So the latter word is commonly used by the Poet. 43 Waterish is here used with a dash of contempt. Burgundy, a level, well-watered country, was famous for its pastures and dairy-produce.

44 The Poet uses benison for blessing, when he wants a trisyllable.

Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GLOSTER, and Attendants.

France. Bid farewell to your sisters.

Cord. Ye 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

Your faults as they are named. Love well our father:
To your professèd 45 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 received you

At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,

And well are worth the want that you have wanted.46

Cord. Time shall unfold what plighted 47 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 little I have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night.

us.

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

Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath not been little : he always

45 Professèd for professing; the passive form with the active sense. So in Paradise Lost, i. 486: “Likening his Maker to the grazed ox."

46 "You well deserve to want that in which you have been wanting." 47 Plight, pleat, and plait are but different forms of the same word, all meaning to fold, complicate, and so make dark.

loved our sister most; and with what poor judgment 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 long-engraffed condition,48 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 leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: 49 if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We shall further think of it.

Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat.50 [Exeunt.

SCENE II. - A Hall in the Earl of GLOSTER'S Castle.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter.

Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound.1 Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit

48 Temper, or disposition, set and confirmed by long habit.

49"Let us agree or unite in the same plan or course of action." - The meaning of what follows probably is, "If the King continue in the same rash, headstrong, and inconstant temper as he has just shown in snatching back his authority the moment his will is crossed, we shall be the worse off for his surrender of the kingdom to us."

50 So in the common phrase, "Strike while the iron's hot."

1 In this speech of Edmund you see, as soon as a man cannot reconcile himself to reason, how his conscience flies off by way of appeal to Nature, who is sure upon such occasions never to find fault; and also how shame sharpens a predisposition in the heart to evil. - COLERIDGE.

The curiosity of nations to deprive me,2

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, tirèd bed,
Go to th' 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 th' legitimate: fine word, - legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th' legitimate.3 I grow; I prosper :-
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Enter GLOSTER.

Glos. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted! 14 And the King gone to-night! subscribed his power! Confined to exhibition! All this done

Upon the gad !5 — Edmund, how now! what news?

2 To "stand in the plague of custom " is, in Edmund's sense, to lie under the ban of conventional disability.-"The curiosity of nations is the moral strictness of civil institutions; especially the law of marriage, and the exclusion of bastards from the rights of inheritance. -To deprive was sometimes used for to cut off, to disinherit. Exheredo is rendered by this word in the old dictionaries.

8 To top is to rise above, to surpass. A frequent usage.

4 Parted for departed. Also a frequent usage.

5" Subscribed his power," is yielded or given up his power; as when we say a man has signed away his wealth, his freedom, or his rights.— "Confined to exhibition" is limited to an allowance. So in Ben Jonson's