1    I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
2    Albany than Cornwall.

3    It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
4    division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
5    the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
6    weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
7    of either's moiety.

8    Is not this your son, my lord?

9    His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
10   so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
11   brazed to it.

12   I cannot conceive you.

13   Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
14   she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
15   for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
16   Do you smell a fault?

17   I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
18   being so proper.

19   But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
20   elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
21   though this knave came something saucily into the
22   world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
23   fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
24   whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
25   noble gentleman, Edmund?

26   No, my lord.

27   My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
28   honourable friend.

29   My services to your lordship.

30   I must love you, and sue to know you better.

31   Sir, I shall study deserving.

32   He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
33   again. The king is coming.

34   Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

35   I shall, my liege.

36   Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
37   Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
38   In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
39   To shake all cares and business from our age;
40   Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
41   Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
42   And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
43   We have this hour a constant will to publish
44   Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife
45   May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
46   Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
47   Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
48   And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters,--
49   Since now we will divest us both of rule,
50   Interest of territory, cares of state,--
51   Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
52   That we our largest bounty may extend
53   Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
54   Our eldest-born, speak first.

55   Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
56   Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
57   Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
58   No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
59   As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
60   A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
61   Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Aside
62    What shall Cordelia do?
63   Love, and be silent.

64   Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
65   With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
66   With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
67   We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
68   Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
69   Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.

70   Sir, I am made
71   Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
72   And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
73   I find she names my very deed of love;
74   Only she comes too short: that I profess
75   Myself an enemy to all other joys,
76   Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
77   And find I am alone felicitate
78   In your dear highness' love.

Aside
79    Then poor Cordelia!
80   And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
81   More richer than my tongue.

82   To thee and thine hereditary ever
83   Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
84   No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
85   Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
86   Although the last, not least; to whose young love
87   The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
88   Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
89   A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

90   Nothing, my lord.

91   Nothing!

92   Nothing.

93   Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

94   Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
95   My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
96   According to my bond; nor more nor less.

97   How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
98   Lest it may mar your fortunes.

99   Good my lord,
100  You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
101  Return those duties back as are right fit,
102  Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
103  Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
104  They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
105  That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
106  Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
107  Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
108  To love my father all.

109  But goes thy heart with this?

110  Ay, good my lord.

111  So young, and so untender?

112  So young, my lord, and true.

113  Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
114  For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
115  The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
116  By all the operation of the orbs
117  From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
118  Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
119  Propinquity and property of blood,
120  And as a stranger to my heart and me
121  Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
122  Or he that makes his generation messes
123  To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
124  Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
125  As thou my sometime daughter.

126  Good my liege,--

127  Peace, Kent!
128  Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
129  I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
130  On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!
131  So be my grave my peace, as here I give
132  Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
133  Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
134  With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
135  Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
136  I do invest you jointly with my power,
137  Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
138  That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
139  With reservation of an hundred knights,
140  By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
141  Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
142  The name, and all the additions to a king;
143  The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
144  Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
145  This coronet part betwixt you.

146  Royal Lear,
147  Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
148  Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,
149  As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--

150  The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.

151  Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
152  The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,
153  When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
154  Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
155  When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,
156  When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;
157  And, in thy best consideration, cheque
158  This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,
159  Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
160  Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
161  Reverbs no hollowness.

162  Kent, on thy life, no more.

163  My life I never held but as a pawn
164  To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
165  Thy safety being the motive.

166  Out of my sight!

167  See better, Lear; and let me still remain
168  The true blank of thine eye.

169  Now, by Apollo,--

170  Now, by Apollo, king,
171  Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

172  O, vassal! miscreant!

173  Dear sir, forbear.

174  Do:
175  Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
176  Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
177  Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
178  I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

179  Hear me, recreant!
180  On thine allegiance, hear me!
181  Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
182  Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
183  To come between our sentence and our power,
184  Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
185  Our potency made good, take thy reward.
186  Five days we do allot thee, for provision
187  To shield thee from diseases of the world;
188  And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
189  Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
190  Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
191  The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
192  This shall not be revoked.

193  Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,
194  Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.
To CORDELIA
195  The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,
196  That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!
To REGAN and GONERIL
197  And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
198  That good effects may spring from words of love.
199  Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;
200  He'll shape his old course in a country new.

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

202  My lord of Burgundy.
203  We first address towards you, who with this king
204  Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,
205  Will you require in present dower with her,
206  Or cease your quest of love?

207  Most royal majesty,
208  I crave no more than what your highness offer'd,
209  Nor will you tender less.

210  Right noble Burgundy,
211  When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
212  But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands:
213  If aught within that little seeming substance,
214  Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
215  And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
216  She's there, and she is yours.

217  I know no answer.

218  Will you, with those infirmities she owes,
219  Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
220  Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
221  Take her, or leave her?

222  Pardon me, royal sir;
223  Election makes not up on such conditions.

224  Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,
225  I tell you all her wealth.
To KING OF FRANCE
226  For you, great king,
227  I would not from your love make such a stray,
228  To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
229  To avert your liking a more worthier way
230  Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
231  Almost to acknowledge hers.

232  This is most strange,
233  That she, that even but now was your best object,
234  The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
235  Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
236  Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
237  So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
238  Must be of such unnatural degree,
239  That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
240  Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
241  Must be a faith that reason without miracle
242  Could never plant in me.

243  I yet beseech your majesty,--
244  If for I want that glib and oily art,
245  To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
246  I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known
247  It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
248  No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
249  That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
250  But even for want of that for which I am richer,
251  A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
252  As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
253  Hath lost me in your liking.

254  Better thou
255  Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.

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

263  Royal Lear,
264  Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
265  And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
266  Duchess of Burgundy.

267  Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.

268  I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
269  That you must lose a husband.

270  Peace be with Burgundy!
271  Since that respects of fortune are his love,
272  I shall not be his wife.

273  Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
274  Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
275  Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
276  Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
277  Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
278  My love should kindle to inflamed respect.
279  Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
280  Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
281  Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
282  Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
283  Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
284  Thou losest here, a better where to find.

285  Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
286  Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
287  That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
288  Without our grace, our love, our benison.
289  Come, noble Burgundy.

290  Bid farewell to your sisters.

291  The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
292  Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;
293  And like a sister am most loath to call
294  Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
295  To your professed bosoms I commit him
296  But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
297  I would prefer him to a better place.
298  So, farewell to you both.

299  Prescribe not us our duties.

300  Let your study
301  Be to content your lord, who hath received you
302  At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
303  And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

304  Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
305  Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
306  Well may you prosper!

307  Come, my fair Cordelia.

308  Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
309  most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
310  father will hence to-night.

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

312  You see how full of changes his age is; the
313  observation we have made of it hath not been
314  little: he always loved our sister most; and
315  with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
316  appears too grossly.

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

319  The best and soundest of his time hath been but
320  rash; then must we look to receive from his age,
321  not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed
322  condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness
323  that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

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

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

331  We shall further think on't.

332  We must do something, and i' the heat.