Kent

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

Gloucester

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

Kent

Is not this your son, my lord?

Gloucester

His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to't.

Kent

I cannot conceive you.

Gloucester

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

Kent

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

Gloucester

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

Edmund

No, my lord.

Gloucester

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

Edmund

My services to your lordship.

Kent

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

Edmund

Sir, I shall study deserving.

Gloucester

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

Lear

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

Gloucester

I shall, my lord. Exeunt Gloucester and Edmund.

Lear

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

Give me the map there. Know that we have divided

In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent

To shake all cares and business from our age;

Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

Unburdened crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,

And you, our no less loving son of Albany,

We have this hour a constant will to publish

Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife

May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,

Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,

Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,

And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters, —

Since now we will divest us, both of rule,

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. Goneril,

Our eldest-born, speak first.

Goneril

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;

As much as child e'er loved, or father found;

A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Cordelia

Aside

What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.

Lear

Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,

With shadowy forest and with champains riched,

With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,

We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue

Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,

Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? Speak.

Regan

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 possesses;

And find I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness' love.

Cordelia

Aside

Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's

More ponderous 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 conferred on Goneril. Now, our joy,

Although our last and least, to whose young love

The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

Strive to be interessed; what can you say to draw

A third more opulent than your sisters'? Speak.

Cordelia

Nothing, my lord.

Lear

Nothing!

Cordelia

Nothing!

Lear

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

Cordelia

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty

According to my bond; no more nor less.

Lear

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

Lest you may mar your fortunes.

Cordelia

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? Happily, when I shall wed.

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry

Half my 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?

Cordelia

Ay, my good lord.

Lear

So young, and so untender?

Cordelia

So young, my lord, and true.

Lear

Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:

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. The barbarous Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation messes

To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved,

As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent

Good my liege, —

Lear

Peace, Kent.

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I loved her most, and thought to set my rest

On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!

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 the third:

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

I do invest you jointly with my power,

Pre-eminence, and all the large effects

That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,

With reservation of an hundred knights,

By you to be sustained, shall our abode

Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain

The name, and all the addition to a king;

The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,

Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,

This coronet part between you. Giving the crown.

Kent

Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honoured as my king,

Loved as my father, as my master followed,

As my great patron thought on in my prayers, —

Lear

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

Kent

Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,

When Lear is mad. What wouldest thou do, old man?

Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,

When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,

When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state;

And, in thy best consideration, check

This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgement,

Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;

Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds

Reverb no hollowness.

Lear

Kent, on thy life, no more.

Kent

My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it,

Thy safety being motive.

Lear

Out of my sight!

Kent

See better, Lear; and let me still remain

The true blank of thine eye.

Lear

Now, by Apollo, —

Kent

Now, by Apollo, king,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear

O, vassal! miscreant! Laying his hand on his sword.

Albany

Dear sir, forbear.

Kent

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift;

Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,

I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

Lear

Hear me, recreant!

On thine allegiance, hear me!

That thou hast sought to make us break our vow,

Which we durst never yet, and with strained 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 banished trunk be found in our dominions,

The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,

This shall not be revoked.

Kent

Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. To Cordelia The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said! To Regan 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.

Gloucester

Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

Lear

My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with this king

Hath rivalled for our daughter: what, in the least,

Will you require in present dower with her,

Or cease your quest of love?

Burgundy

Most royal majesty,

I crave no more than hath your highness offered,

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,

Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,

And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,

She's there, and she is yours.

Burgundy

I know no answer.

Lear

Will you, with those infirmities she owes,

Unfriended, new adopted to our hate,

Dowered with our curse, and strangered with our oath,

Take her, or leave her?

Burgundy

Pardon me, royal sir;

Election makes not up in such conditions.

Lear

Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,

I tell you all her wealth. To France For you, great king,

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 ashamed

Almost to acknowledge hers.

France

This is most strange,

That she, whom 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

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-vouched affection

Fall into taint: which to believe of her,

Must be a faith that reason without miracle

Should never plant in me.

Cordelia

I yet beseech your majesty, —

If for I want 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, murder, or foulness,

No unchaste action, or dishonoured step,

That hath deprived 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

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

When it is mingled with regards that stands

Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?

She is herself a dowry.

Burgundy

Royal King,

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.

Burgundy

I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father

That you must lose a husband.

Cordelia

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 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:

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.

Cordelia

The jewels of our father, with washed eyes

Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;

And like a sister am most loath to call

Your faults as they are named. Love well our father:

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.

Regan

Prescribe not us our duty.

Goneril

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.

Cordelia

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:

Who covers faults, at last with shame derides.

Well may you prosper!

France

Come, my fair Cordelia. Exeunt France and Cordelia.

Goneril

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.

Regan

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

Goneril

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.

Regan

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

Goneril

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

Regan

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

Goneril

There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with such disposition as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.

Regan

We shall further think of it.

Goneril

We must do something, and i' the heat.