Page images
PDF
EPUB

written till after the publication of Harsnet's Discovery of Popish Impostures, in 1603, because the names of the fiends mentioned by Edgar are borrowed from that work.

The story of King Lear and his daughters was so popular in Shakespeare's time, that he may have taken it from Geoffrey of Monmouth; from the legend "How Queene Cordila in dispaire slew her selfe, The yeare before Christ 800," in the "Mirror for Magistrates;" from Spenser's "Fairie Queene," b. ii. c. x.; or, from Holinshed. There was, indeed, an old anonymous play on the subject, an edition of which was put forth in 1605, under the title of "The True Chronicle History of King Leir, and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella: " mainly in consequence it would seem of the great popularity of the present drama then "running" at the Globe theatre; the publishers probably trusting to foist the elder production upon the public as Shakespeare's work; but from this piece he appears to have derived nothing, unless, perhaps, some hint for the character of Kent.

The episode of Gloucester and his two sons was probably founded on Book II. chap. x. of Sidney's Arcadia, "The pitifull state and storie of the Paphlagonian unkinde king, and his kind sonne;" &c. which together with the legend of "Queene Cordila,” from “The Mirror for Magistrates," are reprinted in Mr. Collier's "Shakespeare's Library," Vol. II.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND.

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

GLO. 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.b

KENT. Is not this your son, my lord?

GLO. 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.

GLO. 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.

GLO. But I have, sir, a sont by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in

[blocks in formation]

my account: though this knave came something saucily into 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 ? EDM. No, my lord.

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

EDM. My services to your lordship.

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

EDM. Sir, I shall study deserving. GLO. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The king is coming.

[Trumpets sound without.

Enter LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants.

LEAR. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloster.

(*) First folio, to.

against one another, that the exactest scrutiny could not determine in preferring one share to the other."-WARBURTON.

[blocks in formation]

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 answer'd.-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.

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

Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valu'd, rich or rare;

*

can

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

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.

CORD. [Aside.] What shall Cordelia do ?+
Love, and be silent.

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

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, 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 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-
sesses,§

And find I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness' love.

CORD. [Aside.] Then poor Cordelia ! And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's More richer 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 conferr'd on Goneril.-Now, our joy, Although our 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 A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. CORD. Nothing, my lord.

LEAR. Nothing!

CORD. Nothing.'

[blocks in formation]

"Although our last and least; to whose yong love, The Vines of France, and Milke of Burgundie, Strive to be interest. What can you say, to draw A third, more opilent than your Sisters? speake." That and in the folio is a misprint for "but," it seems scarcely possible to doubt, yet Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight read, "our last and least." "Though last not least," was one of the com monest forms of expression in Shakespeare's age; in addition to the overwhelming array of examples cited in the Variorum edition of 1821, Vol. II. pp. 276-279, take the following:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound,

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 neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,

As thou my sometime daughter :

KENT.

LEAR. Peace, Kent!

Good my liege,―

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery.

sight!

-Hence, and avoid my

[TO CORDELIA.b

So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her!-Call France.-
Who stirs ?

[course,

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
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly
With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still
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 between you.

KENT.

[retain

[Giving the crown. Royal Lear,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

(Which we durst never yet) and, with strain'd
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 diseases 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. Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,

е

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

(*) First folio, falls.

(1) First folio, sounds Reverbe. () First folio omits, the. (**) First folio, That.

[TO CORDELIA.

(+) First folio, reserve thy state. (§) First folio omits, a. () First folio, thy. (tt) First folio, vowes.

(11) First folio, sentences.

the folio has-"disasters of the world." Diseases, in its old and literal sense of discomforts, hardships, and the like, is, however, much the more appropriate word.

e Freedom lives hence,-] The quartos have Friendship for "Freedom; " and in the next line, instead of "dear shelter," they read protection.

« PreviousContinue »