I find, she names my very deed of love; Myself an enemy to all other joys, Which the most precious square of sense possesses; In your dear highness' love. Cor. Then poor Cordelia! [Aside. Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, Lear. Nothing? Cor. Nothing. Lear. Nothing can come of nothing; speak again. My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a Lest it may mar your fortunes. Cor. Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, loved me; I an enemy to all other joys which the most precious aggregation of sense can bestow." Square is here used for the whole complement, as circle is now sometimes used. 1 Validity is several times used to signify worth, value, by Shakspeare. It does not, however, appear to have been peculiar to him in this sense. 2 The folio reads conferred; the quartos, confirmed. So in a former passage we have in the quartos confirming for conferring. The word confirm might be used in this connection in a legal sense, as it is in instruments of conveyance. 3 To interest and to interesse are not, perhaps, different spellings of the same verb, but two distinct words, though of the same import. We have interessed in Ben Jonson's Sejanus. Drayton also uses the word in the Preface to his Polyolbion. Obey you, love you, and most honor 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 To love my father all. Lear. But goes this with thy heart? Cor. Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. 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 operations of the orbs, From whom we do exist, and cease to be; Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee, from this, forever. The barbarous Scythian, Or he that makes his generation1 messes Το gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved, Kent. Lear. Peace, Kent! Good my liege, Come not between the dragon and his wrath. 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 this third ; Preeminence, and all the large effects That troop with majesty.-Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of a hundred knights, 1 His children. By you to be sustained, shall our abode Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain1 The name, and all the additions to a king; The sway, Revenue, execution of the rest,3 Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm, Kent. [Giving the crown. Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honored 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 wouldst thou do, old man ? Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? to flattery bows? To plainness honor's bound, When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;1 And, in thy best consideration, check This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low sound Reverbs 5 no hollowness. Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. 6 Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn Lear. Out of my sight! 1 Thus the quarto; folio, "we shall retain." 2 "All the titles belonging to a king." 3 By "the execution of the rest," all the other functions of the kingly office are probably meant. 4 The folio reads, "reserve thy state;" and has falls instead of "stoops to folly." 5 This is, perhaps, a word of the Poet's own; meaning the same as reverberates. 6 The expression to wage against is used in a letter from Guil. Webbe to Robt. Wilmot, prefixed to Tancred and Gismund, 1592:—" You shall not be able to wage against me in the charges growing upon this action." Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain Now, by Apollo, king, O vassal! miscreant! [Laying his hand on his sword. Alb. Corn. Dear sir, forbear. Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Lear. Hear me, recreant ! Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow, 2 Five days we do allot thee, for provision Upon our kingdom. If, on the tenth day following, Kent. Fare thee well, king; since thus thou wilt 4 appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, [To CORDELIA. That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!— And your large speeches may your deeds approve, [To REGAN and GONERIL. 1 The blank is the mark at which men shoot. 2 They to whom I have surrendered my authority, yielding me the ability to dispense it in this instance." Quarto B. reads "make good." 3 Thus the quartos. The folio reads "disasters." By diseases are meant uneasinesses, inconveniences. 4 The quartos read "Friendship;" and in the next line, instead of "dear shelter," "protection." That good effects may spring from words of love.— [Exit. Re-enter GLOSTER, with FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants. Glo. 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?1 Bur. Most royal majesty, I crave no more than hath your highness offered, Nor will you tender less. Lear. And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, Bur. Lear. Sir, I know no answer. Will you, with those infirmities she owes,3 Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dowered with our curse, and strangered with our oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur. Pardon me, royal sir; Election makes not up on such conditions. Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me, I tell you all her wealth.-For you, great king, [To FRANCE. 1 A quest is a seeking or pursuit: the expedition in which a knight was engaged is often so named in the Faerie Queen. Seeming here means specious. 3 i. e. owns. 4 That is, I cannot decide to take her upon such terms; or, such conditions leave me no choice. |