PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SCENE,-BRITAIN.

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 qualities are so weigh'd, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moietyd.

C

b

Johnson says, "There is something of obscurity, or inaccuracy, in this preparatory scene. The king has already divided his kingdom, and yet, when he enters, he examines his daughters to discover in what proportions he should divide it." Coleridge has shown that there is no inaccuracy; but that the king, having determined upon the division of his kingdom, institutes the trial of professions in strict accordance with his complicated character.

Qualities. In the quartos, equalities.

• Curiosity-exact scrutiny.

Moiety. In the same way Hotspur calls his third share a moiety. In both these cases it is used for an assigned proportion. (See note on Henry IV., Part I.,' Act III., Scene 1.)

KENT. Is not this your son, my lord?

GLO. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blush'd to acknowledge him, that now I am braz'd to 't.

KENT. I cannot conceive you.

GLO. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon she grew roundwombed; 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 a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came somewhat saucily toa 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 within.

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

LEAR. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloster.
GLO. I shall, my liege.
LEAR. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and EDMUND.

Give me the map there.-Know, that we have divided,
In three, our kingdom: and 't is our fast intent

To shake all cares and business from our age;
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburthen'd 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 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.

a To-the quartos, into.

The quartos, "where merit doth most challenge it."

GON. Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter,
Dearer than eye-sight, 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 lov'd, or father found.

A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

COR. What shall Cordelia speak a? Love, and be silent.
LEAR. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: To thine and Albany's issues
Be this perpetual.-What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall?

REG. I am made of that self metal as my sister,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

COR.

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.

Then poor Cordelia! And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love 's More ponderous than my tongue.

b

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'dd on Goneril.-Now, our joy,
Although our last and least; to whose young love

[Aside.

[Aside.

a Speak. The quartos read, "What shall Cordelia do?" This feebler reading destroys the force of the answer, "Love, and be silent."

Ponderous. The quartos, richer.

Validity-value, worth.

Conferr'd. The quartos read confirm'd. In the same way, in the beginning of the scene, when Lear, according to the folio, says, Conferring them on younger strengths,"-the quarto

reads confirming.

• We give the text as it stands in the folio, by which we lose the words which have passed into a household phrase, "Although the last not least." But in truth the modern text is not to be found in any edition of Shakspere. The quartos read,—

"But now our joy,

Although the last, not least in our dear love,

What can you say to win a third, more opulent

Than your sisters?"

It will be seen that the poet has revised his text, re-arranging the lines, and introducing a new member of the sentence, "to whose young love," &c. Johnson says,

"The true reading is picked out of two copies:" but surely this mode of picking out is least likely to furnish us with the true reading.

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.
COR. Nothing, my lord.

LEAR. Nothing?

COR. Nothing.

LEAR. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
COR. 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.

COR.
Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, lov'd 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? Haply, 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.d]

LEAR. But goes thy heart with this?

COR.

LEAR. So young, and so untender?

COR. So young, my lord, and true.

Ay, my good lord.

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

a Interess'd. This verb, from the French intéresser, is used also by Ben Jonson and Massinger. The quartos read, "nothing can come of nothing." The ancient saying, ex nihilo nihil fit, is repeated in the fourth scene of this Act even more literally: "nothing can be made out of nothing."

• You-the quartos, it.

The line in brackets is not found in the folio.

• The quartos read, "But goes this with thy heart?" and Malone attributes the change in the folio to the editor of that edition, who, he says, did not understand this kind of phraseology. We have no doubt, speaking generally, that the minute changes of language in the folio are of the author, not of the editor.