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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,

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[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,

Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,
Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,
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?

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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.

C

ALB. CORN. 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 !— Since** thou hast sought to make us break our [pride,

vow, ++

(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,

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

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Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER; with FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants.

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

LEAR. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address toward you, who with this king Hath rivall'd for our daughter: what, in the least,

Will you require in present dower with her,
Or cease your quest of love?

BUR.

Most royal majesty, I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd, 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 piec'd, And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, She's there, and she is yours.

BUR. I know no answer. LEAR. Will you, with those infirmities she owes, Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,

Take her, or leave her?

Pardon me, royal sir ; such conditions.

BUR. Election makes not up on LEAR. Then leave her, sir; for, by the power

that made me,

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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-vouch'd affection
Fall into taint; which to believe of her,
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

COR.

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 dishonour'd step,
That hath depriv'd 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

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Royal Lear,t
Give but that portion which yourself propos'd,
And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
Duchess of Burgundy.

LEAR. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. BUR. I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father That you must lose a husband.

COR.

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 lov'd, despis'd! 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 inflam'd respect.-
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my
chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
Not all the dukes of wat'rish Burgundy
Shall buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me.-

(*) First folio, wilt.

(+) First folio, King. (1) First folio, respect and Fortunes.

b When it is mingled with respects,-] The folio reads,"When it is mingled with regards," &c.

By "respects" is meant considerations, scruples, &c.

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind," Thou losest here, a better-where to find.

been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long

LEAR. Thou hast her, France: let her be engraffed condition, but, therewithal, the unruly

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So farewell to you

both.

GON. Prescribe not us our duties.+
REG.
Let your study
Be to content your lord: who hath receiv'd you
At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the want that you have wanted.
COR. Time shall unfold what plighted cunning
hides;

Who cover faults, at last shame them § derides.
Well may you prosper!
FRANCE.

Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt FRANCE and CORDELIA. GON. 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.

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

GON. 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 judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.

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

GON. The best and soundest of his time hath

(*) First folio, Love. (1) Old text, covers.

(+) First folio, dutie. (§) First folio, at last with shame. () First folio omits, not.

a- though unkind,-] Unkind here signifies unnatural, unless France is intended to mean, "though unkinn'd," i.e. though forsaken by your kindred.

b A better where to find.] In note (a), p. 120, Vol. I. otherwhere is explained other place; but where in these compounds had perhaps a significance now lost. See the old ballad, "I HAVE HOUSE AND LAND IN KENT".

"Wherefore ease off, make no delay,
And if you'll love me, love me now,
Or else ich zeek some oderwhere

For I cannot come every day to woo."

The jewels-] Rowe and Capell read, perhaps rightly, "Ye jewels." Mr. Collier's annotator, too, proposes the same alteration.

waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

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

GON. There is further compliment of leavetaking 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.

REG. We shall further think of it.

GON. We must do something, and i' the heat. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester's Castle.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter.

EDM. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law

e

My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?

When my
dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality,
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake?-Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund,
As to the legitimate: fine word,-legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper :-
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

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dwhat plighted cunning hides ;] Plighted, cr, as the quartos give it, pleated cunning, means involved, complicated cunning. e plague of custom,-] Plague may here possibly signify place, or boundary, from plaga; but it is a very suspicious word.

f To deprive me,-] To deprive, in Shakespeare's day, was sometimes synonymous to disinherit, as Steevens has shown, and also to take away, as in "Hamlet," Act I. Scene 4,"And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sov'reignty of reason," &c.

g Shall top the legitimate. In the old editions we find tooth' and to'th'. The present reading was first promulgated in Edwards' "Canons of Criticism," having been communicated to the author of that pungent satire by Capell. (See "Notes and various Readings to Shakespeare," by the latter, I. 146.)

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lord.

EDM. I know no news, my
GLO. What paper were you reading?

EDM. Nothing, my lord. GLO. No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let's see: come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

EDM. I beseech you, sir, pardon me it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'erread; and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking.

GLO. Give me the letter, sir.

EDM. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.

GLO. Let's see, let's see.

EDM. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste" of my virtue.

GLO. [Reads.] This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.——

Hum-Conspiracy!-Sleep till I waked him,you should enjoy half his revenue,-My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ?-When came this to you? who brought it?

EDM. It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

GLO. You know the character to be your brother's?

EDM. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not.

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the letter!-Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish !—Go, sirrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him :—abominable villain!-Where is he?

EDM. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you shall* run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger.

GLO. Think you so?

EDM. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and that without any further delay than this very evening.

GLO. He cannot be such a monster.
EDM. Nor is not, sure.

GLO. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him!-Heaven and earth!— Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution.

EDM. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. GLO. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus, yet Nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves!Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully.-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty! -T is strange! [Exit.

EDM. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, (often

(*) First folio, shold.

c EDM. Nor is not, sure. GLO. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him! -Heaven and earth!] These lines are only found in the quarto copies.

à This villain of mine-disquietly to our graves.] This passage is omitted in the quartos.

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