Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind: Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see [Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GLOSTER, and Attendants. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are; And, like a sister, am most loath to call Your faults, as they are nam'd. Use 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. Gon. Prescribe not us our duties. hides; Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. France. Come, my fair Cordelia. Exeunt FRANCE and CORDElia. Gon. Sister, it is not a little I have to say, of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think, our father will hence to-night. Thou losest here,] Here and where have the power of nouns. Thou losest this residence to find a better residence in another place. plaited cunning-] i. e. complicated, involved cunning. 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 been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but, therewithal, the unruly waywardness that infirm and cholerick 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 leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: If our father carry authority with such dispositions 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." SCENE II. [Exeunt. A Hall in the Earl of Gloster's Castle. Enter EDMUND, with a Letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law 5- of long-engrafted condition,] i. e. of qualities of mind, confirmed by long habit. 6 7 let us hit-] i. e. let us agree. i' the heat.] i. e. We must strike while the iron's hot. • Thou, nature, art my goddess;] Edmund calls nature his goddess, for the same reason that we call a bastard a natural son; one, My services are bound: Wherefore should I For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Enter GLOster. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler parted! And the king gone to-night! subscrib'd his power!3 Confin'd to exhibition! All this done who according to the law of nature, is the child of his father, but according to those of civil society is nullius filius. 9 Stand in the plague of custom;] Wherefore should I acquiesce, submit tamely to the plagues and injustice of custom? The curiosity of nations-] i. e. the idle, nice distinctions of the world. 2 to deprive me,] To deprive was, in our author's time, synonymous to disinherit. 3 subscrib'd his power !] To subscribe in Shakspeare is to yield, or surrender. exhibition!] is allowance. The term is yet used in the universities. Upon the gad!"-Edmund! How now? what news? Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the Letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glo. No? what needed then that terrible despatch 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'er-read; for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your over-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 1 waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Upon the gad!] i. e. is done suddenly, or, as before, while the iron is hot. A gad is an iron bar. 6 idle and fond-] Weak and foolish. VOL. VIII. DD Edgar.-Humph-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. Glo. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but, I hope, his heart is not in the contents. Glo. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord: But I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. Glo. O villain, villain!-His very opinion in 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, ?where, if you-] Where, for whereas. |