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 waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me.
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
Thou losest here, a better where to find.

Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine,

for we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see

That face of hers again: therefore, be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORN-
WALL, ALBANY, GLOSTER, and Attendants.
Bid farewell to your sisters.

France.

Cor. Ye 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. Love 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.
So, farewell to you both.

Gon. Prescribe not us our duty.
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.

Gon.

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

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 lov'd 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 from his age, to receive, not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but, therewithal, the unruly 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 farther 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 farther think of it.

Gon. We must do something, and i̇' th' heat.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Hall in the Earl of GLOSTER's Castle.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter.

Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law 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 moon-shines
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 th' 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 th' legitimate. Fine word, legitimate!"

Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Enter GLOSter.

Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler

parted!

And the King gone to-night! subscrib'd his power! Confin'd to exhibition! All this done

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. 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'er-read; and for so much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking.

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 suffer'd. Come to

me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, 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 declin'd, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

Glo.

letter!

O villain, villain ! - His very opinion in the 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;