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Gon. I love you, Sir,

Dearer than eye-fight, 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 do? love and be filent.

[Afide.

Lear. Of all these bounds, ev'n from this line to this,

With shadowy forests and with champions rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual. - What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? fpeak.

Reg. I'm made of that felf-metal as my fifter,
And prize me at her worth, in my true Heart. (1)
I find, she names my very deed of love;
Only the 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.

Cor. Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not fo, fince, I am fure, my love's
More pond'rous than my tongue.

[Afide.

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'd on Gonerill.-Now our joy,
Although our last, not least; to whose young love,
The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy,
Strive to be int'ress'd: what say you, to draw
A third, more opulent than your fisters? speak.
Cor. Nothing, my lord.

(1) And prize me at ber worth. In my true beart.] Mr. Bishop prescrib'd the pointing of this passage, as I have regulated it in the text. Regan would say, that in the truth of her heart and affection, the equals the worth of her fifter. Without this change in the pointing, the makes a boast of herself without any cause assign'd.

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Lear. Nothing?

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing can 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,

Left 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? hap'ly, 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 fifters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?
Cor. Ay, my good lord.

Lear. So young, and so untender?

Cor. So young, my lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be fo, thy truth then be thy dower:

For by the facred radiance of the fun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night,
By all the operations 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 barb'rous 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. Good my Liege

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov'd her most, and thought to fet my rest

On

i

[To Cor.

On her kind nurs'ry. Hence, avoid my fight!

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, digeft the third.
Let pride, which the calls plainness, marry her.

I do invest you jointly with my Power,

Preheminence, and all the large effects

That troop with Majesty. Our felf by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred Knights,
By you to be fustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns: only retain
The name and all th' addition to a King:
The sway, revenue, execution,
Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,
This Cor'onet part between you.

Kent. Royal Lear,

[Giving the Crown.

Whom I have ever honour'd as my King,
Lov'd as my father, as my mafter follow'd,
And as my patron thought on in my pray'rs

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 would'st thou do, old man?
Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak,
When pow'r to flatt'ry bows? to plainness Honour
Is bound, when Majesty to folly falls.
Reserve thy State; with better judgment check
This hideous rashness; with my life I answer,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft;
Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low found
Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear. Kent, on thy life no more.

Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thy foes; nor fear to lose it,
Thy fafety being the motive.

Lear. Out of my fight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain

The true blank of thine eye.

A 5

Lear. Now by Apollo-
Kent. Now by Apollo, King,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear. O vaffal! miscreant!

[Laying his hand on his fword.

Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear.

Kent. Kill thy physician, and thy fee beftow

Upon the foul disease; revoke thy doom,
Or whilft I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou dost evil.

Lear. Hear me, recreant!
Since thou hast fought to make us break our vow,
Which we durft never yet; and with strain'd pride,
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 provifion,
To shield thee from disasters of the world;
And, on the fixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our Kingdom; if, 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,
That justly think'st, and haft most rightly faid;
And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love:

Thus Kent, O Princes, bids you all adieu,

He'll shape his old course in a country new.

[Exit.

Enter Glo'ster, with France and Burgundy, and

Attendants.

Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. (2)

(2) Cor. Here's France, and Burgundy, my noble lord.] The generality of the editions, ancient and modern, stupidly place this verse to Cordelia. But I have, upon the authority of the old 4to, restor'd it to the right owner, Glofter; who was, but a little before, sent by the King to conduct France and Burgundy to him,

4

Lear.

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address tow'rd you, who with this King

Have rivall'd for our daughter; what at least

Will you require in present dower with her,

Or cease your quest

of love?

Bur. Most royal Majesty,

I crave no more than what your Highness offer'd,

Nor will you tender less.

Lear. Right noble Burgundy,

When she was dear to us, we held her fo;
But now her price is fall'n: Sir, there she stands,
If aught within that little seeming substance,
Or all of it with our difpleasure 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,
Dowr'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
Take her, or leave her?

Bur. Pardon, royal Sir;

Election makes not up on such conditions.

[me,

Lear. Then leave her, Sir; for by the pow'r that made I tell you all her wealth.

For you, great King,

[To France.

I would not from your love make such a stray,
To match you where I hate; therefore befeech you,
T' avert your liking a more worthy way
Than on a wretch, whom nature is asham'd
Almost t' acknowledge hers.

France. This is most strange!

That the, who ev'n but now was your best object,
Your Praife's argument, balm of your age,
Dearest and best, should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour! sure, her offence
Must be of fuch unnatural degree,

That monsters it; (3) or your fore-voucht affection

Fal'n

That

(3) As monstrous is,] This bald reading is a modern sophistication: the eldest and best copies read;

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