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; nor more nor less.

80

Lear. How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes.

Good my lord,

Cor.
You have begot me, bred me, loved 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.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor.

Lear. So young, and so untender?

90

Ay, good my lord.

Cor. So young, my lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be so; thy truth then be thy dower: For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,

100

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 relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent.

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Good my liege,—

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I loved her most, and thought to set my rest

On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!

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 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 course,
With reservation of an hundred knights,

By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode

Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
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 betwixt you.

Kent.

ΙΙΟ

120

[Giving the crown.

Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honour'd as my king,

Loved as my father, as my master follow'd,

As my great patron thought on in my prayers,—

130

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: bc Kent unmannerly,

When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, 'old man?

Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,

When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's

bound,

When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; 140

And in thy best consideration check

This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgement,

Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;

Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound
Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear.

Kent, on thy life, no more.

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

Lear.

Out of my sight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye.

Lear. Now, by Apollo,

Kent.

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

Lear.

150

Now, by Apollo, king,

O, vassal! miscreant ! [Laying his hand on his sword.

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
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 vow,
Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd pride
To come between 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,

160

Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,

This shall not be revoked.

170

Kent. Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.

[To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

That justly think'st and hast most rightly said!

[To Regan and Goneril] 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.

Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with FRANCE, Burgundy,

and Attendants.

Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. 180

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards 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 pieced,
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,

190

Dower'd with our curse and stranger'd with our oath,
Take her, or leave her?

Bur.

Pardon me, royal sir;

Election makes not up on such conditions.

Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,

I tell you all her wealth. [To France] For you, great king,
I would not from your love make such a stray,

To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you
To avert your liking a more worthier way
Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed
Almost to acknowledge hers.

This is most strange,

France.
That she, that even but now was your best object,
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
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'n into taint: which to believe of her,
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could 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 deprived 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
As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.

Lear.

Better thou

201

210

220

Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.