stirs ? Call Burgundy.-Cornwall, and Albany, With shadowy forests and with champains' rich'd, | Her father's heart from her !-Call France ;-Who Which the most precious square of sense possesses; In your dear highness' love. Cor. 4 Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, Lear. Nothing? Nothing. Cor. Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech Lest it may mar your fortunes. That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall Half my love with him, half my care, and duty: Lear. But goes this with thy heart? That troop with majesty.-Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of a hundred knights, Revenue, execution of the rest, 10 Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm, 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 majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; This hideous rashness: answer my life my judg ment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Lear. Lear. Out of my sight! Ay, good my lord. Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. Lear. So young, and so untender? Lear. Let it be so.-Thy truth then be thy dower: From whom we do exist, and cease to be; The barbarous Or he that makes his generation messes Lear. Peace, Kent! To come betwixt our sentence and our power Good my liege,-Five days we do allot thee, for provision Come not between the dragon and his wrath: To shield thee from diseases of the world; On her kind nursery.-Hence, and avoid my sight!-Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions, Kent. Fare thee well, king: since thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.- [To Cordelia. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble Lear. My lord of Burgundy, We first address towards you, who with this king Most royal majesty, Lear. Bur. Lear. Sir, I know no answer. Will you, with those infirmities she owes," France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature, Bur. Royal Lear, Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. France. Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd! My love should kindle to inflam'd respect.- Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind: oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur. I tell you all her wealth.-For you, great king, I would not from your love make such a stray, That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd' affection Cor. I'll do't before I speak,) that you make known That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour: (1) Follow his old mode of life. (2) Amorous expedition. (3) Specious. Thou losest here, a better where to find. Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see [Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, Cornwall, Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Gon. Prescribe not us our duties. Let your study Be, to content your lord; who hath receiv'd you Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. 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. Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. (8) Reproach or censure. (9) Because. 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. for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your over-looking, Glo. Give me the letter, sir. Elm. 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. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath: Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he been but rash; then must we look to receive from wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engraft- Glo. [Reads,] This policy and reverence of age, ed condition,' but therewithal, the unruly way-makes the world bitter to the best of our times; wardness that infirm and choleric years bring with keeps our fortunes from us, till our oldness canthem. 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 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." For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines not relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyrrany; 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 be loved of your brother, Edgar.-Humph-Conspi racy ! - Sleep till I toaked 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 case. ment of my closet. Glo. You know the character to be your bro ther'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? Edn. 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 testi mony of his intent, you shall run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mis taking 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 pretence12 of danger. Glo. Think you so? 11 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, 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.13 Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey' in him, that with the mischief of your person it the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you would scarcely allay. 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 cond cracked between son and father. This villain| f 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 quietly to our graves!-Find out this villain, Edmund, it shall se thee nothing; do it carefully:And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty!-Strange! strange! Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with ine to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak: Pray you, go; there's my key :-If you do stir abroad, go armed. Edg. Armed, brother? Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go armed; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you: I have told you what I have seen and heard but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it: Pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do serve you in this business.[Exit Edgar. [Exit. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! Whose nature is so far from doing harms, that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty of our behaviour,) we make guilty of our disasters, My practices ride easy!-I see the business. SCENE III-A room in the duke of Albany's palace. Enter Goneril and Steward. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were vil. Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit: lains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit. [Exit. knaves, thieves, and treachers,' by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under ursa major; so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous.-Tut, should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar Enter Edgar. and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: My cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi. Edg. How now, brother Edinund? What serious contemplation are vou in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. Elg. Do you busy yourself with that? Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every He flashes into one gross crime or other, [Horns within, Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question If he dislike it, let him to my sister, Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, Not to be over-rul'd. Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities, That he hath given away!-Now, by my life, Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of Old fools are babes again; and must be us'd' succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between With checks, as flatteries,-when they are seen the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts," nuptial breaches, and I know not what. Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical? Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last? Elg. Why, the night gone by. Elm. Parted you in good terms! Found you no : Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him and at my entreaty, forbear his presence, till some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth (1) Manage. (2) Following. (3) Traitors. (4) Great Bear, the constellation so named. (5) These sounds are unnatural and offensive in music. abus'd. Remember what I have said. What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellows so: [Exeunt, SCENE IV.-A hall in the same. Enter Kent, Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd (6) For cohorts some editors read courts. (8) Disorder, disguise. (9) Effaced Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldest thou with us? Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly, that will put me in trust; to love: him that is honest; to converse' with him that is wise, and says little; to fear judgment; to fight, when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish. Lear. What art thou? Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the king. Lear. If thou be as poor for a subject, as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldest thou? Kent. Service. Lear. Who wouldst thou serve? Kent. You. Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow? But where's my fool? I have not seen him these two days. Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool hath much pined away. Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well.Go you, and tell my daughter, I would speak with her.-Go you, call hither my fool. Re-enter Steward. O, you sir, you sir, come you hither: Who am I, sir? Stew. My lady's father. Lear. My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! Stew. I am none of this, my lord; I beseech you, pardon me. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? [Striking him. Stew. I'll not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither; you base foot-ball player. [Tripping up his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away: I'll teach you differences; away, away: If you will measure your Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your coun- lubber's length again, tarry: but away: go to. tenance, which I would fain call master. Lear. What's that? Kent. Authority. Lear. What services canst thou do? Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in telling it, and deliver a plain message bluntly that which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence. Lear. How old art thou? Have you wisdom? so. [Pushes the Steward out. Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee: there's earnest of thy service. [Giving Kent money. Enter Fool. Fool. Let me hire him too ;-Here's my coxcomb. [Giring Kent his cop. Lear. How now, my pretty knave? how dost Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for thou? singing; nor so old, to dote on her for any thing: I have years on my back forty-eight. Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me; if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet.-Dinner, ho, dinner!-Where's my knave? my fool? Go you, and call my fool hither: Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judginent, your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont; there's a great abatement of kindness appears, as well in the general dependants, as in the duke himself also, and your daughter. Lear. Ha! sayest thou so? Knight. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent, when I think your highness is wronged. Lear. Thou but rememberest me of mine own conception; I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity, than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness; I will look further into❜t. Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. Fool. Why? For taking one's part that is out of favour: Nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly: There, take my coxcomb: Why, this fellow has banished two of his daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will; if thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb-How now, nuncle? 'Would I had two coxcombs, and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself: There's mine; beg another of thy daughters. Lear. Take heed, sirrah; the whip. Fool. Truth's a dog that must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady, the brach,' may stand by the fire; and stink. Lear. A pestilent gall to me! Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. Fool. Mark it, nuncle: Have more than thou showest, And thou shalt have more Than two tens to a score. Lear. This is nothing, fool. Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd (1) Keep company. (3) Design. (4) Estate or property. (5) Bitch hound. (7) Believest. |