Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, LEAR. Let it be so,-thy truth, then, be thy dower : For, by the sacred radiance of the sun, From whom we do exist, and cease to be, Hold thee, from this, for ever! The barbarous Or he that makes his generation messes KENT. LEAR. Peace, Kent! Good my liege, Come not between the dragon and his wrath.— I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest sight! On her kind nursery.- -Hence, and avoid my Call Burgundy.-Cornwall and Albany, [retain [Giving the crown. Royal Lear, KENT. Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd, As my great patron thought on in my prayers,— LEAR. The bow is bent and drawn, make from When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; + And, in thy best consideration, check [ment, Kent, on thy life no more! LEAR. remain (Which we durst never yet) and, with strain'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, (*) First folio, falls. (1) First folio, sounds Reverbe. () First folio omits, the. (**) First folio, That. [TO CORDELIA. (+) First folio, reserve thy state. ($) First folio omits, a. (T) First folio, thy. (tt) First folio, vowes. (11) First folio, sentences. the folio has-"disasters of the world." Diseases, in its old and literal sense of discomforts, hardships, and the like, is, however, much the more appropriate word. e Freedom lives hence,-] The quartos have Friendship for "Freedom;" and in the next line, instead of "dear shelter," they read protection. 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 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, 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. For you, great king, [TO FRANCE. 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, FRANCE. Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle COR. I yet beseech your majesty,- I'll do't before I speak,-that you make known LEAR. Better thou (*) First folio, wilt. (+) First folio, King. (1) First folio, respect and Fortunes. b When it is mingled with respects,-] The folio reads,"When it is mingled with regards," &c. By "respects" is meant considerations, scruples, &c. Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind," Have no such daughter, nor shall ever sce [Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GLOUCESTER, and Attendants. FRANCE. Bid farewell to your sisters. COR. The jewels of our father, with wash'd To your professed bosoms I commit him : I would prefer him to a better place. So farewell to you both. GON. Prescribe not us our duties.+ 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. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt FRANCE and CORDELIA. GON. 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 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 (*) First folio, Love. (1) Old text, covers. (+) First folio, dutie. ($) First folio, at last with shame. () First folio omits, not. a - though unkind,-] Unkind here signifies unnatural, unless France is intended to mean, "though unkinn'd," i.e. though forsaken by your kindred. b A better where to find.] In note (a, p. 120, Vol. I. otherwhere is explained other place; but where in these compounds had perhaps a significance now lost. See the old ballad, I HAVE HOUSE AND LAND IN KENT". "Wherefore cease off, make no delay, For I cannot come every day to woo." The jewels-] Rowe and Capell read, perhaps rightly, "Ye jewels." Mr. Collier's annotator, too, proposes the same alteration. * been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of longengraffed 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 further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with such disposition 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. [Exeunt. SCENE II-A Hall in the Earl of Gloucester's Castle. Enter EDMUND, with a letter. EDM. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, (*) First folio, from his age to receive. e (t) First folio, sit. d- what plighted cunning hides;] Plighted, or, as the quartos give it, pleated cunning, means involved, complicated cunning. - plague of custom,-] Plague may here possibly signify place, or boundary, from plaga; but it is a very suspicious word. f To deprive me,-] To deprive, in Shakespeare's day, was sometimes synonymous to disinherit, as Steevens has shown, and also to take away, as in "Hamlet," Act I. Scene 4,"And there assume some other horrible form. Which might deprive your sov'reignty of reason," &c. g Shall top the legitimate.] In the old editions we find tooth' and to'th'. The present reading was first promulgated in Edwards' "Canons of Criticism," having been communicated to the author of that pungent satire by Capell. (See "Notes and various Readings to Shakespeare," by the latter, I. 146.) EDM. I know no news, 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'erread; and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-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 I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.— Hum-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? 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, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger. GLO. Think you so? EDм. 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. EDM. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you 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 bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This villain of 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 disquietly to our graves!Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully.-And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, honesty! -"T is strange! [Exit. EDM. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, (often (*) First folio, shold. e EDM. Nor is not, sure. GLO. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him! -Heaven and earth!] These lines are only found in the quarto copies. This villain of mine-disquietly to our graves.] This passage is omitted in the quartos. |