My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty Half my love with him, half my care, and duty: To love my father all. Lear. But goes this with thy heart? Ay, good my lord. From whom we do exist, and cease to be;. [thian, Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scy- Lear. Peace, Kent! [appear, Kent. Fare thee well, king since thus thou wilt Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, [To Cordelia. That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said!And your large speeches may your deeds approve, [To Regan and Goneril. Good my liege,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. Re-enter Gloster; with France, Burgundy, and At Come not between the dragon and his wrath: Call Burgundy.-Cornwall, and Albany, Revenue, execution of the rest, Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm, Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, 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 power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; tendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. We first address towards you, who with this king 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 piec'd, And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, She's there, and she is yours. Bur. Lear. Sir, I know no answer. Will you with those infirmities she owes, Bur. I tell you all her wealth.-For you, great king, I would not from your love make such a stray, France. This is most strange! 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 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,] Lear. Better thou [better. Had'st not been born, than not to have pleas'd me France. Is it but this? a tardiness in nature, Which often leaves the history unspoke, That it intends to do ?-My lord of Burgundy, What say you to the lady? Love is not love, When it is mingled with respects, that stand Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her? She is herself a dowry. Bur. Royal Lear, Give but that portion which yourself propos'd, Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: Lear. Thou hast her, France; let her be thine; [Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, Cornwall, Albany, Gloster, and Attendants. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. Cor. The 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. Use well our father: I would prefer him to a better place. Gon. Prescribe not us our duties. 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. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then must we look to receive from his age, not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but, therewithal, the unruly waywardness that infirm and cholerick 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 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 further think of it. Gon. We must do something, and i'the heat. Enter Edmund, with a letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Enter Gloster. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler parted; And the king gone to night! subscrib'd his power! [letter? [Putting up the letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glo. What paper were you reading? Edm. Nothing, my lord. Glo. No? what needed then that terrible despatch 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 let ter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your over-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 relia them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondag Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, nat the observation we have made of it hath not been as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to t little: he always loved our sister most; and with that of this I may speak more. If our father would what poor judgment he hath now cast her off, ap-sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his repears too grossly. venue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath Edgar.-Humph-Conspiracy!-Sleep till 1 waked ever but slenderly known himself. 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. rough and lecherous.Tut, I 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 Glo. You know the character to be your bro-comedy: My cue is villainous melancholy, with a 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? Edm. 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. sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi. Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. Edg. Do you busy yourself with that? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of, succeed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; Glo. O villain, villain!-His very opinion in needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissîthe letter!-Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detest-pation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know ed, brutish villain! worse than brutish!-Go, sir- not what. rah, seek him; I'll apprehend him :-Abominable Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronovillain!-Where is he? mical? 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 ? 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. 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 acourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked between 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 !-Strange! strange! [Exit. Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last ? Edg. Why, the night gone by. offended him : and at my entreaty, forbear his pre- Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a conti nent forbearance, till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me 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? A credulous father, and a brother noble, Enter Goneril and Steward. Stem. Ay, madam. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are sick in fortune, (often the sur- Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every feit of our own behaviour,) we make guilty of our He flashes into one gross crime or other, [hour disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if That set us all at odds: I'll not endure it: we were villains by necessity; fools, by heavenly His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by On every trifle: When he returns from hunting, spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and I will not speak with him; say, I am sick :— adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary If you come slack of former services, 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 You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer. Stew. Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, SCENE IV.-A Hall in the same. Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, [demn'd, Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertain'd 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! say'st thon 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 wrong'd. Lear. Thou but remember'st 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.But where's my fool? I have not seen him this 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.Ge you, and tell my daughter I would speak with her.-Go you, call hither my fool,Re-enter Steward. 1 If thou can'st serve where thou dost stand con-0, you sir, you sir, come you hither: Who am I, (So may it come!) thy master, whom thou lov'st, Shall find thee full of labours. 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 qualify'd in: and the best of me is diligence. Lear. How old art thou? Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for 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: sir? Stem. My lady's father. Lear. My lady's father! my lord's knave: you whoreson dog! you slave! you cur! Stem. I am none of this, my lord; I beseech you, pardon me. Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? [Striking him. Stem. I'll not be struck, my lord. Kent. Nor tripped neither; you base foot-ball [Tripping up his heels. Lear. I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee. player. Kent. Come, sir, arise, away; I'll teach you differences; away, away: If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry: but away: go to 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. [Giving Kent his cap. Lear. How now, my pretty knave? how dost thou? Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. Kent. Why, fool? Fool. Why? For taking one's part that is out of favour: Nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thoul't catch cold shortly: There, take my coxcomb: Why, this fellow has banish'd 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 whipp'd out, when Lady, the brach, may stand by the fire and stink. I Lear. A pestilent gall to me Lear. Do. Fool. Mark it, nuncle : Have more than thou showest, And thou shalt have more Lear. This is nothing, fool. Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd law. yer; you gave me nothing for't: Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle ? Lear. Why, no, boy; nothing can be made out of nothing. Fool. Pr'ythee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to; he will not believe a fool. Lear. A bitter fool! [To Kent. Will presently appear; The other found out there. Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy? Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with. Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. Fool. No, 'faith, lords and great men will not let me; if I had a monopoly out, they would have part on't and ladies too, they will not let me have all fool to myself; they'll be snatching.-Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two crowns. Lear. What two crowns shall they be? Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i'the middle, and eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy, crown i' the middle, and gavest away both parts, thou borest thine ass on thy back over the dirt: Thou had'st little wit in thy bald crown, when thou gavest thy golden one away. If I speak like myself In this, let him be whipp'd that first finds it so. Fools had ne'er less grace in a year; [Singing Prythee, nuncle, keep a school-master that can teach thy fool to lie; would fain learn to lie. Lear. If you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipp'd. Fool. I marvel, what kin thou and thy daughters are they'll have me whipp'd for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipp'd for lying; and, sometimes, I am whipp'd for holding my peace. I had rather be any kind of thing, than a fool and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o'both sides, and left nothing in the middle: Here comes one o'the parings. Enter Goneril. Lear. How now, daughter what makes that frontlet on? Methinks, you are too much of late i' the frown. Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow, when thou had'st no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now: I am a fool, thou art nothing.-Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face [to Gon.] bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum, He that keeps nor crust nor crum, Weary of all, shall want some.-That's a sheal'd peascod. [Pointing to Lear. Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool, But other of your insolent retinue you, Do hourly carp and quarrel; breaking forth Fool. For you trow, nuncle, The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, That it had its head bit off by its young. So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling. Lear. Are you our daughter ? Gon. Come, sir, I would you would make use of that good wisdom whereof I know you are fraught; and put away these dispositions, which of late transform you from what you rightly are. Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse ?Whoop, Jug! I love thee. Lear. Does any here know me ?-Why this is not Lear: does Lear walk thus? speak thus ? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied.-Sleeping or waking?-Ha! sure 'tis not so.-Who is it that can tell me who I am Lear's shadow? I would learn that; for by the marks of sovereignty, knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded I had daughters. Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. This admiration is much o'the favour Lear. you come? Enter Albany. Lear. Woe, that too late repents,-O, sir, are [my horses. Is it your will? [To Alb.] Speak, sir.-Prepare Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster! Alb. Pray, sir, be patient. Lear. Detested kite! thou liest: [To Goneril. My train are men of choice and rarest parts, That all particulars of duty know; And in the most exact regard support The worships of their name.-O most small fault, How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love, And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear ! Beat at this gate, that let thy folly in, [Striking his head. And thy dear judgment out!-Go, go, my people. Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant Of what hath mov'd you [hear; Lear. It may be so, my lord,Hear, nature, |