Hor. If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, What is it ye would see? | Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, First Amb. The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late: SCENE I. King Lear's palace. Glou. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety. Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? Glou His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it. Kent. I cannot conceive you. Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account: though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair: there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? Edm. No, my lord. Glou. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend. Edm. My services to your lordship. Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. 31 Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving. Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent And you, our no less loving son of Albany, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters, 50 Since now we will divest us, both of rule, Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty; As much as child e'er loved, or father found; 60 Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, Of the self-same metal that my sister is, 70 Lear. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again. Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave Lest it may mar your fortunes. carry 100 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? Ay, good my lord. dower: The barbarous Or he that makes his generation messes J20 Good my liege, Lear. Peace, Kent! 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? 12) Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany, With reservation of an hundred knights, By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode 140 Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man? Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, 150 Lear. 170 Hear me, recreant! To come between our sentence and our power, This shall not be revoked. 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, Hath lost me in your liking. France. Is it but this,-a tardiness in nature Give but that portion which yourself proposed, And here I take Cordelia by the hand, Duchess of Burgundy. Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. Bur. I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father That you must lose a husband. Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! 250 Since that respects of fortune are his love, I shall not be his wife. France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised! My love should kindle to inflamed respect. Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: 260 Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see [Flourish. Exeunt all but France, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. 270 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 named. Use well our father: To your professed bosoms I commit him: I would prefer him to a better place. Reg. Prescribe not us our duties. Let your study 279 Be to content your lord, who hath received you At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted, And well are worth the want that you have wanted. Cor. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides: 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 Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. 200 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 judgement 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 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's hit together: if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us. 310 Reg. We shall further think on't. My services are bound. Wherefore should I For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines 11 Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? Enter GLOUCESTER. Glou Kent banish'd thus! and France choler parted! 20 in And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power! Confined to exhibition! All this done Edm. I know no news, my lord. What paper were you reading? Edm. Nothing, my lord. Glou. 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. Glou. 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. Glou. 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. Glou. [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? 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. Glou You know the character to be your brother'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. It is his. 70 Glou. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents. Glou. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft 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. Glou. 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 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 wrote this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no further pretence of danger. Glou. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, 30 and by an auricular assurance have your satis |