SCENE I-A Room of State in King Lear's Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and EDMUND. Kent. I thought, the king had more affected the duke of Albany, than Cornwall. Glo. 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 weigh'd, that curiosity' in neither can make choice of either's moiety. Kent. Is this your son, my lord? Glo. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blush'd to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to it. Kent. I cannot conceive you. Glo. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again:-The king is coming. [Trumpets sound within. Enter LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, [Exeunt GLOSTER and EDMUND. 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 Glo. Sir, this young fellow's mother could: Conferring them on younger strengths, while we 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. Glo. 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 somewhat 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. Glo. My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honorable friend. Edm. My services to your lordship. Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving. 1 Most scrupulous nicety. Part or division. Unburden'd crawl toward death. - Our son of And you, our no less loving son of Albany, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, (Since now we will divest us, both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state,) Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most? Gon. Sir, I Do love you more than words can wield the matter, No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor: Cor. What shall Cordelia do? love, and be silent. Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, We make thee lady: To thine and Albany's issue Be this perpetual. - What says our second daughter, Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak. Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister, In your dear highness' love. Then poor Cordelia! [Aside. And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, Cor. Nothing, my lord. Lear. Nothing? Cor. Nothing. Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? 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; The mysteries of Hecate, and the night; By all the operations of the orbs, From whom we do exist, and cease to be; Here I disclaim all my paternal care, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee, from this forever. The barbarous Scythian, With reservation of an hundred knights, Revenue, execution of the rest, Kent. Whom I have ever honor'd as my king, Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be 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 honor's bound, When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thine 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. Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. Lear. Now, by Apollo, Kent. Now, by Apollo, king, O, vassal, miscreant! [Laying his Hand on his Sword. Lear. Alb. Corn. Dear sir, forbear. Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift: I'll tell thee, thou dost evil. Lear. Hear me, recreant! On thine allegiance hear me!- * Titles. Reverberates. The mark to shoot at. And, on the sixth, to turn thy hated back Kent. Fare thee well, king: since thus thou wilt appear, 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. 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 Attendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. Lear. My lord of Burgundy, We first address towards you, who with this king Or cease your quest of love? 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. Lear. Sir, I know no answer. Royal Lear, Lear. Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm. That you must lose a husband. Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! Since that respects of fortune are his love, France. Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken: and most lov'd, despis'd! Gods, gods! 'tis strange, that from their cold'st neglect My love should kindle to inflamed respect. Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see [Flourish. Exeunt LEAR, BURGUNDY, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GLOSTER, and Attendants. France. Bid farewell to your sisters. 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 plaited cunning 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. You see how full of changes his age is: the observation we have made of it hath not been little: he always lov'd our sister most; and with what • Blessing. poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too | The contents, as in part I understand them, are to 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 long-engrafted 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 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. [Exeunt. SCENE II-A Hall in the Earl of Gloster's Castle. Enter EDMUND with a Letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound: Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom; and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am sometwelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base ? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality, Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake?-Well then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land: Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund, As to the legitimate: Fine word, legitimate! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Enter GLOSTER. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler parted! And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power! Confined to exhibition! All this done Upon the gad! - Edmund! How now? what news? Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the Letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, 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 letter 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. Qualities of mind. The nicety of civil institution. • Yielded, surrendered. 1 Allowance. Suddenly. 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.-Humph-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. Glo. 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. 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. 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, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honor, 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 honor, and to no other pretence of danger. Glo. Think you so? Edm. If your honor 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, mu T او SCENE IV. KING LEAR. tinies; 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. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that when we are sick in fortune, (often the surfeit of our own behavior,) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced bedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his gotish 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, 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 comedy: My cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'Bedlam.-0, 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; 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? Edg. Why, the night gone by. Edg. Ay, two hours together. Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance ? Edg. None at all. some Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him: and, at my entreaty, forbear his presence, till little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay. 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 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? • Traitors. These sounds are unnatural and offensive in music. 1 For cohorts some editors read courts. Temperate. 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. A credulous father, and a brother noble, 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? Stew. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every hour, He flashes into one gross crime or other, [Horns within. Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, abused. Gon. And let his knights have colder looks What grows of it, no matter; advise your fellowsso: SCENE IV. - A Hall in the same. Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd, (So may it come!) thy master, whom thou lov'st, Shall find thee full of labors. Horns within. Enter LEAR, Knights, and Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner: go, get it ready. [Exit an Attendant.] How now, what art thou? |