A third, more opulent than your sisters? speak.

Cor. Nothing, my lord.

Lear. Nothing?

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing can come of nothing; speak again.

Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your Majesty

According to my bond, no more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little,

Left you may mar your fortunes.

Cor. Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me. I
Return those duties back, as are right fit;
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say,
They love you, all? hap'ly, when I shall wed,
That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure, I shall never marry like my fisters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor. Ay, my good 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 fun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night,
By all the operations of the orbs,
From whom we do exist, and ceafe to be :
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me

Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barb'rous Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation, messes

To gorge his appetite; fhall to my bosom

Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,

As thou, my sometime daughter.

Kent. Good my Liege

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I

I lov'd her most, and thought to fet my Rest
On her kind nurs'ry. Hence, avoid my fight!

[To Cor.

So be my grave my peace, as here I give
Her father's heart from her; Call France; who stirs?
Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters dowres, digeft the third.
Let pride, which the calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my Power,
Preheminence, and all the large effects

That troop with Majesty. Our self by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred Knights,
By you to be fustain'd, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns: only retain
The name and all th' addition to a King:
The sway, revenue, execution,
Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,
This Cor'onet part between you.

Kent. Royal Lear,

[Giving the Crown.

Whom I have ever honour'd as my King,
Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,
And as my patron thought on in my pray'rs

Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from 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 pow'r to flatt'ry bows? to plainness Honour
Is bound, when Majesty to folly falls.
Reserve thy State; with better judgment check
This hideous rashness; with my life I answer,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;
Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low found
Reverbs no hollowness.

Lear. Kent, on thy life no more.
Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thy foes; nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being the motive.

Lear. Out of my fight!

Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain

The

Kent. Kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow

Upon the foul disease; revoke thy doom,
Or whilft I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou dost evil.

Lear. Hear me, recreant!

Since thou hast fought to make us break our vow,
Which we durft never yet; and with strain'd pride,
To come betwixt our sentence and our power;
(Which nor our nature, nor our place, can bear ;)
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
Five days we do allot thee for provision,
To shield thee from disasters of the world;
And, on the fixth, to turn thy hated back
Upon our Kingdom; if, the tenth day following,
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death: away! By Jupiter,
This shall not be revok'd.

:

Kent. Fare thee well, King; fith thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here; The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, That justly think'st, and haft most rightly faid; And your large speeches may your deeds approve, 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.

Enter Glo'ster, with France and Burgundy, and Atten

dants.

Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. (2)

(2) Cor. Here's France, and Burgundy, my noble Lord.] The Generality of the Editions, antient and modern, stupidly place this Verse to Cordelia. But I have, upon the Authority of the old 4to, restor'd it to the right Owner, Glo'ster; who was, but a little before, fent by the King to conduct France and Burgundy to him.

Lear.

Lear. My lord of Burgundy,

We first address tow'rd you, who with this King
Have rivall'd for our daughter; what at least

Will you require in present dowre with her,
Or cease your quest of love?

Bur. Most royal Majesty,

I crave no more than what your Highness offer'd,
Nor will you tender less.

Lear. Right noble Burgundy,

When she was dear to us, we held her fo;
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,

Dowr'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
Take her, or leave her?

Bur. Pardon, royal Sir;

Election makes not up on such conditions.

[me,

Lear. Then leave her, Sir; for by the pow'r that made 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,
T' avert your liking a more worthy way
Than on a wretch, whom nature is asham'd
Almost t' acknowledge hers.

France. This is most strange !

That she, who ev'n but now was your best object,
Your Praise's argument, balm of your age,
Dearest and best, should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour! fure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,
That monsters it; (3) or your fore-voucht affection

Fal'n

(3) As monftrous is,] This bald Reading is a modern Sophistication: • the eldest and best Copies read;

Than

Fal'n into taint: which to believe of her,
Must be a faith, that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me.

Cor. I yet beseech your Majesty,
(If, for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak.) that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murther, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour:
But ev'n for want of that, for which I'm richer,
A still folliciting eye, and such a tongue,
That I am glad I've not; though, not to have it,
Hath lost me in your liking.

Lear. Better thou

Hadst not been born, than not have pleas'd me better.
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's not love,
When it is mingled with regards, that stand

Aloof from th'intire point. Say, will you have her?
She is her felf a dowry.

Bur. Royal King,

Give but that portion which your felf propos'd,

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

Dutchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing:

I've sworn.

Bur. I'm sorry then, you have so lost a father,

That you must lose a husband.

That monsters it

i. e. that makes a Monster, a Prodigy, of it: And our Poet uses this Verb elsewhere in such a Sense. So Albany, afterwards in this Play, fays to Goneril, his Wife ;

Thou chang'd, and self-converted Thing! for Shame,

Be-monster not thy Features.

And fo, in Coriolanus;

I'd rather have One fcratch my Head i'th' Sun,

When the Alarum were ftruck, than idly fit

To hear my Nothings monster'd.