– Now, our joy,

Although our last and least, to whose young love

The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

Strive to be interess'd, what can you say to draw

A third more opulent than your sisters'? Speak.

COR. Nothing, my lord.

LEAR. Nothing?

COR. Nothing.

LEAR.

Nothing will 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,

Lest 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 honor you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

They love you all? Happily, 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 sisters,

[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 dow'r!

For by the sacred radiance of the sun,

The [mysteries] of Hecat and the night;

By all the operation of the orbs,

From whom we do exist and cease 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 barbarous Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation messes

To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

Be as well neighbor'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 lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest

On her kind nursery.

 

[To Cordelia.]

 

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?

Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters' dow'rs digest the third;

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

I do invest you jointly with my power,

Pre-eminence, and all the large effects

That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,

With reservation of an hundred knights

By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode

Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain

The name, and all th' addition to a king;

The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,

Beloved sons, be yours, which to confirm,

This coronet part between you.

KENT.

Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honor'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 the shaft.

KENT.

Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

The region of my heart; be Kent unmannerly

When Lear is mad. What wouldest 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 falls to folly. Reserve thy state,

And in thy best consideration check

This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment,

Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least,

Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds

Reverb no hollowness.

LEAR.

Kent, on thy life, no more.

KENT.

My life I never held but as [a] pawn

To wage against thine enemies, ne'er [fear'd] to lose it,

Thy safety being motive.

LEAR.

Out of my sight!

KENT.

See better, Lear, and let me still remain

The true blank of thine eye.

LEAR.

Now, by Apollo –

KENT.

Now, by Apollo, King,

Thou swear'st thy gods in vain.

LEAR.

O vassal! miscreant!

 

[Starts to draw his sword.]

 

ALB., CORN.

Dear sir, forbear.

KENT.

Kill thy physician, and [the] fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,

Or whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,

I'll tell thee thou dost evil.

LEAR.

Hear me, recreant,

On thine allegiance, hear me!

That thou hast sought to make us break our [vow] –

Which we durst 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 sixt to turn thy hated back

Upon our kingdom. If, on 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; sith thus thou wilt appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.

 

[To Cordelia.]

 

The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

That justly think'st and hast most rightly said!

 

[To Regan and Goneril.]

 

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.

 

Flourish. Enter Gloucester with France and Burgundy, Attendants.

[GLOU.]

Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

LEAR.

My Lord of Burgundy,

We first address toward you, who with this king

Hath rivall'd for our daughter. What, in the least,

Will you require in present dower with her,

Or cease your quest of love?

BUR.

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 fallen. 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,

Dow'r'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,

Take her, or leave her?

BUR.

Pardon me, royal sir,

Election makes not up in such conditions.

LEAR.

Then leave her, sir, for by the pow'r that made me,

I tell you all her wealth.