Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,' Our eldeit born, speak firit.

Gon. I love you, Sir,

Dearer than eye-fight, fpace and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

Nolets than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as child e'er loved, or father found:
A love that makes breath poor, and ipecch unable,
Beyond all manner of fo much I love you.

Cor. What fall Cordelia do? love and be filent.

[Vide Ler. Of all thefe bounds, even from this line to this, With thadowy forelts and with champions riched, With plenteous rivers and wide-ikirted meads, We make thee Lady. To thine and Albany's iffe Be this perpetual.--What fays our fecond daughter, Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? speak.

Reg. I'm made of that self-metal as my fifter, And prize me at her worth, in my true heart. (1) I find, the names my very deed of love; Only the comes too fhort; that I proteís Mylelf an enemy to all other joys,

Which the most precious fquare of fenfe poffeffes, And find I am aloue felicitate

In your dear Highness' love,

Cor. Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not fo, fince, I am fure, my

More ponderous than my tongue.

love's

[Afide.

Lear. To thee and thine, hereditary ever, Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; No lefs in ipace, validity and pleasure,

(1) And prize ne at her worth. In my true heart.] Mr Bifhop preferibed the pointing of this pallage, as I have regu lated it in the next. Regan would tay, that in the truth of her heart and affections, the equals the worth of her fifter. Without this change in the pointing, he makes a bout of herfell without any caufe affigned.

Than that conferred on Goneril.---Now our joy,
Although our laft, not leaft; to whofe young love
The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be intereffed; what fay you, to draw
A third more opulent than your fifters? fpeak.
Cor. Nothing, my Lord.

Lear. Nothing?

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing can come of nothing; fpeak again.-
Gor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your Majefty,
According to my bond, no more nor lefs.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia ? mend your speech a Left you may mar your fortunes.

Cor. Good my Lord,

[little,

You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I
Return thofe duties back, as are right fit;
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my fifters hufbands, if they fay
They love you all? haply when I fhall wed,
That lord whofe hand must take my plight, shall

carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure. I thall never marry like.. my fitters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?
Cor. Ay, my good Lord..

Lear. So young, and fo untender!

Cor. So young, my Lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be fo, thy truth then be thy dower:

For by the facred radiance of the fun,

The myfteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operations of the orbs
From whom we do exift and ceafe to be,
Here I difclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,

And as a ftranger to my heart and me

Hold thee, from this for ever. The barb'rous ScyOr he that makes his generation naelles

[thiam,.

To gorge his appetite, fhall to my bolom
Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved,.
As thou, my fometime daughter.

Kent. Good, my Liege.

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath:
I loved her moft, and thought to let my reit
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 flirs?
Call Burgundy. ------Cornwall and. Albany,
With my two daughters dowers digeft the third.
Let pride, which the calls plainnefs, marry her..
I do inveft you jointly with my power,
Preeminence, and all the large effects

That troop with Majefty. Ourfelf by monthly course,
With refervation of an hundred knights
By you to be fustained, fhall our abode
Make with you by due turns; only retain
The name and all th' addition to a king;
The fway, revenue, execution,

Beloved fons, be yours; which to confirm,

This Cor'net part between you. [Giving the Crown.
Kent. Royal Lear,.

Whom I have ever honoured as my King,
Loved as my father, as my mafer followed,
And as my 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 wouldeft thou do, old

man?

Thinkeft thou that duty fhall have dread to fpeak, When pow'r to flatt'ry bows? to plainnefs honour Is bound, when Majefty to folly falls.

Referve thy ftate; with better judgment check This hideous rafhnefs; with my life I answer, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee leaft; Nor are thofe empty-hearted, whole 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 lote it, Thy fafety being the motive.

Lear. Out of my fight!

• 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 fweareft thy gods in vain. Lear. O vallal! mifereant !--

[Laying his hand on his fwerd.

Alb. Corn. Dear Sir, forbear.

Kent. Kill thy phyfician, and thy fee bestow
Upon the foul difcafe; revoke thy doom,
Or whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou doft evil.

Lear. Hear me, recreant !

Since thou haft fought to make us break our vow,
Which we durft never yet; and with ftrained pride,
To.come betwixt our fentence 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 provifion,
To fhield thee from difafters of the world;
And, on the fixth, to turn thy hated back

Upon our kingdom; if, the tenth day following,
Thy banifhed trunk be. found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death: away! by Jupiter,
This fhall not be revoked.

Lappear,

Kent. Fare thee well, King; fith thus thou wilt Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. The gods to their dear fhelter take thee, maid, That juftly thinkeft, and haft molt rightly faid; And your large fpeeches may your deeds approve, That good effects may fpring from words of love.. Thus Kent, O Princes, bids you all adien,

He'll shape his old courfe in a country new. [Exit.

Enter GLO'STER, with FRANCE and DURGUNDY,, and Attendants.

Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble Lear. My Lord of Burgundy, [Lord. (2). We first address tow'rd you, who with this King Have rivall'd for our daughter; what at least Will you require in prefent dower with her, Or ceafe your quest of love?

Bur. Moft royal Majesty,

I crave no more than what your Highness offered, Nor will you tender lefs.

Lear. Right noble Burgundy,

When he was dear to us, we held her fo;
But now her price is fallin: Sir, there the ftands,
If aught within that little feeming substance,
Or all of it with our difpleafure piec'd,

(2) Cor Here's France and Burgundy, my noble Lord] The generality of the editions, ancient and modern, ftupidly place this verfe to Cordelia. But I have, upon the authority of the old Quarto, restored it to the right owner, Clo'fter, whowas, but a little before, sent by the King to conduct France and Burgundy to him.