A HERALD

A KNIGHT

A MESSENGER

Gentlemen, servants, soldiers, followers, trumpeters, others

The History of King Lear

Sc. 1 Enter the Earl of Kent, the Duke of Gloucester, and Edmund the bastard

KENT I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

GLOUCESTER It did always seem so to us, but now in the division of the kingdoms 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?

GLOUCESTER 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.

GLOUCESTER 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.

GLOUCESTER 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. (To Edmund) Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?

EDMUND No, my lord.

GLOUCESTER (to Edmund) My lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

EDMUND (to Kent) My services to your lordship.

KENT I must love you, and sue to know you better.

EDMUND Sir, I shall study deserving.

GLOUCESTER (to Kent) He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.

Sound a sennet

The King is coming.

Enter one bearing a coronet, then King Lear, then the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; next Gonoril, Regan, Cordelia, with followers

LEAR

Attend my lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

GLOUCESTER I shall, my liege.

⌈Exit⌉

LEAR

Meantime we will express our darker purposes.

The map there. Know we have divided

In three our kingdom, and ’tis our first intent

To shake all cares and business off our state,

Confirming them on younger years.

The two great princes, France and Burgundy—

Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love—

Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,

And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters,

Which of you shall we say doth love us most,

That we our largest bounty may extend

Where merit doth most challenge it?

Gonoril, our eldest born, speak first.

GONORIL

Sir, I do love you more than words can wield the

matter;

Dearer than eyesight, space, or liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

No less than life; with grace, health, beauty, honour;

As much as child e’er loved, or father, friend;

A love that makes breath poor and speech unable.

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

CORDELIA (aside)

What shall Cordelia do? Love and be silent.

LEAR (to Gonoril)

Of all these bounds even from this line to this,

With shady forests 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.

REGAN Sir, I am made

Of the self-same mettle that my sister is,

And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

I find she names my very deed of love—

Only she came short, that I profess

Myself an enemy to all other joys

Which the most precious square of sense possesses,

And find I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness’ love.

CORDELIA (aside) Then poor Cordelia—

And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s

More richer than my tongue.

LEAR (to Regan)

To thee and thine hereditary ever

Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom, No less in space, validity, and pleasure

Than that confirmed on Gonoril. (To Cordelia) But

now our joy,

Although the last, not least in our dear love:

What can you say to win a third more opulent

Than your sisters?

CORDELIA Nothing, my lord.

LEAR

How? Nothing can come of nothing. Speak again.

CORDELIA

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty

According to my bond, nor more nor less.

LEAR

Go to, go to, mend your speech a little

Lest it may mar your fortunes.

CORDELIA Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, loved 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? Haply 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 this with thy heart?

CORDELIA Ay, good my lord.

LEAR So young and so untender?

CORDELIA So young, my lord, and true.

LEAR

Well, let it be so. Thy truth then he thy dower;

For by the sacred radiance of the sun,

The mysteries of Hecate 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