Messes to gorge his appetite,

Shall be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved

As thou, my sometime daughter.

KENT Good my +liege-

LEAR

Peace, Kent. Come not between the dragon and his

wrath.

I loved 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.

⌈Exit one or more⌉

Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third.

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

I do invest you jointly in 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 sustained, shall our abode

Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain

The name and all the additions to a king.

The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,

Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm,

This crownet part betwixt you.

KENT Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honoured as my king,

Loved as my father, as my master followed,

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 wilt thou do, old man?

Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak

When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s

bound

When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom,

And in thy best consideration check

This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgement,

Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least,

Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound

Reverbs no hollowness.

LEAR Kent, on thy life, no more!

KENT

My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thy 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.

LEAR Now, by Apollo-

KENT

Now, by Apollo, King, thou swear’st thy gods in vain.

LEAR ⌈making to strike himl ⌉

Vassal, recreant!

KENT Do, kill thy physician,

And the fee bestow upon the foul disease.

Revoke thy doom, or whilst I can vent clamour

From my throat I’ll tell thee thou dost evil.

LEAR

Hear me; on thy allegiance hear me!

Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,

Which we durst never yet, and with strayed pride

To come between our sentence and our power,

Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,

Our potency made good take thy reward:

Four days we do allot thee for provision

To shield thee from dis-eases of the world,

And on the fifth to turn thy hated back

Upon our kingdom. If on the next day following

Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,

The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,

This shall not be revoked.

KENT

Why, fare thee well, King; since thus thou wilt

appear,

Friendship lives hence, and banishment is here.

(To Cordelia) The gods to their protection take thee,

maid,

That rightly thinks, and hast most justly said.

(To Gonoril and Regan)

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 the King of France and the Duke of

Burgundy, with the Duke of Gloucester

GLOUCESTER

Here’s France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

LEAR My lord of Burgundy,

We first address towards you, who with a king

Hath rivalled for our daughter: what in the least

Will you require in present dower with her

Or cease your quest of love?

BURGUNDY Royal majesty,

I crave no more than what your highness offered;

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 pieced,

And nothing else, may fitly like your grace,

She’s there, and she is yours.

BURGUNDY I know no answer.

LEAR

Sir, will you with those infirmities she owes,

Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,

Covered with our curse and strangered with our oath,

Take her or leave her?

BURGUNDY Pardon me, royal sir.

Election makes not up on such conditions.

LEAR

Then leave her, sir; for by the power that made me,

I tell you all her wealth. (To France) For you, great

King,

I would not from your love make such a stray

To match you where I hate, therefore beseech you

To avert your liking a more worthier way

Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed

Almost to acknowledge hers.

FRANCE

This is most strange, that she that even but now