Bur.

Aloof from the entire point. Will you have

her?

She is herself a dowry.

Royal Lear,

Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
Duchess of Burgundy.

Lear. Nothing: I have sworn, I am firm.
Bur. I am sorry then you have so lost a father
That you must lose a husband.

Cor.

250

Peace be with Burgundy! Since that respects of fortune are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor,

Most choice forsaken, and most loved despised,
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:

Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
Gods, gods!
neglect

'tis strange that from their cold'st

My love should kindle to inflamed respect. 260
Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my
chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:
Thou losest here, a better where to find.

246. "Royal Lear"; so in the quartos; the folio, "Royal king.H. N. H.

253. "respects of fortune"; so Qq.; Ff., "respect and fortunes.”– I. G.

266. "where"; (used substantively).—C. H. H.

Lear. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine, for

we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see

7

That face of hers again.

Therefore be gone Without our grace, our love, our benison. 270 Come, noble Burgundy.

[Flourish. Exeunt all but France,

Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.

France. Bid farewell to your sisters.

Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are; And, like a sister, am most loath to call

Your faults as they are named. Use well our
father:

To your professed bosoms I commit him:
But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.
So farewell to you both.
Reg. Prescribe not us our duties.
Gon.

280

Let your study

Be to content your lord, who hath received you
At fortune's alms. You have obedience

scanted,

And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

Cor. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:

Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.

273. "The jewels," etc.; (in apposition to "you").-C. H. H. 284. "want"; Qq., "worth." Theobald explains the Folio reading, "You well deserve to meet with that want of love from your husband, which you have professed to want for our Father."-I. G.

286. "shame them derides"; so Qq.; Ff., "with shame derides"; Warburton, "with shame abides," &c.-I. G.

CroNtaly

angry'

Well may you prosper!

France.

Come, my fair Cordelia.

[Exeunt France and Cordelia.

Gon. Sister, it is not a little I have to say of
what most nearly appertains to us both. I
think our father will hence to-night.
Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next
month with us.

Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; the

observation we have made of it hath not been
little: he always loved our sister most; and
with what poor judgment he hath now cast
her off appears too grossly.

Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath
ever but slenderly known himself.

290

Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath 300
been but rash; then must we look to receive
from his age, not alone the imperfections of
long ingrafted condition, but therewithal the
unruly waywardness that infirm and chol-
eric years bring with them.

Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have
from him as this of Kent's banishment.
Gon. There is further compliment of leave-
taking between France and him. Pray you,
let's hit together: if our father carry author- 310
ity with such dispositions as he bears, this last
surrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We shall further think on 't.

Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat.

294. "hath not been"; so Qq.; Ff., "hath been.”—I. G.

[Exeunt.

314. "and the heat"; referring to the phrase, "Strike while the

SCENE II

The Earl of Gloucester's castle.
Enter Edmund, with a letter

Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,

iron's hot."-The main incident of this scene is commented on by Coleridge thus: "Lear is the only serious performance of Shakespeare, the interest and situations of which are derived from the assumption of a gross improbability. But observe the matchless judgment of our Shakespeare. First, improbable as the conduct of Lear is in the first scene, yet it was an old story rooted in the popular faith,—a thing taken for granted already, and consequently without any of the effects of improbability. Secondly, it is the mere canvass for the characters and passions, a mere occasion for,and not perpetually recurring as the cause and sine qua non of,— the incidents and emotions. Let the first scene of this play have been lost, and let it only be understood that a fond father had been duped by hypocritical professions of love and duty on the part of two daughters to disinherit the third, previously, and deservedly, more dear to him; and all the rest of the tragedy would retain its interest undiminished, and be perfectly intelligible. The accidental is nowhere the groundwork of the passions, but that which is catholic, which in all ages has been, and ever will be, close and native to the heart of man,-parental anguish from filial ingratitude, the genuineness of worth, though coffined in bluntness, and the execrable vileness of a smooth iniquity."-H. N. H.

1. In this speech of Edmund you see, as soon as a man cannot reconcile himself to reason, how his conscience flies off by way of appeal to nature, who is sure upon such occasions never to find fault; and also how shame sharpens a predisposition in the heart to evil. For it is a profound moral, that shame will naturally generate guilt; the oppressed will be vindictive, like Shylock; and in the anguish of undeserved ignominy the delusion secretly springs up, of getting over the moral quality of an action by fixing the mind on the mere physical act alone (Coleridge).—H. N. H.

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon

shines

Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?

11

When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops.
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word, ‘legitimate'!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base 20
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:

Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Enter Gloucester.

Glou. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted!

And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!

Confined to exhibition!

All this done

Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?

8. "generous"; spirited.-C. H. H.

10. so Ff.; Qq. read, "with base, base bastardie.”—I. G.

18. "fine word, legitimate"; omitted in Quartos.-I. G.

21. "top the"; Edward's conj. of Qq. 1, 2, "tooth"; Q. 3, "too h"; Ff. 1, 2, "to'th"; Ff. 3, 4, "to th," etc.-I. G.