This hideous rashness: answer my life my judge

ment,
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 160
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!

(Laying his hand on his sword. Alb.

Dear sir, forbear.
Corn. S

Kent. Do;
Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
Lear.

Hear me, recreant !
On thine allegiance, hear me!

170 Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow, Which we durst never yet, and with strain'd 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. Five days we do allot thee, for provision

}

180

To shield thee from diseases of the world;
And on the sixth 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 revoked.
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. 190
Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with FRANCE,

BURGUNDY, and Attendants
Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble

lord.
Lear. My lord of Burgundy,
We first address towards you, who with this king
Hath rivallid 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 what your highness offer'd,
Nor will you tender less.
Lear.

Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;

210

But now her price is fall’n. Sir, there she stands : 200
If aught within that little seeming substance,
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,
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,
Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our

oath, Take her, or leave her? Bur.

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 was your best object, The argument of your praise, balm of your age, Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of

time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,
That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,

220

Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could never plant in me.
Cor.

I yet beseech your majesty, -
If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not, — since what I well

intend, I'll do 't before I speak, - that you make known It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

230 No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step, That hath deprived me of your grace and favour; But even for want of that for which I am richer, A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue As I am glad I have not, though not to have it Hath lost me in your liking. Lear.

Better thou
Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me

better.
France. Is it but this, – a tardiness in nature
Which often leaves the history unspoke
That it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love 's not love
When it is mingled with regards that stand
Aloof from the entire point. Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.
Bur.

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.

Peace be with Burgundy! 250

240

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 ! 't is strange that from their cold'st

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

chance,
Is
queen

of
us,
of ours,

and our fair France : 260
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.

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

for we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.

(Flourish. Exeunt all but France,

Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. France. Bid farewell to your sisters.

270 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 :