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 turn. Only we shall 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 coronet part between 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 wouldst 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.

ment,

Answer my life my judg

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 thine 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,

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift;

Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,
I'll tell thee, thou dost evil.

Lear.

On thine allegiance, hear me !

Hear me, recreant !

Since thou hast sought to make us break our

Vow,

Which we durst never yet, and, with strained

pride,

To come betwixt 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
To shield thee from disasters of the world;
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back

Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,

Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,
This shall not be revoked.

Kent. Fare thee well, king: since 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

Flourish. Re-enter GLOSTER; with FRANCE and BURGUNDY, Attendants

Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

Lear. My Lord of Burgundy,

We first address toward you, who with this king Hath rivalled 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 hath 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 fall'n.

stands:

Sir, there she

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,

Dowered with our curse, and strangered 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 who 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-vouched affection
Fall into taint, which to believe of her,