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And finde I am alone felicitate |
In your deere Highnesse loue |
Cor. Then poore Cordelia, |
And yet not so, since I am sure my loue's |
More ponderous then my tongue |
Lear. To thee, and thine hereditarie euer, |
Remaine this ample third of our faire Kingdome, |
No lesse in space, validitie, and pleasure |
Then that conferr'd on Gonerill. Now our Ioy, |
Although our last and least; to whose yong loue, |
The Vines of France, and Milke of Burgundie, |
Striue to be interest. What can you say, to draw |
A third, more opilent then your Sisters? speake |
Cor. Nothing my Lord |
Lear. Nothing? |
Cor. Nothing |
Lear. Nothing will come of nothing, speake againe |
Cor. Vnhappie that I am, I cannot heaue |
My heart into my mouth: I loue your Maiesty |
According to my bond, no more nor lesse |
Lear. How, how Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, |
Least you may marre your Fortunes |
Cor. Good my Lord, |
You haue begot me, bred me, lou'd me. |
I returne those duties backe as are right fit, |
Obey you, Loue you, and most Honour you. |
Why haue my Sisters Husbands, if they say |
They loue you all? Happily when I shall wed, |
That Lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall carry |
Halfe my loue with him, halfe my Care, and Dutie, |
Sure I shall neuer marry like my Sisters |
Lear. But goes thy heart with this? |
Cor. I my good Lord |
Lear. So young, and so vntender? |
Cor. So young my Lord, and true |
Lear. Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dowre: |
For by the sacred radience of the Sunne, |
The misteries of Heccat and the night: |
By all the operation of the Orbes, |
From whom we do exist, and cease to be, |
Heere I disclaime all my Paternall care, |
Propinquity and property of blood, |
And as a stranger to my heart and me, |
Hold thee from this for euer. The barbarous Scythian, |
Or he that makes his generation messes |
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosome |
Be as well neighbour'd, pittied, and releeu'd, |
As thou my sometime Daughter |
Kent. Good my Liege |
Lear. Peace Kent, |
Come not betweene the Dragon and his wrath, |
I lou'd her most, and thought to set my rest |
On her kind nursery. Hence and avoid my sight: |
So be my graue my peace, as here I giue |
Her Fathers heart from her; call France, who stirres? |
Call Burgundy, Cornwall, and Albanie, |
With my two Daughters Dowres, digest the third, |
Let pride, which she cals plainnesse, marry her: |
I doe inuest you ioyntly with my power, |
Preheminence, and all the large effects |
That troope with Maiesty. Our selfe by Monthly course, |
With reseruation of an hundred Knights, |
By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode |
Make with you by due turne, onely we shall retaine |
The name, and all th' addition to a King: the Sway, |
Reuennew, Execution of the rest, |
Beloued Sonnes be yours, which to confirme, |
This Coronet part betweene you |
Kent. Royall Lear, |
Whom I haue euer honor'd as my King, |
Lou'd as my Father, as my Master follow'd, |
As my great Patron thought on in my praiers |
Le. The bow is bent & drawne, make from the shaft |
Kent. Let it fall rather, though the forke inuade |
The region of my heart, be Kent vnmannerly, |
When Lear is mad, what wouldest thou do old man? |
Think'st thou that dutie shall haue dread to speake, |
When power to flattery bowes? |
To plainnesse honour's bound, |
When Maiesty falls to folly, reserue thy state, |
And in thy best consideration checke |
This hideous rashnesse, answere my life, my iudgement: |
Thy yongest Daughter do's not loue thee least, |
Nor are those empty hearted, whose low sounds |