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And prize me at her worth, in my true heart.
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,

[sesses;

Which the most precious square of sense posAnd find I am alone felicitate

In your dear Highness' love.

Cor. Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not so, since I am sure my love's
More pond'rous than their tongue.

[Aside.

Lear. To thee and thine, hereditary ever, Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; No less in space, validity, and pleasure, Than that conferr'd on Goneril.--Now our joy, Although our last, not least; in whose young love, The vines of France, and milk of Burgundy, Strive to be int' rest'd; what say you to draw A third, more opulent than your sisters? speak. Cor. Nothing, my Lord.

Lear. Nothing?

Cor. Nothing.

[again.

Lear. Nothing can come of nothing; speak.

Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your Majesty

According to my bond, no more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend

Lest you may mar your fortunes.

Cor. Good my Lord,

your speech

[a little,

You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me. I
Return those duties back, as are right fit;
Obey you,
love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say,
They love you all? haply, when I shall wed,
That Lord whose hand must take my plight,
shall carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

Lear. But goes thy heart with this?

Cor. Aye, my good Lord,

Lear. So young, and so untender?

Cor. So young my Lord, and true.

[dower:

Lear. Let it be so, thy truth then be thy

For by the sacred radiance of the sun,

The mysteries of Hecate, and the night,
By all the operations of the orbs,

From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,

Propinquity, and property of blood,

And as a stranger to my heart and me, [Scythian,
Hold thee from this for ever. The barb'rous
Or he that makes his generation messes,
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,
As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent. Good my liege

VOL, II,

Lear. Peace, Kent!

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I lov❜d her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nurs'ry. Hence, avoid my sight!-

[To Cor.
So be my grave my peace, as here I give [stirs?
Her father's heart from her. Call France; who
Call Burgundy.Cornwall and Albany, (13)
With my two daughters' dowers digest the third.
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,

(13) Cornwall has the same prototype as Ralph in Hudibras (fig. 2); but as he too is in a more exalted station, an attempt is made so to represent him in figure 81, without departing too much from the original.

Fig. 81.

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 sustain'd, shall our abode (14)
Make with you by due turns: only retain
The name and all th' addition to a King;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm
This coronet part between you. (15)

[Giving the crown.

(14) Our abode by turns. This relates to the alternate, librations of the moon.

(15) This coronet part between you. There may be seen in fact, in the moon, the likeness of a coronet, as drawn in

[merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]

Kent. Royal Lear,

Whom I have ever honour'd as my King;
Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,
And as my 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 flatt'ry bows? to plainness honour Is bound, when Majesty to folly falls.

Reserve thy state; with better judgment check This hideous rashness; with my life I answer, 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 foes; 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.

situate about the center, and comprizing the light intercepted between the prototypes of Albany and Cornwall, as above drawn or pointed out.

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