Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.-Our son of Cornwall, And you, our no less loving son of Albany.

We have this hour a constant will to publish

Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife

May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,

Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, And here are to be answered.-Tell me, my daughters, (Since now we will divest us, both of rule,

Interest of territory, cares of state,)

Which of you, shall we say, doth love us most?

That we our largest bounty may extend

Where nature doth with merit challenge."-Goneril,

Our eldest born, speak first.

Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter,

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour:

As much as child e'er loved, or father found;

A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;

Beyond all manner of so much 3 I love you.

Cor. [Aside.] What shall Cordelia do?-Love, and be silent.

Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains riched,

With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,

1 Constant.] Firmly determined. So, in the first speech of Act v., Bring his constant pleasure.'

2 Where nature, &c.] Where natural and actual affections vie with

each other.

So much.] This is a substantive phrase, meaning specified quantity.

We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual.-What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? Speak.

Reg. I am made of that self1 metal as my sister,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed 2 of love;
Only she comes too short-that I profess3
Myself an enemy to all other joys,

Which the most precious square of sense possesses,
And find I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness' love.

Cor. [Aside.]

Then poor Cordelia !

And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's

More richer than my tongue.

Lear. To thee, and thine hereditary ever Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; No less in space, validity, and pleasure,

5

Than that conferred on Goneril.-Now, our joy,
Although our last, not least; to whose

young love

1 Self.] This word was often used, as here, to denote same or identical. They had been trained from their childhood unto one self trade.'-North's Plutarch (Lycurgus and Numa). 'Who was also prisoner with him for the self cause.'-Ditto (Alcibiades).

2 Deed.] The word here means reality, as in the phrase in very deed.

That I profess.] Inasmuch as I profess; leaving for me to profess.

4

Square of sense.] If the word square is not a corruption, I apprehend that Shakspeare referred to the astrological square of the twelve houses, or diagram of nativity, &c., common in old almanacs. 'The most precious square' would thus denote one most abounding in good tokens or fortunes. The word felicitate, presently used by Regan, means made lucky or fortunate, and agrees well with the above interpretation.

5 Validity.] Worth.

The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

Strive to be interessed; what can you say, to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
Cor. Nothing, my lord.

Lear. Nothing!

Cor. Nothing.

Lear. Nothing will come of nothing:2 speak again.
Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond, nor more nor less.

Lear. How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little, Lest you may mar your fortunes.

Cor.

Good my lord,
You have begot mé, bred me, loved me: I
Return those 3 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?

1 Interessed.] From the French interesser.

v. 18.

Theodorus the patri

arch, last named because least interessed.'-Fuller's Profane State, Those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences were commonly interessed therein themselves, for their own ends.'Bacon's Essays (On Unity).

2

'The wars, so long continued between

The Emperor Charles and Francis the French king,

Have interessed, in either's cause, the most

Of the Italian princes.'-Massinger's Duke of Milan, i. 1.

Nothing will come, &c.] An allusion to the philosophic maxim, Ex nihilo nihil fit.

3 Those.] Such.

Cor.

Ay, my good lord.

Lear. So young, and so untender?

Cor. So young, my lord, and true.

Lear. Let it be so :-thy truth then be thy dower :
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

Hold thee, from this, for ever! The barbarous Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation 1 messes

To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter.

Kent.

Lear. Peace, Kent !

Good my liege,

Come not between the dragon and his wrath :
I loved her most, and thought to set

2 rest my

On her kind nursery.-Hence, and avoid my sight !—

[TO CORDELIA.

'Makes his generation, &c.] Devours his offspring.

2 To set my rest.] This is a phrase borrowed from the gamingtable. The rest was the highest stake a person was able or disposed to venture; and to set up one's rest was to determine what one should stake. I find my mind more put to it to undergo the various tumbling and tossing of doubt and consultation, than to set up its rest, and to acquiesce in whatever shall happen after the die is thrown.'-Montaigne's Essays (Cotton's Transl.), îi. 17. 'Remove yourself to the twopenny ward quickly, to save charges, and there set up your rest to spend Sir Puntar's hundred pound for him.'-B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, v. 11. 'The king thought it no policy to play all his rest at once, where he might have lost more at one game than he had got in eight years.'-Botero's Relations of the World, ii.

So be my grave my peace, as here I give

Her father's heart from her !-Call France. Who stirs ?
Call Burgundy.-Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
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 sustained, shall our abode

Make with you by due turn. Only we shall retain
The name, and all the additions1 to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
This coronet part between you.

Kent.

[Giving the crown.

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.2

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,3

When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy doom;

And, in thy best consideration, check

1 Additions.] Superadded titles.

To

2 Make from the shaft.] Go out of the way of the arrow. make often signified to go on or advance. 'Look how he makes to Cæsar.'-Jul. Cæs. iii. 1.

3 To plainness, &c.] Honour is bound to plain-speaking.