Strive to be interess'd; what can you say, to draw Lear. Nothing? Cor. Nothing. Lear. Nothing can come + of nothing: speak again. My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes. Cor. That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall carry To love my father all. Lear. But goes this with thy heart? Cor. Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. So young, my lord, and true. Ay, good my lord. 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; From whom we do exist, and cease to be; * Strive to be interess'd;] To interest and to interesse, are not, perhaps, different spellings of the same verb, but are two distinct words though of the same import; the one being derived from the Latin, the other from the French interesser. + "will come" - MALONE. Propinquity and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scy thian, Or he that makes his generation 5 messes To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom Kent. Lear. Peace, Kent! Good my liege, Come not between the dragon and his wrath: On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight! — [To CORDELIA. 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: That troop with majesty.-Ourself, by monthly course, By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain The sway, Revenue, execution of the rest, 7 Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm, This coronet part between you. Kent. [Giving the Crown. Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, 5 6 7 generation —] i. e. his children. all the additions to a king ;] All the titles belonging to a king. execution of the rest,] All the other business. Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd, 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 would'st 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; This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment, Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn Lear. Out of my sight! Kent. See better, Lear; and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye. 9 Lear. Now, by Apollo, Kent. Now, by Apollo, king, O, vassal! miscreant ! [Laying his Hand on his Sword. Alb. Corn. Dear sir, forbear. Kent. Do; Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow Reverbs-] This is, perhaps, a word of the poet's own making, meaning the same as reverberates. 9 The true blank of thine eye.] The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is shot. See better, says Kent, and keep me always in your view. Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift; Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, Lear. Hear me, recreant! On thine allegiance hear me ! Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow, Kent. Fare thee well, king: since thus thou wilt appear, Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. [To CORDELIA. That justly think'st, and hast most rightly said! - [Exit. 1 (Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,) Our potency made good,] i. e. They to whom I have yielded my power and authority, yielding me the ability to dispense it in this instance, take thy reward. 2 By Jupiter,] Shakspeare makes his Lear too much a mythologist: he had Hecate and Apollo before. JOHNSON. 3 He'll shape his old course] He will follow his old maxims; he will continue to act upon the same principles. Re-enter GLOSTER; with FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. We first address towards you, who with this king 4 Or cease your quest of love? + Bur. Most royal majesty, I crave no more than hath your highness offer'd, Nor will you tender less. Lear. Right noble Burgundy, When she was dear to us, we did hold her so; And nothing more, may fitly like your grace, Bur. Lear. Sir, I know no answer. Will you, with those infirmities she owes," Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate, 6 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.7 Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me, •quest of love?] Quest of love is amorous expedition. The term originated from Romance. A quest was the expedition in which a knight was engaged. 5 · seeming —] is beautiful, or rather, specious. 6 owes,] i. e. is possessed of. Election makes not up on such conditions.] Election comes not to a decision; in the same sense as when we say, "I have made up my mind on that subject." |