| KING LEAR | Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. | |
| Give me the map there. Know that we have divided | |
| In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent | |
| To shake all cares and business from our age; | 40 |
| Conferring them on younger strengths, while we | |
| Unburthen'd 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 | 45 |
| 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 answer'd. [Begin] Tell me, my daughters,-- | |
| Since now we will divest us both of rule, | 50 |
| 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. | 55 |
| GONERIL | Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter; | |
| Dearer than eye-sight, 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; | 60 |
| A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable; | |
| Beyond all manner of so much I love you. | |
| CORDELIA | Aside | |
| Love, and be silent. | |
| LEAR | Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, | |
| With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, | 65 |
| With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, | |
| We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue | |
| Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter, | |
| Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak. | |
| REGAN | Sir, I am made | 70 |
| Of the self-same metal that my sister is, | |
| 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, | 75 |
| Which the most precious square of sense possesses; | |
| And find I am alone felicitate | |
| In your dear highness' love. | |
| CORDELIA | Aside | |
| And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's | |
| More richer than my tongue. | 80 |
| KING 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 the last, not least; to whose young love | 85 |
| The vines of France and milk of Burgundy | |
| Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw | |
| A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. | |
| CORDELIA | Nothing, my lord. | |
| KING LEAR | Nothing! | 90 |
| CORDELIA | Nothing. | |
| KING LEAR | Nothing will come of nothing: speak again. | |
| CORDELIA | Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave | |
| My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty | |
| According to my bond; nor more nor less. | 95 |
| KING LEAR | How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little, | |
| Lest it may mar your fortunes. | |
| CORDELIA | Good my lord, | |
| You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I | |
| Return those duties back as are right fit, | 100 |
| 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: | 105 |
| Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, | |
| To love my father all. | |
| KING LEAR | But goes thy heart with this? | |
| CORDELIA | Ay, good my lord. | |
| KING LEAR | So young, and so untender? | 110 |
| CORDELIA | So young, my lord, and true. | |
| KING 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 operation of the orbs | 115 |
| 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, | 120 |
| Or he that makes his generation messes | |
| To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom | |
| Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved, | |
| As thou my sometime daughter. | |
| KENT | Good my liege,-- | 125 |
| KING LEAR | Peace, Kent! | |
| Come not between the dragon and his wrath. | |
| I loved her most, and thought to set my rest | |
| On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight! [End] | |
| So be my grave my peace, as here I give | 130 |
| 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, | 135 |
| 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 | |
| Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain | 140 |
| 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 betwixt you. |
