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    King Lear
    King Lear
    King Lear
    Ebook155 pages1 hour

    King Lear

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire-- King Lear is Shakespeare's brilliant play about truth, love, and madness. King Lear slowly descends into madness after dividing his kingdom between the two daughters who are willing to flatter him rather than giving it to the one daughter who actually loves him. Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest, Learn more than thou trowest.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627557122
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

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    Reviews for King Lear

    4/5

    2,479 ratings53 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Classic Shakespeare tragedy.
    • 3/5
      another play. another dreary subject. another tragic ending.
    • 3/5
      A fairly quick read. I didn't love it as much as I remember. Lear was way obsessed with 'nature' and the whole thing was so pompous. But not as bad as some of his other stuff.
    • 5/5
      The division of the Kingdom begins the play with first, the Earls of Kent and Gloucester speculating on the basis for the division and second, the actual division by Lear based on professions of love requested from his three daughters. When this event goes not as planned the action of the play ensues and the reader is in for a wild ride, much as Lear himself.The play provides one of Shakespeare's most thoroughly evil characters in Edmund while much of the rest of the cast is aligned against each other with Lear the outcast suffering along with the Earl of Gloucester who is tricked by his bastard son Edmund into believing that his other son Edgar is plotting against him. While there are some lighter moments the play is generally very dark filled with the bitter results of Lear's poor decisions at the outset. Interestingly we do not get much of a back story and find, other than his age of four score years, little else to suggest why Lear would surrender his power and his Kingdom at the outset. The play is certainly powerful and maintains your interest through dramatic scenes, while it also provides for many questions - some of which remain unanswered.
    • 5/5
      A very enjoyable edition. Unlike most of the Arden editions, Foakes comes across more as an educator than an academic-among-friends. This does mean occasionally that he'll cover ground most professional-level readers already understand, but it makes this a really well-rounded introduction to the play.

      The decision here is to incorporate both Quarto and Folio texts in one, with the differences clearly delineated. It's probably the best possible option for this play, and well done.
    • 5/5
      When people want to rank Shakespeare's plays, usually Hamlet comes out as number one. This, in my experience, is the only other of his plays that I have seen mentioned as his greatest. If I were to rank his plays solely based upon their impact upon the world, I would probably agree with the usual placement of Hamlet as number one. However, were I to rank them based upon their impact on me, Lear gets the nod. Lear accurately and horrifyingly portrays the primal nature of man like few other works of literature; the only other to come to my mind is Lord of the Flies. Yet it's more than that; Lord of the Flies can afford to ignore the effects of sexual attraction and familial ties upon our nature, but Lear (the work, not the character) meets these head-on and uses them to devastating effect. This play alone would guarantee Shakespeare a place as one of the greatest English authors. With the rest of his body of work, there's no question that he is the greatest.
    • 4/5
      For some reason I was rather set against this play at the beginning. However, it had all the elements I enjoy in a story; gruesome, depressing and yet, after act two, compelling. I couldn't put it down. It's sort of the flip-side of his comedies. Lots of misunderstanding at the beginning, betrayals by the bad guys (that's not in the comedies much), lots of people running around disguised as other people, then at the end, instead of everyone forgiving everyone after all is revealed, almost everyone dies. Not quite the happy-ever-after ending of the comedies, yet in this play it worked. I'm left with one thing unsettled though, what happened to the blind Gloucester?
    • 5/5
      Took me awhile to read this book due to life taking over my reading time. I also just wasn't interested in reading the play for awhile. The Tragedy of King Lear is a well written play by William Shakespeare. I have only read one other work by Shakespeare and that is Romeo and Juliet. I enjoyed the story of King Lear, I just wish I had a better understanding of his English writing to fully understand Shakespeare's works.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorite Shakespeare plays, though it had been a long time since I read it. Didn't disappoint on a reread!
    • 5/5
      I don’t really know what to say about King Lear, or anything by Shakespeare, really. A summary would be redundant and out of place. So would gushing about the stunning beauty of the poetry, or how this is some of the greatest writing in the history of the English language, or any language.Only one thing comes to mind when I think of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Think what you will of Harold Bloom (and there are certainly many opinions about him), I always think, more than anything else, of the title of his book of essays on the plays: “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.” Is the title a typically hyperbolic publishing stunt? The more I read and re-read the plays, the less I’m starting to think so. Words simply fail me. They really do. The wonderful things about Modern Library/RSC edition are the introduction, critically informed notes on the text, folio notes, and a sizeable section on historically important performances of “King Lear.” These do a superb job of contextualizing the play, especially in how it performed on stage.
    • 4/5
      Thoughts on the play: -A classic tragedy in which almost everyone dies at the end. -I really didn't have much sympathy for Lear. He acted incredibly foolishly, not just once in turning his back on Cordelia, but many times. -At first, Goneral seemed to be acting reasonably. If Lear had restrained his knights, much of the tragedy would have been lessened. (This was one of the foolish actions of Lear's I mentioned above.) However, as the plot moves on, she is revealed as being more and more terrible. -Edmund struck me as the villain, and he also acted as a catalyst for villainy. So I found the scene at near the end after he & Edgar had dueled a bit hard to believe - after everything, Edgar just forgives him!?! -I was shocked when Cornwall plucks out Gloucester's eyes. I didn't know that was going to happen! Gloucester struck me as the true tragic hero, rather than Lear. Both of them cast off deserving children, but Gloucester realized his error and suffered for it. It wasn't clear to me that Lear recognized his own faults the way Gloucester did.
    • 5/5
      King LearWilliam ShakespeareThursday, March 27, 2014 In my Shakespeare class, senior year of college, the professor thought this was the play central to understanding Shakespeare. The tale is familiar; Lear gives up his Kingdom to avoid the cares of ruling, dividing it among his daughters. Cordelia, the most honest, points out that she owes him a duty but also owes her fiancé, the King of France, love and affection. Lear casts her out, because she is not as effusive as her sisters, Regan and Goneril. Goneril, hosts the King first, instructs her servants to ignore his knights, and when he goes to Regan, she sends a letter to ensure he is cast out there as well. Lear goes mad in a storm, succored by Kent, a loyal knight whose advice was unwelcome in the initial scene, and by Edgar, the son of the Earl of Gloucester, who has been usurped by the machinations of Edmund, a bastard son, and who is the lover of Regan and Goneril. Cordelia brings an army to rescue Lear, but is defeated, and in the schemes of Edmund is killed in captivity. Regan dies, poisoned by Goneril jealous of Edmund, Goneril dies by suicide after Edmund is killed by Edgar, Gloucester dies after a blinding, and Lear dies of heart attack. Lear's speeches while mad are the essence of the mature understanding of the human situation "Striving to better, oft' we mar what's well""Let me kiss your hand!" Lear, in response "Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality"Leather bound, Franklin Library, Tragedies of Shakespeare ($34.60 4/28/2012)
    • 5/5
      Its Shakespeare! What more do you want me to say. He's wonderful!
    • 3/5
      The version of Lear I saw in 2012 too closely matched the texted: too many story lines, too many gag scenes, and too much talking about how hard it is to be king. The tragedy of Lear is that he gets exactly what he deserved. For me, it lacks much of the intrigue of Macbeth or the poetry of Hamlet or Othello.
    • 5/5
      Where is the 6th star, or even up to the 101st? Most likely the best English language play ever written, with one of the most phenomenal characters ever created. Hundreds of years before neural imaging began (like, last Tuesday,) to reveal the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic networks on behavior, the different tendencies between men and women and between man and man, the pyramidical, male-dominated social structures our species has tended to create over the last 10,000 years or so, Shakespeare intuited so, so much. From the start, where nothing will come from nothing, (a pun on 'noting' or social mores which, perhaps, the Bard intended in a more comprehensive way,) to Lear's failed, heartbreaking attempt to return to and save something greater than himself, it's a devastating, crystal clear work. We should use our tongues and eyes to crack heaven's gate, but we don't. A lifetime of careful observation, a brilliant mind, and a one-in-a-billion talent for prosody concentrated into a few hours.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy. The plot, language, and characterization show the dramatist at his mature best.
    • 4/5
      To sum up the play in one sentence: this is the story of a king seeking to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on who could articulate her love for him the best. Beyond that it is the tragedy of emotional greed - of wanting to be loved at any cost. It is the tragedy of politics and family dynamics. Youngest daughter Cordelia is unwilling to conform to her father's wishes of exaggerated devotion. Isn't the last born always the rebel in the family? As a result Cordelia's portion of the kingdom is divided among her two sisters, Goneril and Regan. The story goes on to ooze betrayal and madness. Lear is trapped by his own ego and made foolish by his hubris.
    • 3/5
      This play was discussed by the Great Books KC group of which I am a member. We also watched the movie "A Thousand Acres" to see another version of the plot. This story becomes more harrowing the older one becomes. It's a reminder that one's children don't always remain loyal. But then again, some parents do bad things or make unwise choices.
    • 5/5
      Let me talk about this specific edition of the book first. I have to read this edition for my creative writing class. At first, it can be so hard to read, but once you put your heart reading it, it is an easy read. This is also because the translation of the words are on the other side of the page. Unlike the other King Lear edition where you need to go to the back of the and check what those words mean. It's also affordable. The play itself is really good - not too depressing or cheesy for me compare to Hamlet. Even though this is about a royal family, anyone can relate it directly or indirectly whether they have rivalry with their siblings or a loyal assistant or having problems with their parents.
    • 3/5
      The illustrations are unremarkable.
    • 5/5
      At the risk of sounding flippant, I realized that there are two productions of King Lear that need to be done: one set in the Klingon Empire, and the other performed by Monty Python. Go ahead, I dare you, read Poor Tom's lines like Eric Idle and try not to laugh!
    • 5/5
      There's probably nothing more I can say about this book, since it's been studied for a long time. But although this was a school book, for my Independent Oral Commentary, I really grew to love this book. Shakespeare's mastery of the English language is obvious here. From the truncated but meaningful dialogue, with the most famous probably being "Nothing my Lord". These three words manage to express love, and I have the utmost respect for Shakespeare for writing this. Even after our IOC, we are still influenced by this wonderful play. One friend proceeded to enact the storm scene in the rain (from sheer joy), and this was one of the most quoted books in our inscriptions to our Teacher on Teacher's Day. I could go on and on, but "no, let me shun that. That way madness lies" (Too much of a good thing can be bad after all)
    • 5/5
      Maybe the fifteenth time I've read Lear (this time in the tiny red-leather RSC edition). Always impressed, especially with the curses and curse-like screeds. I can't stand Lear onstage, particularly the blinding of Gloster (so spelled in this edition). How sharper than a serpants teeth it is / to have a thankless child--though having a thankless parent like Lear, Act I Sc I, ain't so great either. I do love the Russian film Lear with music by Shostakovich, and the King's grand route through his bestiary of hawks and eagles.I suppose this is Shakespeare's great (that's redundant, since "Sh" is mostly "great") assessment of homelessness. The undeservingly roofless. it is also his only play on retirement, which he recommends against. Or perhaps Lear should have had a condo in Florida? Of course, his hundred knights, a problem for the condominium board, as it was for his daughters. And Shakespeare, who says in a sonnet he was "lame by fortune's despite" also addresses the handicapped here, recommending tripping blind persons to cheer them up.Of course, Lear has his personal Letterman-Colbert, the Fool, so he doesn't need a TV in the electrical storm on the heath. That's fortunate, because it would have been dangerous to turn on a TV with all that lightening. The play seems also to recommend serious disguises like Kent's dialects and Edgar's mud. Next time I go to a party I'll think about some mud, which reduces Edgar's likelihood of being killed by his former friends.And finally, the play touches on senility, where Lear cannot be sure at first Cordelia is his daughter.I'm not sure, but the author may be recommending senility as a palliative to tragedy--and to aging. A friend of mine once put it, "Who's to say the senile's not having the time of his life?"
    • 3/5
      Compare to his other masterpieces, this was for me too wide in character and at the same time lacking the intimacy of baseline human feelings or experience. "Thy truth be thy dower."
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare but I have not read it in a long time and I do not think that I have ever seen it.
    • 4/5
      What can I say about Shakespeare. He wrote a tragedy and I lived it through this book. Though reading such complicated manner of writing was a difficult task, I did not disturb my understanding of the story line. Since it is a tragedy, I was not a surprise to me that people died at the end, but the reason for which they died made me almost cry. One of the main themes of this tragedy is the bond between a father and a his offspring: King Lear and his daughters and Gloucester and his sons. Honesty and betrayal play an important role in the plot. I was socked by the behavior of the two daughters towards their father. They were mean to his just so they can get his kingdom. Although, Lear only wanted their love. I was a good read for sure and I can't wait until I will be able to discuss it with my classmates.
    • 4/5
      I recently read this for the Shakespeare module on my degree, and was a little disappointed. Having been told it was the Bard's masterpiece, I perhaps came to it with rather high expectations, but then doesn't everyone with Shakespeare? In my own opinion I feel that it falls short of Hamlet, though is superior to Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's line-up of 'famous tragedies' in terms of reading; on performance I cannot comment having seen only Hamlet and R&J. The Fool is an excellent character, and his relationship with Cordelia perhaps the most interesting in the drama. Edmond is also a good dramatic character, but the sisters Regan and Gonerill were flat. Lear's language is itself at times brilliant, but something left me wanting the dexterity of Hamlet. Cordelia is powerful in her absence, and really dominates the final act through her own speech, and that of Lear. The play is undoubtedly infused with some magical moments, but as a text to read, it does not, for me, inspire or humor as Hamlet manages.
    • 4/5
      Een van de krachtigste stukken van Shakespeare; een confrontatie van extremen.
    • 3/5
      There is an abundance of reviews, essays, opinions and prejudicial comments available when talking about Shakespeare. It would seem that the man was incapable of jotting down a bad sentence, let alone a bad story, at least, that's the veil they hand you when calling Shakespeare, morbidly referred to as 'Willy' by those who know the first three lines of Hamlet's 'to be or not to be'-speech, 'the greatest writer of all time'.

      In this review, I shall not beshame my opinion by calling anyone Willy, Shakey, Quilly or by using the word 'Shakespearean'. 'King Lear' is not the strongest play in the exuberant repertoire of Shakespeare. It is, however, one of the more reader-friendly ones, which means you don't need a detailed map of familial relations to follow the plot. The story of King Lear relies heavily on stories that already existed at the time, but had only served as traditional folk tales or as long forgotten myths. For those who are oblivious to the plot - King Lear wants to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Whereas Goneril and Regan go out of their proverbial ways to flatter their father, Cordelia remains reticent (but honest). Which, of course, is not much appreciated. What follows resembles the story of Oedipus, that other Blind King who slowly wandered into his own destruction. Gloucester, one of the side characters, actually does lose his eyes.

      'King Lear', in the end, is a reflection on power and what one will do to achieve it. Even though it might be a bit stale nowadays, it still holds true to its message, and for those who enjoy Shakespeare's husky metaphor, this play will provide you with all the ammunition needed.
    • 5/5
      There are three main reasons for the disorder already occurring by the end of Act I. The first and most obvious is Lear's madness. He certain seems to be loosing it a bit, and his crazed banishment of Cordelia and Kent couldn't possibly have done anything but harm to him. The second reason is Cordelia's sister's treachery. It could be argued that they appear to be trying to protect him and their people by taking away his knights, he is crazy after all, if it weren't for Cordelia's parting words to them; "I know you what you are;/And, like a sister, am most loth to call/Your faults as they are nam'd. Love well our father:/To your professed bosoms I commit him:/But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place." And a few lines later; "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning/Who cover faults, at last shame them derides." These lines seem to indicate that Cordelia knows that Goneril and Regan are not only flattering Lear for gain, but also that they hold him in contempt, and will likely do him harm, and revealing the second harbinger of disorder.

      The third indicator of the chaos to come is Edmund. I feel bad for him, for the contempt others hold him in because of the doings of his parents, but he quickly does what he can to dispel my pity for him with his evil attitudes as he works to turn his father and brother against one another. I find it ironic that he distains his father's belief in fate through astrology, yet confesses that because of when he was born he was supposed to be 'rough and lecherous,' yet doesn't believe himself to have those traits he was just showing.

      Shakespeare's purpose in showing this disorder seems to come from the idea of dividing his kingdom. A divided kingdom would often lead to civil war and chaos, so Lear's deliberate dividing of the kingdom would probably have been viewed as deliberately inviting disorder.

      Power in England was structured in a pyramid. The king on top, and wealth and power went to a few nobles who had all the money. Lear was trying to disrupt that structure in a way that would have alarmed the people watching the play. Cordelia took a great risk in not bowing to her father's wishes, as his denying her dowry could have driven away both her suitors, leaving her alone and destitute in a world that didn't favor lone women. In her case, however Cordelia's suitor from France still marries her, which would be very unusual since she had no dowry, and she wouldn't gain him an alliance with England.

      Family dynamics can change depending on the health of a person, as others may come into their lives and as children grow up. Cordelia was Lear's favorite child, yet when she would not lie to him with flattery, he cast her off. Why? Did he not realize that her impending marriage would change is relationship with her? She would still love him, of course, but even with the play being in pre-Christian era, the belief would probably have been that the wife's foremost alliegence should be to her husband, and Lear should have understood this. In fact, it seems strange that he would have even questioned this part of the structure of society at all.

      No one has a perfect family. This is shown in Edgar and Edmund's family. Gloster (or Gloucester as some versions call him) may have been unfaithful to his wife, it's never stated whether she was alive at the time of Edmund's conception. If Gloster was unfaithful to his wife than he was dishonest and breaking one of the oldest understandings of marriage. If Edgar's mother had already died, that Gloster was not responsible enough to remarry, and to marry Edmund's mother, or at least admit himself Edmund's father when the boy was a child, instead of waiting until Edmund was old enough to distinguish himself, and in doing so, add to Gloster's reputation. It seems very unfair that Edmund, and almost any other illigitmate child born until the the late 1900s should be punished for something that their parents did. Yet neither should Edmund take out his misfortunes on his brother, who was, in all probability, guiltless in tormenting him. After all, Edgar trusts Edmund completely, which does not seem like an attitude he would hold had he tormented Edmund before. I think that Gloster could have stopped his fate had he treated Edmund with kindness from the beginning of his life, rather than waiting until Edmund could add to his reputation to acknowledge him.

      I don't actually seem him mocking Edmund, so much as simply being ashamed of his illegitimacy because it was Gloster's own act that was the cause of Edmund's bastardy. As Gloster was speaking to Kent, he was very frank about the manner of Edmund's conception, to the point that we would say he was being rude to Edmund, but really, for the time, the fact that he had acknowledged Edmund as his son at all was better than many bastards would have gotten. For this reason I think that more than anything it was the fact that he took so long to acknowledge Edmund, that led to Edmund's bitterness and Gloster's downfall.

      (This review is patched up from posts I made on an online Shakespeare class)

    Book preview

    King Lear - William Shakespeare

    Dramatis Personae

    LEAR, King of Britain.

    KING OF FRANCE.

    DUKE OF BURGUNDY.

    DUKE OF CORNWALL.

    DUKE OF ALBANY.

    EARL OF KENT.

    EARL OF GLOUCESTER.

    EDGAR, son of Gloucester.

    EDMUND, bastard son to Gloucester.

    CURAN, a courtier.

    OLD MAN, tenant to Gloucester.

    DOCTOR.

    LEAR’S FOOL.

    OSWALD, steward to Goneril.

    A CAPTAIN UNDER EDMUND’S COMMAND.

    GENTLEMEN

    A Herald.

    SERVANTS TO CORNWALL.

    GONERIL, daughter to Lear.

    REGAN, daughter to Lear.

    CORDELIA, daughter to Lear.

    Knights attending on Lear, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, Attendants.

    Scene: — Britain.

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. [King Lear’s Palace.]

    Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund. [Kent and Gloucester converse. Edmund stands back.]

    KENT: I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

    GLOUCESTER: It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the Dukes he values most, for equalities are so weigh’d that curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety.

    KENT: Is not this your son, my lord?

    GLOUCESTER: His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blush’d to acknowledge him that now I am braz’d to’t.

    KENT: I cannot conceive you.

    GLOUCESTER: Sir, this young fellow’s mother could; whereupon she grew round—womb’d, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

    KENT: I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

    GLOUCESTER: But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.— Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?

    EDMUND: [comes forward] No, my lord.

    GLOUCESTER: My Lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.

    EDMUND: My services to your lordship.

    KENT: I must love you, and sue to know you better.

    EDMUND: Sir, I shall study deserving.

    GLOUCESTER: He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. Sound a sennet. The King is coming.

    Enter one bearing a coronet; then Lear; then the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; next, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, with Followers.

    LEAR: Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

    GLOUCESTER: I shall, my liege.

    Exeunt [Gloucester and Edmund].

    LEAR: Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

    Give me the map there. Know we have divided

    In three our kingdom; and ‘tis our fast intent

    To shake all cares and business from our age,

    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

    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. 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.

    GONERIL: Sir, I

    Do 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 lov’d, or father found;

    A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable.

    Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

    CORDELIA: [aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.

    LEAR: Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,

    With shadowy forests and with champains rich’d,

    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

    Of the selfsame 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

    Which the most precious square of sense possesses,

    And find I am alone felicitate

    In your dear Highness’ love.

    CORDELIA: [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

    Than that conferr’d on Goneril.— Now, our joy,

    Although the last, not least; to whose young love

    The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

    Strive to be interest; what can you say to draw

    A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

    CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.

    LEAR: Nothing?

    CORDELIA: Nothing.

    LEAR: Nothing can 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; no more nor less.

    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, 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?

    CORDELIA: Ay, good my lord.

    LEAR: So young, and so untender?

    CORDELIA: 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 operation 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 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—

    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 nursery.— Hence and avoid my sight!—

    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 in my power,

    Preeminence, 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

    The name, and all th’ additions to a king. The sway,

    Revenue, execution of the rest,

    Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm,

    This coronet part betwixt you.

    KENT: Royal Lear,

    Whom I have ever honour’d as my king,

    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 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

    When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy doom;

    And in thy best consideration check

    This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment,

    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 thine enemies; nor fear to lose it,

    Thy safety being the motive.

    LEAR: Out of my sight!

    KENT: See

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