{"product_id":"king-lear-signet-classics","title":"King Lear (Signet Classics)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook info:\u003c\/strong\u003e King Lear (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages) – Signet, 1998. Language: English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n The Signet Classics edition of one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies.Full of cruelty and betrayal, King Lear is the timeless and tragic story of a kingdom held in the thrall of an aging ruler’s descent into madness. Desperate for praise, he banishes those who would guide him with honesty and surrounds himself with sycophants—an action that leads to his ultimate downfall....This revised Signet Classics edition includes unique features such as: • An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater • A special introduction to the play by the editor, Russell Fraser• Selections from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, and The True Chronicle History of King Lear, the sources from which Shakespeare derived King Lear • Dramatic criticism from Samuel Johnson, A. C. Bradley, John Russell Brown, and others • A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions • Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable text • And more...  \n\n                                         Editorial Reviews                   About the Author   William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was a poet, playwright, and actor who is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers in the history of the English language. Often referred to as the Bard of Avon, Shakespeare's vast body of work includes comedic, tragic, and historical plays; poems; and 154 sonnets. His dramatic works have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.           Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.   Chapter One\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAct 1 Scene 1 running scene 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEnter Kent, Gloucester and Edmund\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER 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 qualities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Is not this your son, my lord?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to't.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT I cannot conceive you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew round-wombed and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account, though this knave came something saucily to 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?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEDMUND No, my lord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEDMUND My services to your lordship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT I must love you, and sue to know you better.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEDMUND Sir, I shall study deserving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The king is coming.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSennet. Enter [one bearing a coronet, then] King Lear, Cornwall, Albany, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and Attendants\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGLOUCESTER I shall, my lord. Exit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGive me the map there. Kent or an Attendant gives Lear a map\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKnow that we have divided\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn three our kingdom, and 'tis our fast intent\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo shake all cares and business from our age,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConferring them on younger strengths while we\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnburdened crawl toward death. Our son of\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCornwall,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd you our no less loving son of Albany,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe have this hour a constant will to publish\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur daughters' several dowers, that future strife\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMay be prevented now. The princes, France and\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBurgundy,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGreat rivals in our youngest daughter's love,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong in our court have made their amorous sojourn\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd here are to be answered. Tell me, my\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003edaughters -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince now we will divest us both of rule,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInterest of territory, cares of state -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich of you shall we say doth love us most,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat we our largest bounty may extend\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere nature doth with merit challenge? Goneril,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur eldest born, speak first.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDearer than eyesight, space and liberty,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond what can be valued rich or rare,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs much as child e'er loved or father found:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA love that makes breath poor and speech unable:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond all manner of so much I love you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA What shall Cordelia speak? Love and be silent. Aside\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, Points With shadowy forests and with champaigns riched, to the map\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issues\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBe this perpetual.- What says our second daughter?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN I am made of that self-mettle as my sister,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd prize me at her worth. In my true heart,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI find she names my very deed of love:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnly she comes too short, that I profess\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyself an enemy to all other joys\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich the most precious square of sense professes,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd find I am alone felicitate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn your dear highness' love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Then poor Cordelia: Aside\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd yet not so, since I am sure my love's\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore ponderous than my tongue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR To thee and thine hereditary ever\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRemain this ample third of our fair kingdom,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo less in space, validity and pleasure\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThan that conferred on Goneril.- Now, our joy, To Cordelia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough our last and least, to whose young love\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe vines of France and milk of Burgundy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStrive to be interessed, what can you say to draw\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA third more opulent than your sisters'? Speak.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Nothing, my lord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Nothing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Nothing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy heart into my mouth: I love your majesty\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAccording to my bond, no more nor less.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLest you may mar your fortunes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Good my lord,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou have begot me, bred me, loved me:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI return those duties back as are right fit,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eObey you, love you and most honour you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy have my sisters husbands if they say\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey love you all? Happily when I shall wed,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat lord whose hand must take my plight shall\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ecarry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHalf my love with him, half my care and duty:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSure I shall never marry like my sisters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR But goes thy heart with this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Ay, my good lord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR So young and so untender?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA So young, my lord, and true.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Let it be so: thy truth then be thy dower,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor by the sacred radiance of the sun,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe mysteries of Hecate and the night,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy all the operation of the orbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom whom we do exist and cease to be,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere I disclaim all my paternal care,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePropinquity and property of blood,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd as a stranger to my heart and me\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr he that makes his generation messes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBe as well neighboured, pitied and relieved\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs thou my sometime daughter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Good my liege-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Peace, Kent:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCome not between the dragon and his wrath.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI loved her most, and thought to set my rest\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn her kind nursery.- Hence, and avoid my sight!- To\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo be my grave my peace, as here I give Cordelia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer father's heart from her. Call France. Who stirs?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCall Burgundy.- Cornwall and Albany,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Exit Attendant]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith my two daughters' dowers digest the third.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do invest you jointly with my power,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePre-eminence, and all the large effects\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat troop with majesty. Ourself by monthly course,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith reservation of an hundred knights\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy you to be sustained, shall our abode\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMake with you by due turn: only we shall retain\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe name and all th'addition to a king: the sway,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRevenue, execution of the rest,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBelovèd sons, be yours, which to confirm,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis coronet part between you. Gives them coronet to break in half\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Royal Lear,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhom I have ever honoured as my king,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLoved as my father, as my master followed,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs my great patron thought on in my prayers-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Let it fall rather, though the fork invade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThink'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ebound\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd in thy best consideration check\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis hideous rashness. Answer my life my\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ejudgement:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThy youngest daughter does not love thee least,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReverb no hollowness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Kent, on thy life, no more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT My life I never held but as pawn\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo wage against thine enemies, ne'er fear to lose it,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThy safety being motive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Out of my sight!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT See better, Lear, and let me still remain\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe true blank of thine eye.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Now, by Apollo-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Now, by Apollo, king,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThou swear'st thy gods in vain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR O, vassal! Miscreant! Puts his hand on his sword or attacks Kent\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eALBANY and CORDELIA Dear sir, forbear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'll tell thee thou dost evil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Hear me, recreant, on thine allegiance hear me!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat thou hast sought to make us break our vows,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich we durst never yet, and with strained pride\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo come betwixt our sentences and our power,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich nor our nature nor our place can bear,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur potency made good, take thy reward:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFive days we do allot thee for provision\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo shield thee from disasters of the world,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd on the sixth to turn thy hated back\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon our kingdom: if on the next day following\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThy banished trunk be found in our dominions,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis shall not be revoked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKENT Fare thee well, king: sith thus thou wilt appear,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFreedom lives hence and banishment is here.-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, To Cordelia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat justly think'st, and hast most rightly said.-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd your large speeches may your deeds approve, To Goneril\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat good effects may spring from words of love. and Regan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe'll shape his old course in a country new. Exit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFlourish. Enter Gloucester with France and Burgundy, Attendants\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR My lord of Burgundy,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe first address toward you, who with this king\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHath rivalled for our daughter: what in the least\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill you require in present dower with her,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr cease your quest of love?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBURGUNDY Most royal majesty,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI crave no more than hath your highness offered,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNor will you tender less.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Right noble Burgundy,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen she was dear to us, we did hold her so,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut now her price is fallen. Sir, there she stands:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf aught within that little seeming substance,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr all of it, with our displeasure pieced,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd nothing more, may fitly like your grace,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's there, and she is yours.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBURGUNDY I know no answer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Will you, with those infirmities she owes,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnfriended, new-adopted to our hate,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDowered with our curse and strangered with our\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eoath,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake her or leave her?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBURGUNDY Pardon me, royal sir:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eElection makes not up in such conditions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Then leave her, sir, for by the power that made me,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tell you all her wealth.- For you, great king, To France\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would not from your love make such a stray\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo match you where I hate, therefore beseech you\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eT'avert your liking a more worthier way\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThan on a wretch whom nature is ashamed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlmost t'acknowledge hers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFRANCE This is most strange,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat she whom even but now was your object,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe argument of your praise, balm of your age,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe best, the dearest, should in this trice of time\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCommit a thing so monstrous to dismantle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo many folds of favour. Sure her offence\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMust be of such unnatural degree\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat monsters it, or your fore-vouched affection\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFall into taint, which to believe of her\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMust be a faith that reason without miracle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShould never plant in me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA I yet beseech your majesty -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf for I want that glib and oily art\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo speak and purpose not, since what I will intend\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'll do't before I speak - that you make known\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo unchaste action or dishonoured step\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat hath deprived me of your grace and favour,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut even for want of that for which I am richer:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA still-soliciting eye and such a tongue\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat I am glad I have not, though not to have it\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHath lost me in your liking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Better thou hadst\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot been born than not t'have pleased me better.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFRANCE Is it but this? A tardiness in nature,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhich often leaves the history unspoke\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat say you to the lady? Love's not love\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen it is mingled with regards that stands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAloof from th'entire point. Will you have her?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe is herself a dowry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBURGUNDY Royal king, To Lear\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGive but that portion which yourself proposed,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd here I take Cordelia by the hand,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuchess of Burgundy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Nothing: I have sworn: I am firm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBURGUNDY I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father To Cordelia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat you must lose a husband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Peace be with Burgundy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince that respect and fortunes are his love,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI shall not be his wife.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFRANCE Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost choice forsaken, and most loved despised,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThee and thy virtues here I seize upon:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBe it lawful, I take up what's cast away. Takes her hand\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGods, gods! 'Tis strange that from their cold'st neglect\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy love should kindle to inflamed respect.-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIs queen of us, of ours and our fair France:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot all the dukes of wat'rish Burgundy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCan buy this unprized precious maid of me.-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThou losest here, a better where to find.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEAR Thou hast her, France: let her be thine, for we\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHave no such daughter, nor shall ever see\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat face of hers again. Therefore be gone\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithout our grace, our love, our benison.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCome, noble Burgundy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFlourish. Exeunt. [France and the sisters remain]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFRANCE Bid farewell to your sisters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA The jewels of our father, with washèd eyes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCordelia leaves you. I know you what you are,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd like a sister am most loath to call\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYour faults as they are named. Love well our father:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo your professèd bosoms I commit him,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut yet, alas, stood I within his grace,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would prefer him to a better place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo farewell to you both.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN Prescribe not us our duty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL Let your study\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBe to content your lord who hath received you\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd well are worth the want that you have wanted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCORDELIA Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho covers faults, at last with shame derides.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell may you prosper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFRANCE Come, my fair Cordelia. Exit France and Cordelia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence tonight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN That's most certain, and with you: next month with us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL You see how full of changes his age is: the observation we have made of it hath not been little. He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash. Then must we look from his age to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent's banishment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you let us sit together: if our father carry authority with such disposition as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREGAN We shall further think of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGONERIL We must do something, and i'th'heat. Exeunt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAct 1 Scene 2 running scene 2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEnter Bastard [Edmund] With a letter                                           ","brand":"William Shakespeare, Russell Fraser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46070189490410,"sku":"9780451526939","price":6.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/5301\/6298\/files\/71UqZK2IiUL._SL1500.jpg?v=1781248348","url":"https:\/\/textbookme.store\/products\/king-lear-signet-classics","provider":"TextbookMe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}