King Lear: No Fear Shakespeare Side-by-Side Plain English

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

Original Text

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND

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,

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for equalities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety.

KENT

(indicating EDMUND) Is not this your son, my lord?

GLOUCESTER

His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed

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to it.

KENT

I cannot conceive you.

GLOUCESTER

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

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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 older than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave

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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?

EDMUND

No, my lord.

GLOUCESTER

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(to EDMUND) My lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honorable 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

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He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.

Sennet.

The king is coming.

Enter one bearing a coronet, then King LEAR, then the Dukes of CORNWALL and ALBANY, next GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and attendants

LEAR

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

GLOUCESTER

I shall, my lord.

Exit GLOUCESTER

LEAR

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.—

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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,

Conferring them on younger strengths while we

Unburdened crawl toward death.—Our son of Cornwall,

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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 two great princes, France and Burgundy,

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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)

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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,

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Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty,

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare,

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor,

As much as child e’er loved or father found—

A love that makes breath poor and speech unable.

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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 riched,

With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,

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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.

REGAN

Sir, I am made of that self mettle as my sister,

And prize me at her worth. In my true heart,

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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

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In your dear highness’ love.

CORDELIA

(aside)                                     Then poor Cordelia!

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

More ponderous than my tongue.

LEAR

To thee and thine hereditary ever

Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,

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No less in space, validity, and pleasure

Than that conferred on Goneril.—But now, our joy,

Although our last and least, to whose young love

The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

Strive to be interessed. What can you say to draw

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A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.

LEAR

Nothing?

CORDELIA

Nothing.

LEAR

How? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.

CORDELIA

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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 you may mar your fortunes.

CORDELIA

Good my lord,

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You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I

Return those duties back as are right fit—

Obey you, love you, and most honor you.

Why have my sisters husbands if they say

They love you all? Haply when I shall wed

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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

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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,

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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,

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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 neighbored, pitied, and relieved

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As thou my sometime daughter.

KENT

Good my liege—

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.—

(to CORDELIA)

Hence, and avoid my sight!—

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So be my grave my peace as here I give

Her father’s heart from her.—Call France. Who stirs?

Call Burgundy.—

Exeunt several attendants

Cornwall and Albany,

With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third.

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

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I do invest you jointly with 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 sustained, shall our abode

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Make with you by due turns. Only shall we retain

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

The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,

Belovèd sons, be yours; which to confirm,

This coronet part between you.

(gives CORNWALL and ALBANY the coronet)

KENT

Royal Lear,

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Whom I have ever honored 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.

KENT

Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

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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 honor’s bound

When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state,

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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

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My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thy enemies, nor fear to lose it,

Thy safety being motive.

LEAR

Out of my sight!

KENT

See better, Lear, and let me still remain

The true blank of thine eye.

LEAR

Now, by Apollo—

KENT

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Now, by Apollo, King,

Thou swear’st thy gods in vain.

LEAR

O vassal! Miscreant!

ALBANY, CORNWALL

Dear sir, forbear!

KENT

Do, kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy gift,

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Or whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,

I’ll tell thee thou dost evil.

LEAR

Hear me, recreant! On thine allegiance hear me.

That thou hast sought to make us break our vows,

Which we durst never yet, and with strained pride

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To come betwixt our sentence and our power,

Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,

Our potency made good, take thy reward:

Five days we do allot thee for provision

To shield thee from diseases of the world.

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And on the sixth to turn thy hated back

Upon our kingdom. If on the next day following

Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,

The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,

This shall not be revoked.

KENT

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Why, fare thee well, King. Sith thus thou wilt appear,

Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.

(to CORDELIA)

The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,

That justly think’st and hast most rightly said!

(to REGAN and GONERIL)

And your large speeches may your deeds approve,

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That good effects may spring from words of love.—

Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu.

He’ll shape his old course in a country new.

Exit KENT

Flourish. Enter GLOUCESTER with the King of FRANCE, the Duke of BURGUNDY, and attendants

GLOUCESTER

Here’s France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

LEAR

My lord of Burgundy.

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We first address towards you, who with this king

Hath rivaled for our daughter. What in the least

Will you require in present dower with her

Or cease your quest of love?

BURGUNDY

Most royal majesty,

I crave no more than hath your highness offered.

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Nor will you tender less.

LEAR

Right noble Burgundy,

When she was dear to us we did hold her so,

But now her price is fallen. Sir, there she stands.

If aught within that little seeming substance,

Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced

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And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,

She’s there, and she is yours.

BURGUNDY

I know no answer.

LEAR

Sir, will you, with those infirmities she owes—

Unfriended, new adopted to our hate,

Dowered with our curse and strangered with our oath—

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Take her or leave her?

BURGUNDY

Pardon me, royal sir.

Election makes not up in such conditions.

LEAR

Then leave her, sir, for by the power that made me,

I tell you all her wealth.

(to FRANCE)                 For you, great King,

I would not from your love make such a stray

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To match you where I hate. Therefore beseech you

T’ avert your liking a more worthier way

Than on a wretch whom Nature is ashamed

Almost t’ acknowledge hers.

FRANCE

This is most strange,

That she that even but now was your best object—

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The argument of your praise, balm of your age,

Most best, most dearest—should in this trice of time

Commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle

So many folds of favor. Sure, her offense

Must be of such unnatural degree

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That monsters it (or your fore-vouched affection

Fall into taint), which to believe of her

Must be a faith that reason without miracle

Could never plant in me.

CORDELIA

(to LEAR) I yet beseech your majesty,

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If for I want that glib and oily art

To speak and purpose not—since what I well intend,

I’ll do ’t before I speak—that you make known

It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

No unchaste action or dishonored step

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That hath deprived me of your grace and favor,

But even for want of that for which I am richer:

A still-soliciting eye and such a tongue

As I am glad I have not, though not to have it

Hath lost me in your liking.

LEAR

Go to, go to. Better thou

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Hadst not been born than not t’ have pleased me better.

FRANCE

Is it no more but this—a tardiness in nature

Which often leaves the history unspoke

That it intends to do?—My lord of Burgundy,

What say you to the lady? Love’s not love

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When it is mingled with regards that stands

Aloof from th’ entire point. Will you have her?

She is herself a dowry.

BURGUNDY

(to LEAR)                      Royal King,

Give but that portion which yourself proposed,

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

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Duchess of Burgundy.

LEAR

Nothing. I have sworn. I am firm.

BURGUNDY

(to CORDELIA) I am sorry then. You have so lost a father

That you must lose a husband.

CORDELIA

Peace be with Burgundy.

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Since that respects and fortunes are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

FRANCE

Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor,

Most choice forsaken, and most loved despised!

Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon,

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Be it lawful I take up what’s cast away.

Gods, gods! ’Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect

My love should kindle to inflamed respect.—

Thy dowerless daughter, King, thrown to my chance,

Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France.

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Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy

Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.—

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind.

Thou losest here, a better where to find.

LEAR

Thou hast her, France. Let her be thine, for we

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Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see

That face of hers again. (to CORDELIA) Therefore be gone

Without our grace, our love, our benison.—

Come, noble Burgundy.

Flourish

Exeunt all but FRANCE,

GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA

FRANCE

Bid farewell to your sisters.

CORDELIA

270

The jewels of our father, with washed eyes

Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are,

And like a sister am most loath to call

Your faults as they are named. Love well our father.

To your professèd bosoms I commit him.

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But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.

So farewell to you both.

REGAN

Prescribe not us our duty.

GONERIL

Let your study

Be to content your lord, who hath received you

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At fortune’s alms. You have obedience scanted,

And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

CORDELIA

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,

Who covers faults at last with shame derides.

Well may you prosper.

FRANCE

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Come, my fair Cordelia.

Exeunt FRANCE and CORDELIA

GONERIL

Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence tonight.

REGAN

That’s most certain, and with you. Next month with us.

GONERIL

You see how full of changes his age is. The observation we

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have made of it hath not been little. He always loved our sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly.

REGAN

’Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.

GONERIL

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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.

REGAN

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Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent’s banishment.

GONERIL

There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him. Pray you, let’s sit together. If our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last

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surrender of his will but offend us.

REGAN

We shall further think on ’t.

GONERIL

We must do something, and i’ th’ heat.

Exeunt

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

Modern Text

KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND enter.

KENT

I thought the king preferred the Duke of Albany to the Duke of Cornwall.

GLOUCESTER

We used to think so too. But the way he’s divided the kingdom recently, nobody can tell which of the dukes he favors more. He’s split the kingdom so evenly that it’s impossible to see any indication of favoritism.

KENT

(pointing to EDMUND) Isn’t this your son, my lord?

GLOUCESTER

Yes, I’ve been responsible for his upbringing. I’ve had to acknowledge that he’s my son so many times that now I can do it without embarrassment.

KENT

I can’t conceive of what you mean.

GLOUCESTER

You can’t conceive? Well, this guy’s mother could conceive him all to well. She grew a big belly and had a baby for her crib before she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell something naughty?

KENT

Well, I wouldn’t want to undo the naughtiness, since the boy turned out so well.

GLOUCESTER

But I have a legitimate son a few years older than this one, and I don’t love him any more than I love my bastard. Edmund may have snuck into the world a little before his time, but his mother was pretty, we had a fun time making him, and now I have to acknowledge the guy as my son.—Do you know this gentleman, Edmund?

EDMUND

No, I don’t, my lord.

GLOUCESTER

(to EDMUND) This is Lord Kent. Remember him as my friend and an honorable man.

EDMUND

Very pleased to meet you, my lord.

KENT

I look forward to getting to know you better.

EDMUND

I’ll try to make myself worth your knowledge.

GLOUCESTER

He’s been gone for nine years and he’s leaving again soon.

Trumpets announce the arrival of King LEAR.

The king is coming.

A man bearing a crown enters, followed by King LEAR, the Dukes of CORNWALL and ALBANY, then GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and attendants.

LEAR

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