Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? Glos. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blush'd to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to't. Do you smell a fault? Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.3 Glos. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. - Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? Edm. No, my lord. Glos. My Lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my honourable friend. Edm. My services to your lordship. Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. Glos. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.4 [Sennet within.] The King is coming. exactness. Equalities means the equality of the portions. This speech goes far to interpret Lear's subsequent action, as it shows that the division of the kingdom has already been concluded, and the several portions allotted, and so infers the trial of professions to be a sort of pet device with the old King, a thing that has no purpose but to gratify a childish whim. The opening thus forecasts Lear's madness. 8 Here, as usual in Shakespeare, proper is handsome or fine-looking. 4 As Edmund's villainy is a leading force in the dramatic action, an intimation of the causes which have been at work preparing him for crime is judiciously given here in the outset of the play. From his father's loose way of speaking about him and to him we naturally gather that certain malign influences have all along been perverting his character and poisoning his springs of action.- Gloster's meaning in this last speech clearly is, that he has kept Edmund away from home nine years, and intends sending him away again, in order to avoid the shame of his presence, or because he has so often blush'd to acknowledge him." We may suppose Edmund's absence to have been spent in travelling abroad, or in pursuing his studies, or in some kind of foreign service. And this accounts for his not being acquainted with Kent. Enter LEAR, ALBANY, CORNWALL, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants. Lear. Attend the Lords of France and Burgundy, Gloster. Glos. I shall, my liege. [Exeunt GLOSTER and EDMUND. Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.6 Give me the map there. Know that we've divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent We have this hour a constant will to publish Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife May be prevented now.8 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.9 Our eldest-born, speak first. Goneril, 5 Shall where we should use will. The two were very often used indiscriminately in the Poet's time. The Bible has many instances. 6 Lear's "darker purpose" is probably that of surprising his daughters into a rivalry of affection. This he has hitherto kept dark about; though his scheme of dividing the kingdom was known, at least in the Court. 7" Constant will" is fixed or determined will; the same as "fast intent." 8 ་་ 'That future strife may be prevented by what we now do." 9 Mr. F. J. Furnivall's explanation of this is clearly the right one. Nature is put for natural affection, and with merit is used as an adverbial phrase: "That I may extend my largest bounty where natural affection justly, or meritoriously, challenges it"; that is, claims it as due. Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter; 10 Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare ; No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour; A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable : Cord. [Aside.] What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be silent. 12 Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, I'm made of that self14 metal as my sister, Which the most precious square of sense 16 possesses; 10 "My love is a matter so weighty that words cannot express or sustain it.” 11 Beyond all assignable quantity. "I love you so much, that there is no possibility of telling how much." 12 Rich'd for enriched. — Champains are plains; hence fertile. 13 The lord of a thing is, strictly speaking, the owner of it. And lady is here used as the counterpart of lord in this sense. So that to make one the lady of a thing is to make her the owner or possessor of it. 14 The Poet often uses self with the sense of self-same. 15 "She comes short of me in this, that I profess," &c. 16 By square of sense I understand fulness of sensibility or capacity of joy. So that the meaning seems to be, “Which the finest susceptibility of happi And find I am alone felicitate 17 In your dear Highness' love. Then poor Cordelia ! More richer 18 than my tongue. Lear. To thee and thine hereditary ever Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; No less in space, validity,19 and pleasure, Than that conferr'd on Goneril. — Now, our joy, Although our last, not least; to whose young love Lear. Nothing! Cord. Nothing. Lear. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again. My heart into my mouth: 21 I love your Majesty 22 bond; my " nor more nor less. ness is capable of." Some have stumbled at the word square here. But why not "square of sense' as well as circle of the senses? which would be a very intelligible expression. 17 Felicitate, a shortened form of felicitated, is fortunate or made happy. The Poet has many preterites so shortened; as consecrate, suffocate, &c. 18 Double comparatives, like more richer, also double superlatives, like most unkindest, also double negatives, like nor is not, were very common in Shakespeare's time. 19 Validity for value or worth. Repeatedly so. 20 To interest and to interesse are not, perhaps, different spellings of the same verb, but two distinct words, though of the same import; the one being derived from the Latin, the other from the French interesser. 21 We have the same thought well expressed in The Maid's Tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcher, i. 1: "My mouth is much too narrow for my heart." 22 Bond was used of any thing that binds or obliges; that is, duty. Lear. How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes. Good my lord,23 Cord. To love my father all. Lear. But goes thy heart with this? Lear. So young, and so untender? Cord. 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; By all the operation of the orbs From whom 25 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, 26 messes Or he that makes his generation 23 We should say " My good lord." The Poet abounds in such inversions. So "dear my mother," "sweet my sister," "gentle my brother," &c. 24 As is here a relative pronoun, referring to those duties; which or that. The word was used very loosely in the Poet's time. 25 The relatives who and which were used indiscriminately. 26 Probably meaning his children; perhaps simply his kind. |