As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found. Cor. What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be silent. [Aside. Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd 12, Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister, of sense possesses; Cor. Then poor Cordelia! [Aside. And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's More richer than my tongue. Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, 6 11 Beyond all assignable quantity. I love you beyond limits, and cannot say it is so much; for how much soever I should name, it would yet be more.' Thus Rowe, in his Fair Penitent, Sc. 1: I can only Swear you reign here, but never tell how much.' 12 i. e. enriched. So Drant in his translation of Horace's Epistles, 1567: To ritch his country, let his words lyke flowing water fall.' 13 That is, estimate me at her value, my love has at least equal claim to your favour. Only she comes short of me in this, that I profess myself an enemy to all other joys which the most precious aggregation of sense can bestow.' Square is here used for the whole complement, as circle is now sometimes used. 1 ་ Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom; Lear. Nothing? Cor. Nothing. Lear. Nothing can come of nothing: speak again. Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond; nor more, nor less. Lear. How, how, Cordelia? mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes. Cor. 14 Validity is several times used to signify worth, value, by Shakspeare. See vol. i. p. 298; vol. iii. p. 330. It does not, however, appear to have been peculiar to him in this sense. "The countenance of your friend is of less value than his council, yet both of very small validity.'-The Devil's Charter, 1607. 15 The folio reads, conferr'd; the quartos, confirm'd. So in a former passage we have in the quartos confirming for conferring. See note 8, p. 381. To confirm on a person is certainly not English now (says Mr. Boswell); but it does not follow that such was the case in Shakspeare's time. The original meaning of the word to establish would easily bear such a construction.' 16 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. We have interess'd in Ben Jonson's Sejanus: : 'Our sacred laws and just authority Drayton also uses the word in the Preface to his Polyolbion. Obey you, love you, and most honour you. carry Half my love with him, half my care, and duty 17 : Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, To love my father all. Lear. But goes this with thy heart? Cor. Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? Cor. So young, my lord, and true. Lear. Let it be so,-Thy truth then be thy dower: From whom we do exist, and cease to be; Scythian, Or he that makes his generation 19 The barbarous messes To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev’d, Kent. Lear. Peace, Kent! Good my liege, Come not between the dragon and his wrath: 17 So in The Mirror for Magistrates, 1587, Cordelia says:Nature so doth bind me, and compel To love you as I ought, my father, well; Yet shortly may I chance, if fortune will, To find in heart to bear another more good will: 18 i. e. from this time. 19 His children. I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery.-Hence, and avoid my sight![To CORDELIA. 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: That troop with majesty.-Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of a hundred knights, Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain The sway, Revenue, execution of the rest 21, Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm, This coronet part between you. [Giving the Crown. Kent. Royal Lear, Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd, Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, When Lear is mad. What would'st thou do, old man? Think'st thou, that duty shall have dread to speak, 20 All the titles belonging to a king.' See vol. vii. p. 324 ; note 5; p. 375, note 32. 21 By the execution of the rest,' all the other functions of the kingly office are probably meant. 22 The allusion is probably to the custom of clergymen praying for their patrons in what is called the bidding prayer. VOL. IX. L L When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom 23; And, in thy best consideration, check This hideous rashness: answer my life my judg ment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Nor are those empty-hearted, whose low sound Reverbs 24 no hollowness. Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more. Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thine enemies 25, nor fear to lose it, Thy safety being the motive. Lear. Out of my sight! Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain The true blank 26 of thine eye. Lear. Now, by Apollo, Kent. Now, by Apollo, king, Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. 23 The folio reads, 'reserve thy state;' and has stoops instead of falls to folly.' The meaning of answer my life my judgment is, Let my life be answerable for my judgment, or I will stake my life on my opinion. 24 This is perhaps a word of the poet's own, meaning the same as reverberates. 25 That is, I never regarded my life as my own, but merely as a thing of which I had the possession, not the property; and which was entrusted to me as a pawn or pledge, to be employed in waging war against your enemies. 'To wage,' says Bullokar, 'to undertake, or give security for performance of any thing.' The expression to wage against is used in a Letter from Guil. Webbe to Robt. Wilmot, prefixed to Tancred and Gismund, 1592: You shall not be able to wage against me in the charges growing upon this action. Geo. Wither, in his verses before the Polyolbion, says:— Good speed befall thee who hath wag'd a task That better censures and rewards doth ask.' 26 The blank is the mark at which men shoot. 'See better,' says Kent, and let me be the mark to direct your sight, that you err not.'. |