ACT I. SCENE
I.
KING LEAR'S PALACE.
LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA,
KING OF FRANCE, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, KENT, ATTENDANTS,
&C.
Cordelia. 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?
Cor. Ay, my good 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:
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.—
Painted by Henry Fuseli, R. A. Engraved by Richard
Earlom.
ACT III.
SCENE IV.
PART OF A HEATH, WITH A HOVEL.
LEAR, KENT, FOOL, EDGAR, DISGUISED AS A MADMAN, AND
GLOSTER, WITH A TORCH.
Lear. THOU wert better in a grave, than
to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of
the skies.—Is man no more than this? Consider him
well:
Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the
sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:—Ha! here's three
of us are sophisticated!—
Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no
more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.—
Off, off, you lendings:—Come; unbutton here.—
[Tearing off his clothes.
Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented; 'tis
a naughty night to swim in.—Now a little fire in
a wild field were like an old lecher's heart,—a
small spark, all the rest of his body cold.—Look,
here comes a walking fire.
Painted by Benjamin West, President R. A. Engraved
by William Sharp.
ACT V. SCENE
III.
A CAMP NEAR DOVER.
LEAR, WITH CORDELIA DEAD IN HIS ARMS; EDGAR, ALBANY,
AND KENT. REGAN, GONERIL, AND EDMUND, ALL DEAD.
Edmund. HE hath commission from thy
wife and me
To hang Cordelia in the prison, and
To lay the blame upon her own despair,
That she fordid herself.
Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence
awhile.
[Edmund is borne off.
Enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in his arms; Edgar, Officer
and others. Lear. Howl, howl, howl!—O,
you are men of stones;
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
That heaven's vault should crack:—She's gone for
ever!—
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth.—
Painted by James Barry, R.A. Drawn and engraved
by Francis Legat.
|
