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Per.

Reverend sir,

The gods can have no mortal officer
More like a god than you. Will you deliver
How this dead queen re-lives?

Cer.

I will, my lord.
Beseech you, first go with me to my house,
Where shall be shown you all was found with her;
How she came placed here in the temple;

No needful thing omitted.

Per. Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! I
Will offer night-oblations to thee.-Thaisa,
This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,
Shall marry her at Pentapolis.—And now,
This ornament

Makes me look dismal will I clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,

To grace thy marriage-day I'll beautify.

My father's dead.

Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, sir,

Per. Heavens make a star of him! Yet there, my

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves

[queen,

Will in that kingdom spend our following days:

Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.
Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay

To hear the rest untold: sir, lead's the way.

[Exeunt.

Enter GoWER.

Gow. In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:

In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen,

Although assail'd with fortune fierce and keen,—
Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,
Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last:
In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty:

In reverend Cerimon there well appears

The worth that learned charity aye wears:
For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame

Had spread their cursed deed, and honour'd name
Of Pericles, to rage the city turn,

That him and his they in his palace burn;
The gods for murder seemed so content

To punish them,—although not done, but meant.
So, on your patience evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.

[Exit.

KING LEAR.

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Knights attending on the KING, Officers, Messengers,

Soldiers, and Attendants.

SCENE,-BRITAIN.

KING LEAR.

* ACT I.

SCENE I.—A Room of State in KING LEAR'S Palace.

Enter KENT, GLOSTER, and EDMUND.

Kent. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

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

Kent. Is not this your son, my lord?

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

Kent. I cannot conceive you.

Glo. 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?

Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

Glo. 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 into 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 ? Edm. No, my lord.

Glo. 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.
Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving.

Glo. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. The king is coming. [Sennet within.

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Enter LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants.

Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloster. Glo. I shall, my liege. [Exeunt GLO. and EDM. Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.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 Unburden'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall, 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 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.-Goneril,

Our eldest-born, speak first.

Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valu'd, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;

As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found;

A love that makes breath poor and speech unable;

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

Cor. [aside.] What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be

silent.

Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual.-What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.

Reg. I am made of that self metal as my sister,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short,-that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys

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