King Lear E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Sovereign
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Timeless Classic
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 140

Beschreibung

King Lear, who is elderly and wants to retire from power, decides to divide his realm among his three daughters, and declares he'll offer the largest share to the one who loves him most.

Leseprobe

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

King Lear

LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA

TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

New Edition

Published by Sovereign Classic

www.sovereignclassic.net

This Edition

First published in 2015

Copyright © 2015 Sovereign Classic

Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Lear,King of Britain

King of France

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Cornwall

Duke of Albany

Earl of Kent

Earl of Gloucester

Edgar,son to Gloucester

Edmund,bastard son to Gloucester

Curan,a courtier

Oswald,steward to Goneril

Old Man,tenant to Gloucester

Doctor

Fool

An Officer,employed by Edmund

A Gentleman,attendant on Cordelia

A Herald

Servants to Cornwall

Goneril, Regan, Cordelia,daughters to Lear

Knights of Lear’s train, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, and Attendants

Scene:Britain

ACT I

SCENE I. KING LEAR’S PALACE.

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND

KENT

I thought the king had more affected the Duke ofAlbany than Cornwall.

GLOUCESTER

It did always seem so to us: but now, in thedivision of the kingdom, it appears not which ofthe dukes he values most; for equalities are soweighed, that curiosity in neither can make choiceof either’s moiety.

KENT

Is not this your son, my lord?

GLOUCESTER

His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I haveso often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I ambrazed to it.

KENT

I cannot conceive you.

GLOUCESTER

Sir, this young fellow’s mother could: whereuponshe grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a sonfor 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 itbeing so proper.

GLOUCESTER

But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some yearelder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:though this knave came something saucily into theworld before he was sent for, yet was his motherfair; there was good sport at his making, and thewhoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know thisnoble gentleman, Edmund?

EDMUND

No, my lord.

GLOUCESTER

My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as myhonourable 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

He hath been out nine years, and away he shallagain. The king is coming.

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

KING LEAR

Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

GLOUCESTER

I shall, my liege.

Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND

KING LEAR

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.Give me the map there. Know that we have dividedIn three our kingdom: and ‘tis our fast intentTo shake all cares and business from our age;Conferring them on younger strengths, while weUnburthen’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 publishOur daughters’ several dowers, that future strifeMay 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 extendWhere nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,Our eldest-born, speak first.

GONERIL

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;As much as child e’er loved, or father found;A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

CORDELIA

[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 issueBe this perpetual. What says our second daughter,Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.

REGAN

Sir, I am madeOf the self-same metal that my sister is,And prize me at her worth. In my true heartI find she names my very deed of love;Only she comes too short: that I professMyself an enemy to all other joys,Which the most precious square of sense possesses;And find I am alone felicitateIn your dear highness’ love.

CORDELIA

[Aside] Then poor Cordelia!And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love’sMore richer than my tongue.

KING LEAR

To thee and thine hereditary everRemain this ample third of our fair kingdom;No less in space, validity, and pleasure,Than that conferr’d on Goneril. Now, our joy,Although the last, not least; to whose young loveThe vines of France and milk of BurgundyStrive to be interess’d; what can you say to drawA third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.

KING LEAR

Nothing!

CORDELIA

Nothing.

KING LEAR

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

CORDELIA

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heaveMy heart into my mouth: I love your majestyAccording to my bond; nor more nor less.

KING LEAR

How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,Lest it may mar your fortunes.

CORDELIA

Good my lord,You have begot me, bred me, loved me: IReturn those duties back as are right fit,Obey you, love you, and most honour you.Why have my sisters husbands, if they sayThey love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carryHalf my love with him, half my care and duty:Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,To love my father all.

KING LEAR

But goes thy heart with this?

CORDELIA

Ay, good my lord.

KING LEAR

So young, and so untender?

CORDELIA

So young, my lord, and true.

KING 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 orbsFrom 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 meHold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,Or he that makes his generation messesTo gorge his appetite, shall to my bosomBe as well neighbour’d, pitied, and relieved,As thou my sometime daughter.

KENT

Good my liege,--

KING LEAR

Peace, Kent!Come not between the dragon and his wrath.I loved her most, and thought to set my restOn her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!So be my grave my peace, as here I giveHer father’s heart from her! Call France; who stirs?Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third:Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.I do invest you jointly with my power,Pre-eminence, and all the large effectsThat troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,With reservation of an hundred knights,By you to be sustain’d, shall our abodeMake with you by due turns. Only we still retainThe name, and all the additions to a king;The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,This coronet part betwixt you.

Giving the crown

KENT

Royal Lear,Whom I have ever honour’d as my king,Loved as my father, as my master follow’d,As my great patron thought on in my prayers,--

KING LEAR

The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.

KENT

Let it fall rather, though the fork invadeThe region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound,When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;And, in thy best consideration, chequeThis hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;Nor are those empty-hearted whose low soundReverbs no hollowness.

KING LEAR

Kent, on thy life, no more.

KENT

My life I never held but as a pawnTo wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,Thy safety being the motive.

KING LEAR

Out of my sight!

KENT

See better, Lear; and let me still remainThe true blank of thine eye.

KING LEAR

Now, by Apollo,--

KENT

Now, by Apollo, king,Thou swear’st thy gods in vain.

KING LEAR

O, vassal! miscreant!

Laying his hand on his sword

ALBANYCORNWALL

Dear sir, forbear.

KENT

Do:Kill thy physician, and the fee bestowUpon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,I’ll tell thee thou dost evil.

KING LEAR

Hear me, recreant!On thine allegiance, hear me!Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,Which we durst never yet, and with strain’d prideTo come between 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 provisionTo shield thee from diseases of the world;And on the sixth to turn thy hated backUpon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,Thy banish’d trunk be found in our dominions,The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,This shall not be revoked.

KENT

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,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

Flourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and Attendants

GLOUCESTER

Here’s France and Burgundy, my noble lord.

KING LEAR

My lord of Burgundy.We first address towards you, who with this kingHath rivall’d 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 what your highness offer’d,Nor will you tender less.

KING LEAR

Right noble Burgundy,When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;But now her price is fall’n. Sir, there she stands:If aught within that little seeming substance,Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced,And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,She’s there, and she is yours.

BURGUNDY

I know no answer.

KING LEAR

Will you, with those infirmities she owes,Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,Dower’d with our curse, and stranger’d with our oath,Take her, or leave her?

BURGUNDY

Pardon me, royal sir;Election makes not up on such conditions.

KING LEAR

Then leave her, sir; for, by the power that made me,I tell you all her wealth.

To KING OF FRANCE

For you, great king,I would not from your love make such a stray,To match you where I hate; therefore beseech youTo avert your liking a more worthier wayThan on a wretch whom nature is ashamedAlmost to acknowledge hers.

KING OF FRANCE

This is most strange,That she, that even but now was your best object,The argument of your praise, balm of your age,Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of timeCommit a thing so monstrous, to dismantleSo many folds of favour. Sure, her offenceMust be of such unnatural degree,That monsters it, or your fore-vouch’d affectionFall’n into taint: which to believe of her,Must be a faith that reason without miracleCould never plant in me.

CORDELIA

I yet beseech your majesty,--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 knownIt is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,No unchaste action, or dishonour’d step,That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;But even for want of that for which I am richer,A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongueAs I am glad I have not, though not to have itHath lost me in your liking.

KING LEAR

Better thouHadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.

KING OF FRANCE

Is it but this,--a tardiness in natureWhich often leaves the history unspokeThat it intends to do? My lord of Burgundy,What say you to the lady? Love’s not loveWhen it is mingled with regards that standAloof from the entire point. Will you have her?She is herself a dowry.

BURGUNDY

Royal Lear,Give but that portion which yourself proposed,And here I take Cordelia by the hand,Duchess of Burgundy.

KING LEAR

Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.

BURGUNDY

I am sorry, then, you have so lost a fatherThat you must lose a husband.

CORDELIA

Peace be with Burgundy!Since that respects of fortune are his love,I shall not be his wife.

KING OF FRANCE

Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:Be it lawful I take up what’s cast away.Gods, gods! ‘tis strange that from their cold’st neglectMy love should kindle to inflamed respect.Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:Not all the dukes of waterish BurgundyCan buy this unprized precious maid of me.Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:Thou losest here, a better where to find.

KING LEAR

Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for weHave no such daughter, nor shall ever seeThat face of hers again. Therefore be goneWithout our grace, our love, our benison.Come, noble Burgundy.

Flourish. Exeunt all but KING OF FRANCE, GONERIL, REGAN, and CORDELIA

KING OF FRANCE

Bid farewell to your sisters.

CORDELIA

The jewels of our father, with wash’d eyesCordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;And like a sister am most loath to callYour faults as they are named. Use well our father:To your professed bosoms I commit himBut 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 duties.

GONERIL

Let your studyBe to content your lord, who hath received youAt fortune’s alms. You have obedience scanted,And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

CORDELIA

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.Well may you prosper!

KING OF FRANCE

Come, my fair Cordelia.

Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA

GONERIL

Sister, it is not a little I have to say of whatmost nearly appertains to us both. I think ourfather will hence to-night.

REGAN

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

GONERIL

You see how full of changes his age is; theobservation we have made of it hath not beenlittle: he always loved our sister most; andwith what poor judgment he hath now cast her offappears too grossly.

REGAN

‘Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath everbut slenderly known himself.

GONERIL

The best and soundest of his time hath been butrash; then must we look to receive from his age,not alone the imperfections of long-engraffedcondition, but therewithal the unruly waywardnessthat infirm and choleric years bring with them.

REGAN

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

GONERIL

There is further compliment of leavetakingbetween France and him. Pray you, let’s hittogether: if our father carry authority withsuch dispositions as he bears, this lastsurrender of his will but offend us.

REGAN

We shall further think on’t.

GONERIL

We must do something, and i’ the heat.

Exeunt

SCENE II. THE EARL OF GLOUCESTER’S CASTLE.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter

EDMUND

Thou, natur