KingLear李尔王英文版.doc

King Lear Shakespeare homepage | King Lear | Entire play ACT ISCENE I. King Lears 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 eithers 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 fellows 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 AttendantsKING LEAR Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.GLOUCESTER I shall, my liege.Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUNDKING 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 weUnburthend 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 daughters love,Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,And here are to be answerd. 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 eer 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 richd,With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,We make thee lady: to thine and Albanys 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 lovesMore 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 conferrd on Goneril. Now, our joy,Although the last, not least; to whose young loveThe vines of France and milk of BurgundyStrive to be interessd; 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 neighbourd, 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 fathers 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 sustaind, 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 crownKENT Royal Lear,Whom I have ever honourd as my king,Loved as my father, as my master followd,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?Thinkst thou that duty shall have dread to speak,When power to flattery bows? To plainness honours 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 swearst thy gods in vain.KING LEAR O, vassal! miscreant!Laying his hand on his swordALBANY CORNWALL 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,Ill 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 straind 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 banishd 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 CORDELIAThe gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid,That justly thinkst, and hast most rightly said!To REGAN and GONERILAnd your large speeches may your deeds approve,That good effects may spring from words of love.Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu;Hell shape his old course in a country new.ExitFlourish. Re-enter GLOUCESTER, with KING OF FRANCE, BURGUNDY, and AttendantsGLOUCESTER Heres France and Burgundy, my noble lord.KING LEAR My lord of Burgundy.We first address towards you, who with this kingHath rivalld 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 offerd,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 falln. 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,Shes 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,Dowerd with our curse, and strangerd 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 FRANCEFor 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-vouchd affectionFalln 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,Ill dot before I speak,-that you make knownIt is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,No unchaste action, or dishonourd 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? Loves 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 whats cast away.Gods, gods! tis strange that from their coldst 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 CORDELIAKING OF FRANCE Bid farewell to your sisters.CORDELIA The jewels of our father, with washd 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 fortunes 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 CORDELIAGONERIL 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 Thats 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 Kents banishment.GONERIL There is further compliment of leavetakingbetween France and him. Pray you, lets hittogether: if our father carry authority withsuch dispositions as he bears, this lastsurrender of his will but offend us.REGAN We shall further think ont.GONERIL We must do something, and i the heat.ExeuntSCENE II. The Earl of Gloucesters castle.Enter EDMUND, with a letter EDMUND Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy lawMy services are bound. Wherefore should IStand in the plague of custom, and permitThe curiosity of nations to deprive me,For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shinesLag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?When my dimensions are as well compact,My mind as generous, and my shape as true,As honest madams issue? Why brand they usWith base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, takeMore composition and fierce qualityThan doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,Got tween asleep and wake? Well, then,Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:Our fathers love is to the bastard EdmundAs to the legitimate: fine word,-legitimate!Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,And my invention thrive, Edmund the baseShall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:Now, gods, stand up for bastards!Enter GLOUCESTERGLOUCESTER Kent banishd thus! and France in choler parted!And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!Confined to exhibition! All this doneUpon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?EDMUND So please your lordship, none.Putting up the letterGLOUCESTER Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?EDMUND I know no news, my lord.GLOUCESTER What paper were you reading?EDMUND Nothing, my lord.GLOUCESTER No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch ofit into your pocket? the quality of nothing hathnot such need to hide itself. Lets see: come,if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.EDMUND I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letterfrom my brother, that I have not all oer-read;and for so much as I have perused, I find it notfit for your oer-looking.GLOUCESTER Give me the letter, sir.EDMUND I shall offend, either to detain or give it. Thecontents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.GLOUCESTER Lets see, lets see.EDMUND I hope, for my brothers justification, he wrotethis but as an essay or taste of my virtue.GLOUCESTER Reads This policy and reverence of age makesthe world bitter to the best of our times; keepsour fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relishthem. I begin to find an idle and fond bondagein the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, notas it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come tome, that of this I may speak more. If our fatherwould sleep till I waked him, you should half hisrevenue for ever, and live the beloved of yourbrother, EDGAR.Hum-conspiracy!-Sleep till I waked him,-youshould enjoy half his revenue,-My son Edgar!Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brainto breed it in?-When came this to you? whobrought it?EDMUND It was not brought me, my lord; theres thecunning of it; I found it thrown in at thecasement of my closet.GLOUCESTER You know the character to be your brothers?EDMUND If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swearit were his; but, in respect of that, I wouldfain think it were not.GLOUCESTER It is his.EDMUND It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart isnot in the contents.GLOUCESTER Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?EDMUND Never, my lord: but I have heard him oftmaintain it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age,and fathers declining, the father should be asward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.GLOUCESTER O villain, villain! His very opinion in theletter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,seek him; Ill apprehend him: abominable villain!Where is he?EDMUND I do not well know, my lord. If it shall pleaseyou to suspend your indignation against mybrother till you can derive from him bettertestimony of his intent, you shall run a certaincourse; where, if you violently proceed againsthim, mistaking his purpose, it would make a greatgap in your own honour, and shake in pieces theheart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my lifefor him, that he hath wrote this to feel myaffection to your honour, and to no furtherpretence of danger.GLOUCESTER Think you so?EDMUND If your honour judge it meet, I will place youwhere you shall hear us confer of this, and by anauricular assurance have your satisfaction; andthat without any further delay than this very evening.GLOUCESTER He cannot be such a monster-EDMUND Nor is not, sure.GLOUCESTER To his father, that so tenderly and entirelyloves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek himout: wind me into him, I pray you: frame thebusiness after your own wisdom. I would unstatemyself, to be in a d