KING LEAR

Act 1, Scene 1, lines 32-119

Assignment description

KING LEAR
Attend variant lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
GLOUCESTER
I shall, my variant.

Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND

KING LEAR
Meantime we shall express our darker variant.
Variant the map there. Know variant we have divided
In three our kingdom; and 'tis our variant intent
To shake all cares and business variant,
Variant them on younger variant variant.
The variant 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 answered. Tell me, my daughters,
Variant
Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where variant? Goneril,
Our eldest-born, speak first.
GONERIL
Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, variant 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 variant;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
CORDELIA
[Aside] What shall Cordelia variant? Love, and be silent.
LEAR
Of all these bounds even from this line to this,
With variant forests variant and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's variant
Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife variant
REGAN
Variant I am made
Of the self variant metal variant
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed of love--
Only she variant, that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses,
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness' love.
CORDELIA
[Aside] Then poor Cordelia --
And yet not so, since, I am sure, my love's
More variant than my tongue.
KING LEAR
To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that variant on Goneril. Variant now our joy,
Although variant
What can you say to variant
A third more opulent than your sisters? Variant.
CORDELIA
Nothing, my lord.
KING LEAR
Variant.Nothing variant come of nothing. Speak again.
CORDELIA
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.
KING LEAR
Variant mend your speech a little,
Lest variant may mar your fortunes.
CORDELIA
Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
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,
Variant.
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
Variant 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. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall variant
Be as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved,
As thou, my sometime daughter.