Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honored as my king
Kent
Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honored as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master followed,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers—
King Lear
The bow is bent and drawn. Make from the shaft.
Be Kent unmannerly
When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows?
Kent
Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
The region of my heart. Be Kent unmannerly
When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honor's bound
When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state,
And in thy best consideration check
This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment,
Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least,
Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sounds
Reverb no hollowness.
King Lear
Kent, on thy life, no more.
Kent
My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thine enemies, nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being motive.
King Lear
Out of my sight!
Kent
See better, Lear, and let me still remain
The 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!
Albany/Cornwall
Dear sir, forbear.
Kent
Kill thy physician, and thy fee bestow
Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift,
Or whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,
I’ll tell thee thou dost evil.
King Lear
Hear me, recreant; on thine allegiance, hear me!
That thou hast sought to make us break our vows—
Which we durst never yet—and with strained pride
To come betwixt 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 provision
To shield thee from disasters of the world,
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom. If on the tenth day following
Thy banished 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 Goneril and Regan.
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.
He exits.