Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.
Lear. But goes thy heart with this ?
Cordelia.

Ay, good my lord. Lear. So young, and so untender? 5 Cordelia. So young, my lord, and true. Lear. Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower: . . . Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood,

And as a stranger to my heart and me 10 Hold thee, from this, for ever. Kent.

Good my liege, Lear. Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

[LEAR gives the crown to the DUKES OF CORNWALL and ALBANY.] Kent.

Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honored as my king,
15 Loved as my father, as my master followed,

As my great patron thought on in my prayers, —
Lear. The bow is bent and drawn, make from the

shaft.
Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, 20 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 honor's

bound,

5

}

10

When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom ;
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 sound
Reverbs no hollowness.
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 the motive.
Lear.

0, vassal! miscreant ! Alb.

[Laying his hand on his sword.]
Dear sir, forbear.
Corn.
Kent. Do;
Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;
Or, whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,
I'll tell thee thou dost evil.
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 strained pride
To 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 provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world ;

13

20

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, 5 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 !
10 [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.]

we: the royal custom of using we instead of I is said to have been begun by King John. fast: firm. constant: settled. — several : belonging to each, respective. — nature doth with merit allenge: natural affection deserves to claim. - Gon'eril : Lear's eldest daughter. unable: powerless. -champains : plains. — riched : enriched. — Re’gan: Lear's second daughter.

my very deed: the true nature of my own.— that: in that. most precious square of sense : the most sensitive to enjoyment. - felicitate : made happy. It is interesting to know that this is the only instance of Shakespeare's using this word, as also reverb below. more richer : the double

comparative was not unusual in Shakespeare's day. — validity : value. — bond : the natural bond of parent and child. — make from: get out of the way of. We still say make for. – fork: point. — invade : pierce. doom : judgment. answer my life : let my life answer for. — reverb : reverberates. strained : excessive. nor: often used for neither. — diseases : discomforts. — trunk : body. – sith : since.

CHARACTER OF WILLIAM OF ORANGE

John LOTHROP MOTLEY

John LOTHROP Motley (1814–1877) was an eminent American historian. His great work, “ The Rise of the Dutch Republic,” was the result of years of study. Much of Motley's life was spent abroad in literary research and in political service.

In person, Orange was above the middle height, per- 5 fectly well made and sinewy, but rather spare than stout. His eyes, hair, beard, and complexion were brown. His head was small, symmetrically shaped, combining the alertness and compactness characteristic of the soldier, with the capacious brow furrowed prematurely with the 10 horizontal lines of thought, denoting the statesman and

the sage.

His physical appearance was, therefore, in harmony with his organization, which was of antique model. Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety. 15 He was more than anything else a religious man. From his trust in God he ever derived support and consolation in the darkest hours.

Implicitly relying upon Almighty wisdom and goodness, he looked danger in the face with a constant smile, and 20 endured incessant labors and trials with a serenity which seemed more than human.

While, however, his soul was full of piety, it was tolerant of error. Sincerely and deliberately himself a

convert to the Reformed Church, he was ready to extend freedom of worship to Catholics on the one hand, and to Anabaptists on the other, for no man ever felt more

keenly than he that the Reformer who becomes in his 5 turn a bigot is doubly odious.

His firmness was allied to his piety. His constancy in bearing the whole weight of struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, was the theme of admiration even

to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, “ tranquil amid 10 raging billows,” was the favorite emblem by which his friends expressed their sense of his firmness.

From the time when, as a hostage in France, he first discovered the plan of Philip to plant the Inquisition in

the Netherlands, up to the last moment of his life, he 15 never faltered in his determination to resist that iniqui

tous scheme. This resistance was the labor of his life. To exclude the Inquisition, to maintain the ancient liberties of his country, was the task which he appointed to himself when a youth of three-and-twenty.

Never speaking a word concerning a heavenly mission, never deluding himself or others with the usual phraseology of enthusiasts, he accomplished the task, through danger, amid toils, and with sacrifices such as few men

have ever been able to make on their country's altar 25 for the disinterested benevolence of the man was as promi

nent as his fortitude. A prince of high rank and with royal revenues, he stripped himself of station, wealth,

20