The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (910 page)

what do you say to the lady? Love is not love

when it is mixed with desires that are

separate from the person. Will you have her?

She is enough, with or without dowry.

BURGUNDY

Royal Lear,

Give but that portion which yourself proposed,

And here I take Cordelia by the hand,

Duchess of Burgundy.

Royal Lear,

just give the share you mentioned

and I will take Cordelia by the hand,

and make her Duchess of Burgundy.

KING LEAR

Nothing: I have sworn; I am firm.

She will get nothing: I have sworn it; I won't be moved.

BURGUNDY

I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father

That you must lose a husband.

I'm sorry that you have alienated your father so much

that you have lost a husband as well.

CORDELIA

Peace be with Burgundy!

Since that respects of fortune are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

May  Burgundy be at peace!

Since possessions are what he loves,

I will not marry him.

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 neglect

My 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 Burgundy

Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.

Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind:

Thou losest here, a better where to find.

Fairest Cordelia, who is richest when poor;

most wanted when abandoned; and most loved when despised!

I will take you and your goodness:

it's permitted for me to pick up what has been thrown away.

By God! It is strange that their cold rejection

has kindled my love and respect.

King, your disinherited daughter, come to me by chance,

is the queen of me, my people and my fair country, France:

all the Dukes of weak Burgundy cannot

buy this unvalued precious girl from me.

Say goodbye to them, Cordelia, though they've treated you badly:

you have lost this place, but you are going to a better one.

KING LEAR

Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we

Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see

That face of hers again. Therefore be gone

Without our grace, our love, our benison.

Come, noble Burgundy.

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

You have her, France: you can keep her; I

have no daughter like her, and will never look

on her face again. So get out,

without  my kindness, my love, or my blessing.

Come on, noble Burgundy.

KING OF FRANCE

Bid farewell to your sisters.

Say goodbye to your sisters.

CORDELIA

The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes

Cordelia leaves you: I know you what you are;

And like a sister am most loath to call

Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:

To your professed bosoms I commit him

But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,

I would prefer him to a better place.

So, farewell to you both.

You, my father's treasures, Cordelia leaves you

with eyes washed clean with tears:  I know what you are;

and as your sister I am reluctant to

specify your faults. Be good to our father:

I hand him over to the love you spoke of,

although, sadly, if he still liked me

I would sooner he had better care.

So, farewell to you both.

REGAN

Prescribe not us our duties.

Don't tell us what to do.

GONERIL

Let your study

Be to content your lord, who hath received you

At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,

And well are worth the want that you have wanted.

You should be thinking

about how to please your husband, who has accepted you

as a beggar accepts money. You have lacked obedience,

and deserve to be badly treated on account of it.

CORDELIA

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:

Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.

Well may you prosper!

Time will reveal what twisted cunning has hidden:

whoever hides their faults will get found out in the end.

Good luck to you!

KING OF FRANCE

Come, my fair Cordelia.

Exeunt KING OF FRANCE and CORDELIA

Come with me, my fair Cordelia.

GONERIL

Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what

most nearly appertains to us both. I think our

father will hence to-night.

Sister, I have much to say about matters

which closely concern us both. I think our

father will leave here tonight.

REGAN

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

Definitely, he'll go with you; next month he'll come to me.

GONERIL

You see how full of changes his age is; the

observation we have made of it hath not been

little: he always loved our sister most; and

with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off

appears too grossly.

You see how much his age has changed him;

I have seen plenty of evidence:

he always loved our sister the best,

and in his rejection of her his poor judgement

is all too obvious.

REGAN

'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever

but slenderly known himself.

It's part of the weakness of age, though he's always

been unthinking.

GONERIL

The best and soundest of his time hath been but

rash; then must we look to receive from his age,

not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed

condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness

that infirm and choleric years bring with them.

Even when he was in the peak of condition he was

hotheaded; and so as he gets older we must expect

not only to have to put up with his firmly embedded

temper, but along with it the chaotic changeability

that his old age and illness will bring with them.

REGAN

Such unconstant starts are we like to have from

him as this of Kent's banishment.

We will have to expect sudden whims from him

like this exiling of Kent.

GONERIL

There is further compliment of leavetaking

between France and him. Pray you, let's hit

together: if our father carry authority with

such dispositions as he bears, this last

surrender of his will but offend us.

There are going to be more formal goodbyes

between him and France. Come on,

let's stick together: if our father is going

to exercise his power with these sort of moods

his recent arrangements will be a nuisance to us.

REGAN

We shall further think on't.

I shall think more about it.

GONERIL

We must do something, and i' the heat.

Exeunt

We must do something, and do it quickly.

Enter EDMUND, with a letter

EDMUND

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of custom, and permit

The curiosity of nations to deprive me,

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines

Lag 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 madam's issue? Why brand they us

With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?

Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take

More composition and fierce quality

Than 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 father's love is to the bastard Edmund

As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!

Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,

And my invention thrive, Edmund the base

Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:

Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

Enter GLOUCESTER

You, nature, are my Goddess; I

am a servant of your laws. Why should I

have to suffer from tradition, and allow

squeamish customs to keep me deprived,

just because I am twelve or fourteen months younger

than my brother? Why am I called a bastard? Why am I thought lowly?

I have just as good a body,

my mind is just as noble, I look just as much like my father

as the child of a married woman. Why do they brand me

as lowly? Having low nature? Bastardy? Low, low?

I, from those lusty natural acts, get

a more rounded nature and greater energy

than you get from creating a whole tribe of weaklings

in a dull, stale, tired bed,

conceived by half asleep lovers.

So then, Edgar the legitimate, I must have your land:

our father loves the bastard Edmund

just as much as the legitimate son: that's a good word, legitimate!

Well, legitimate one, if this letter does well,

and my plans thrive, Edmund the bastard

will beat the legitimate. I am growing: I shall prosper:

now, gods, stand up for bastards!