We are not the first
Who, with best meaning, have incurr'd the worst.
For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
Myself could else out-frown false fortune's frown.
Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?

Will't please your highness walk?

No cause, no cause.

And so I am, I am.

O, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:
No, sir, you must not kneel.

Still, still, far wide!

Sir, do you know me?

How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

Had you not been their father, these white flakes
Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face
To be opposed against the warring winds?
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick, cross lightning? to watch--poor perdu!--
With this thin helm ...

O my dear father! Restoration hang
Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss
Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
Have in thy reverence made!

Very well.

Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?

O you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up
Of this child-changed father!

Then be't so, my good lord.
To the Doctor
How does the king?

Be better suited:
These weeds are memories of those worser hours:
I prithee, put them off.

O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
To match thy goodness? My life will be too short,
And every measure fail me.

'Tis known before; our preparation stands
In expectation of them. O dear father,
It is thy business that I go about;
Therefore great France
My mourning and important tears hath pitied.
No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:
Soon may ...

All blest secrets,
All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now
As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;
Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;
Search every acre in ...

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
Well may you prosper!

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 ...

Peace be with Burgundy!
Since that respects of fortune are his love,
I shall not be his wife.

I yet beseech your majesty,--
If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak,--that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step ...

So young, my lord, and true.

Ay, good my lord.

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 ...

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.

Nothing.

Nothing, my lord.

Aside Then poor Cordelia!
And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
More richer than my tongue.

Aside What shall Cordelia do?
Love, and be silent.