Lear's Labour's Lost
                                                         copyright © 2007 Jeff Goode

                                   ACT I - Vowers & Dowers

            SCENE 1 - King Lear's palace.
                  Enter KENT and GLOUCESTER
            KENT
               Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the reason?
            GLOUCESTER 
               Something he left imperfect in the state, that his personal return was most required and
               necessary.
            KENT
               Who hath he left behind him general? 
            GLOUCESTER 
               The Princess of France, his daughter heir,
               A maid of grace and complete majesty--
               For well you know she comes in embassy 
               On serious business, with the king to speak-- 
               About surrender up of Aquitaine 
            KENT 
               You are not ignorant, all-telling fame 
               Doth noise abroad, that Lear hath made a vow, 
               Till painful study shall outwear three years, 
               No woman may approach his silent court: 
            GLOUCESTER 
               I do remember well: But who comes here?
                  Enter EDMUND
            EDMUND 
               This letter, father, craves a speedy answer;
               'Tis from thy country servant Jaquenetta.
            GLOUCESTER 
               Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?
            KENT
               Is not this your son, my lord?
            GLOUCESTER 
               His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that
               now I am brazed to it. 
            KENT
               I cannot conceive you.
            GLOUCESTER
               Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed,
               sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?
            KENT
               I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.
            GLOUCESTER
               But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my
               account: 
            EDMUND
               My brother Edgar. 
            GLOUCESTER
                                  And his troth is plight, 
               That he would wed the one or else the other 
               Of King Lear's elder daughters 
            KENT
               I thought your son had more affected the Princess Goneril than Regan.
            GLOUCESTER
               It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of his affection, it appears not which of
               the two he values most.
            EDMUND 
               But what to me, my Lord? but what to me? A wife? 
            GLOUCESTER  
               'Your--wife, so I would say--shall be Cordelia
               The younger daughter of our noble king.
            EDMUND 
               [Aside] Whose daughters profit very greatly under him: 
            GLOUCESTER
                                                         Handing him a jewel purse
               If you will marry, ope this purse, and take 
               What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia,-- 
               As fear not but you shall,--show her this ring; 
               And to her white hand see thou do commend it
               And she will tell you who your fortune is 
               If yet you do not know.
            EDMUND
                                     She is a jewel 
               Well worth a poor man's taking: fairies and gods,
               A wife of such means were felicity. 
                                                                    Sennet
            GLOUCESTER 
               The king is coming.
                  Enter KING LEAR, COSTARD the Fool, and Attendants
            KING LEAR 
               Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
               Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
               Our court shall be a little Academe,
               Still and contemplative in living art.
               You three, Lord Kent, Lord Gloucester, and my Fool,
               Have sworn for three years' term to live with me
               My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
               That are recorded in this schedule here:
               If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do,
               Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too.
            KENT 
               So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
               That is, to live and study here three years.
               But there are other strict observances;
               As, not to see a woman in that term,
               Which I hope well is not enrollèd there;
               O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
               Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!
            KING LEAR 
               Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.
            KENT 
               Let me say no, my liege, an if you please:
               I only swore to study with your grace
               And stay here in your court for three years' space.
            KING LEAR 
               You swore to that, Lord Kent, and to the rest.
            KENT 
               By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.
            KING LEAR
               Hear me, recreant!
               On thine allegiance, hear me!
               Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
               Five days we do allot thee, for provision
               To shield thee from diseases of the world;
               And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
               Upon our kingdom: if, on the tenth day following,
               Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions,
               The moment is thy death. Away! by Jupiter,
               This shall not be revoked.
            KENT
                                   But good my liege-- 
            KING LEAR 
               Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. 
                                                                 Storms away
            KENT 
               Nay, then will I be gone. 
                                                              KENT withdraws
            GLOUCESTER
               [To COSTARD] Kent banish'd thus! the king in choler parted! 
               Navarre become a schoolyard! All this done 
               Upon the gad! 
                                                            Re-enter KING LEAR
            KING LEAR 
               Well, sit you out, as well: go home: adieu.
            GLOUCESTER 
               No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you:
               And bide the penance of each three years' day.
               Give me the paper; let me read the same;
               And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name.
            KING LEAR 
               How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!
            GLOUCESTER 
               I am resolved; 'tis but a three years' fast:
               The mind shall banquet, though the body pine:
                                                                 Subscribes
            COSTARD 
               My loving lord, thy fool is mortified: 
               The grosser manner of these world's delights 
               He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves: 
               To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; 
               With all these living in philosophy. 
               So to the laws at large I write my name:
                                                                 Subscribes
            KING LEAR 
               And he that breaks them in the least degree
               Stands in attainder of eternal shame:
                  Re-enter KENT above, unseen
            COSTARD 
               [Reads] 'Item, If any woman shall come within a mile of my court: she shall endure
               such public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.'
            GLOUCESTER
               This article, my liege, yourself must break;
               Your daughters dear--
            KING LEAR 
               Those dears are, as you know, sanguis, our blood 
            GLOUCESTER  
               As well, the daughter of the King of France,
               Importunes personal conference with your grace:
               Therefore this article is made in vain,
               Or vainly comes the admirèd princess hither.
            KING LEAR 
               What say you, lords? Why, this was quite forgot.
            KENT 
               [Aside] So study evermore is overshot:
               While it doth study to have what it would
               It doth forget to do the thing it should.
            KING LEAR 
               We must of force dispense with this decree;
               She must lie here on mere necessity.
               Therefore to's seemeth it a needful course, 
               Before she enter these forbidden gates, 
               To know her pleasure; and in that behalf, 
               Haste, signify so much; we will attend. 
                                                            Exeunt all but KENT
            KENT 
               Necessity will make us all forsworn
               Three thousand times within this three years' space;
               For every man with his affects is born,
               Not by might master'd but by special grace:
               If I break faith, this word shall speak for me;
               I am forsworn on 'mere necessity.'
               And though I have for barbarism spoke more 
               Than for that angel knowledge you can say, 
               Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore 
               And bide the penance of each three years' day. 
                                                                 Subscribes
               Suggestions are to other as to me; 
               But I believe, although I seem so loath, 
               I am the last that will last keep his oath. 
                                                          KENT disguises himself
               If but as well I other accents borrow, 
               That can my speech defuse, my good intent 
               May carry through itself to that full issue 
               For which I razed my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent, 
               If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd,
               So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest, 
               Shall find thee full of labours. 
                                                                      Exit

Forth!