[Stage] Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund
Kent(肯特)
I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany
than Cornwall.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
It did always seem so to us. But now in the division of
the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he
values most,
for equalities are so weighed that
curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety.
Kent(肯特)
[indicating Edmund ] Is not this your son, my lord?
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so
often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to
it.
Kent(肯特)
I cannot conceive you.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
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(肯特)
I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being
so proper.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year older
than this, who yet is no dearer in my account.
Though
this knave came something saucily to the world before he
was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good
sport at his making, and the whoreson must be
acknowledged.—
Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?
Edmund(爱德蒙)
No, my lord.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
My lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my
honorable friend.
Edmund(爱德蒙)
My services to your lordship.
Kent(肯特)
I must love you and sue to know you better.
Edmund(爱德蒙)
Sir, I shall study deserving.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.
[Stage] Sennet.
The king is coming.
[Stage]
Lear(李尔)
Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
I shall, my lord.
[Stage] Exit Gloucester
Lear(李尔)
Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.—
Give me the map there.—
Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom, and ’tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths while we
Unburdened crawl toward death.—
Our son of Cornwall,
And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
We have this hour a constant will to publish
Our daughters’ several dowers, that future strife
May be prevented now.
The two great princes, France and Burgundy,
Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love,
Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
And here are to be answered.—
Tell me, my daughters,
(Since now we will divest us both of rule,
Interest of territory, cares of state)
Which of you shall we say doth love us most
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge?—
Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
Sir, I do love you more than words can wield the
matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty,
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare,
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor,
As much as child e’er loved or father found—
A love that makes breath poor and speech unable.
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[Aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be
silent.
Lear(李尔)
Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains riched,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady.
To thine and Albany’s issue
Be this perpetual.—What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife of Cornwall? Speak.
Regan(里根)
Sir, I am made of that self mettle as my sister,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart,
I find she names my very deed of love—
Only she comes too short, that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses.
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness’ love.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[Aside] Then poor Cordelia!
And yet not so, since I am sure my love’s
More ponderous than my tongue.
Lear(李尔)
To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,
No less in space, validity, and pleasure
Than that conferred on Goneril.—
But now, our joy,
Although our last and least, to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interessed.
What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Nothing, my lord.
Lear(李尔)
Nothing?
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Nothing.
Lear(李尔)
How? Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.
Lear(李尔)
How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,
Lest you may mar your fortunes.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
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 honor you.
Why have my sisters husbands if they say
They love you all? Haply when I shall wed
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.
Lear(李尔)
But goes thy heart with this?
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Ay, good my lord.
Lear(李尔)
So young and so untender?
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
So young, my lord, and true.
Lear(李尔)
Let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower.
For by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be—
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever.
The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved
As thou my sometime daughter.
Kent(肯特)
Good my liege—
Lear(李尔)
Peace, Kent.
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
I loved her most and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery.
[To Cordelia]
Hence, and avoid my
sight!—
So be my grave my peace as here I give
Her father’s heart from her.—
Call France. Who stirs?
Call Burgundy.—
[Stage] Exeunt several attendants
Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third.
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Preeminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty.
Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights
By you to be sustained, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns.
Only shall we retain
The name, and all th’ additions to a king.
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Belovèd sons, be yours;
which to confirm,
This coronet part between you.
[Gives Cornwall and Albany the coronet]
Kent(肯特)
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—
Lear(李尔)
The bow is bent and drawn. Make from the shaft.
Kent(肯特)
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 sound
Reverbs no hollowness.
Lear(李尔)
Kent, on thy life, no more.
Kent(肯特)
My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thy enemies
nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being motive.
Lear(李尔)
Out of my sight!
Kent(肯特)
See better, Lear, and let me still remain
The true blank of thine eye.
Lear(李尔)
Now, by Apollo—
Kent(肯特)
Now, by Apollo, King,
Thou swear’st thy gods in vain.
Lear(李尔)
O vassal! Miscreant!
Albany, Cornwall(奥尔巴尼, 康沃尔)
Dear sir, forbear!
Kent(肯特)
Do, kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon thy foul disease.
Revoke thy gift,
Or whilst I can vent clamor from my throat,
I’ll tell thee thou dost evil.
Lear(李尔)
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 diseases of the world.
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom.
If on the next day following
Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions,
The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter,
This shall not be revoked.
Kent(肯特)
Why, 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 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.
[Stage] Exit Kent
[Stage] Flourish. Enter Gloucester with the King of France, the Duke of Burgundy, and attendants
Gloucester(格洛斯特)
Here’s France and Burgundy, my noble lord.
Lear(李尔)
My lord of Burgundy.
We first address towards you, who with this king
Hath rivaled for our daughter.
What in the least
Will you require in present dower with her
Or cease your quest of love?
Burgundy(勃艮第)
Most royal majesty,
I crave no more than hath your highness offered.
Nor will you tender less.
Lear(李尔)
Right noble Burgundy,
When she was dear to us we did hold her so,
But now her price is fallen.
Sir, there she stands.
If aught within that little seeming substance,
Or all of it, with our displeasure pieced
And nothing more, may fitly like your grace,
She’s there, and she is yours.
Burgundy(勃艮第)
I know no answer.
Lear(李尔)
Sir, will you, with those infirmities she owes—
Unfriended, new adopted to our hate,
Dowered with our curse and strangered with our oath—
Take her or leave her?
Burgundy(勃艮第)
Pardon me, royal sir.
Election makes not up in such conditions.
Lear(李尔)
Then leave her, sir, for by the power that made me,
I tell you all her wealth.
[To France]
For you, great King,
I would not from your love make such a stray
To match you where I hate.
Therefore beseech you
T’ avert your liking a more worthier way
Than on a wretch whom Nature is ashamed
Almost t’ acknowledge hers.
France(法国国王)
This is most strange,
That she that even but now was your best object—
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
Most best, most dearest—
should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle
So many folds of favor.
Sure, her offense
Must be of such unnatural degree
That monsters it (or your fore-vouched affection
Fall into taint),
which to believe of her
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could never plant in me.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
[To Lear]
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 dishonored step
That hath deprived me of your grace and favor,
But even for want of that for which I am richer:
A still-soliciting eye and such a tongue
As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.
Lear(李尔)
Go to, go to. Better thou
Hadst not been born than not t’ have pleased me
better.
France(法国国王)
Is it no more but this—a tardiness in nature
Which often leaves the history unspoke
That it intends to do?—
My lord of Burgundy,
What say you to the lady? Love’s not love
When it is mingled with regards that stands
Aloof from th’ entire point.
Will you have her?
She is herself a dowry.
Burgundy(勃艮第)
[To Lear]
Royal King,
Give but that portion which yourself proposed,
And here I take Cordelia by the hand,
Duchess of Burgundy.
Lear(李尔)
Nothing. I have sworn. I am firm.
Burgundy(勃艮第)
[To Cordelia] I am sorry then. You have so lost a
father
That you must lose a husband.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Peace be with Burgundy.
Since that respects and fortunes are his love,
I shall not be his wife.
France(法国国王)
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.
Lear(李尔)
Thou hast her, France. Let her be thine, for we
Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again.
[To Cordelia]
Therefore be
gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.—
Come, noble Burgundy.
[Stage] Flourish
[Stage] Exeunt all but France, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia
France(法国国王)
Bid farewell to your sisters.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
The jewels of our father, with washed 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.
Love well our father.
To your professèd 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.
Regan(里根)
Prescribe not us our duty.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
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.
Cordelia(科迪莉亚)
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,
Who covers faults at last with shame derides.
Well may you prosper.
France(法国国王)
Come, my fair Cordelia.
[Stage] Exeunt France and Cordelia
Goneril(贡纳莉)
Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what most
nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will
hence tonight.
Regan(里根)
That’s most certain, and with you. Next month with us.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
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.
Regan(里根)
‘Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but
slenderly known himself.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash.
Then must we look from his age to receive not alone the
imperfections of long-engrafted condition, but
therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and
choleric years bring with them.
Regan(里根)
Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as
this of Kent’s banishment.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
There is further compliment of leave-taking between
France and him. Pray you, let’s sit together.
If our
father carry authority with such dispositions as he
bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.
Regan(里根)
We shall further think on ’t.
Goneril(贡纳莉)
We must do something, and i’ th’ heat.
[Stage] Exeunt