Page 1774 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

ACT I IT

Scene I IT

(A State Room in King Lear’s Palace.)

Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund.

KENT
I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

GLOUCESTER
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 weigh’d
that [5] curiosity in neither can make choice of either’s moiety.

KENT
Is not this your son, my Lord?

GLOUCESTER
His breeding, Sir, hath been at my charge: I have so often blush’d to
acknowledge him, that now I am braz’d to’t. [10]

KENT
I cannot conceive you.

GLOUCESTER
Sir, this young fellow’s mother could; whereupon she grew round-womb’d,

and had, indeed, Sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
Do you smell a fault? [15]

KENT
I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.