hat her professions, the less
ostentatious they were, had so much the more of truth and sincerity
than her sisters'.

This plainness of speech, which Lear called pride, so enraged the old
monarch who in his best of times always showed much of spleen and
rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so clouded
over his reason, that he could not discern truth from flattery, nor a
gay painted speech from words that came from the heart--that in a fury
of resentment he retracted the third part of his kingdom, which yet
remained, and which he had reserved for Cordelia, and gave it away from
her, sharing it equally between her two sisters and their husbands, the
dukes of Albany and Cornwall; whom he now called to him, and in
presence of all his courtiers bestowing a coronet between them,
invested them jointly with all the power, revenue, and execution of
government, only retaining to himself the name of king; all the rest of
royalty he resigned; with this reservation, that himself, with a
hundred knights for his attendants, was to be maintained by monthly
course in each of his daughters' palaces in turn.

So preposterous a disposal of his kingdom, so little guided by reason,
and so much by passion, filled all his courtiers with astonishment and
sorrow; but none of them had the courage to interpose between this
incensed king and his wrath, except the earl of Kent, who was beginning
to speak a good word for Cordelia, when the passionate Lear on pain of
death commanded him to desist; but the good Kent was not so to be
repelled. He had been ever loyal to Lear, whom he had honoured as a
king, loved as a father, followed as a master; and he had never
esteemed his life further than as a pawn to wage against his royal
master's enemies, nor feared to lose it when Lear's safety was the
motive; nor now that Lear was most his own enemy, did this faithful
servant of the king forget his old principles, but manfully opposed
Lear, to do Lear good; and was unmannerly only because Lear was mad. He
had been a most faithful counsellor in times past to the king, and he
besought him now, that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in
many weighty matters), and go by his advice still; and in his best
consideration recall this hideous rashness: for he would answer with
his life, his judgment that Lear's youngest daughter did not love him
least, nor were those empty-hearted whose low sound gave no token of
hollowness. When power bowed