to flattery, honour was bound to
plainness. For Lear's threats, what could he do to him, whose life was
already at his service? That should not hinder duty from speaking.

The honest freedom of this good earl of Kent only stirred up the king's
wrath the more, and like a frantic patient who kills his physician, and
loves his mortal disease, he banished this true servant, and allotted
him but five days to make his preparations for departure; but if on the
sixth his hated person was found within the realm of Britain, that
moment was to be his death. And Kent bade farewell to the king, and
said, that since he chose to show himself in such fashion, it was but
banishment to stay there; and before he went, he recommended Cordelia
to the protection of the gods, the maid who had so rightly thought, and
so discreetly spoken; and only wished that her sisters' large speeches
might be answered with deeds of love; and then he went, as he said, to
shape his old course to a new country.

The king of France and duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear the
determination of Lear about his youngest daughter, and to know whether
they would persist in their courtship to Cordelia, now that she was
under her father's displeasure, and had no fortune but her own person
to recommend her: and the duke of Burgundy declined the match, and
would not take her to wife upon such conditions; but the king of
France, understanding what the nature of the fault had been which had
lost her the love of her father, that it was only a tardiness of
speech, and the not being able to frame her tongue to flattery like her
sisters, took this young maid by the hand, and saying that her virtues
were a dowry above a kingdom, bade Cordelia to take farewell of her
sisters and of her father, though he had been unkind, and she should go
with him, and be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer
possessions than her sisters: and he called the duke of Burgundy in
contempt a waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a
moment run all away like water.

Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and
they sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their
duty; but to strive to content her husband, who had taken her (as they
tauntingly expressed it) as Fortune's alms. And Cordelia with a heavy
heart departed, for she knew the cunning of her