King Edward Lear

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A lesser known fragment of an unfinished play by Otto Büchstein

Lear: Now, behold these windy allowances
To whose young regulators
The storied mines of France and Burgundy
Once strove to submit; that airy scheme now lies abandoned.
Wherefore am I girdled around by these confounded dockets.
Must they exhaust me so?

Enter Cordelia, strumming on a lute.

Cordelia: ’Tis the point, Sirrah.
Lear: Fair Cordelia!
Cordelia: My Liege.
Lear: Maketh thou an offer —
Rid me of these papery ghosts!
What will you take? And at what price? Speak.
Cordelia: Nothing, my lord.
Lear: Nothing!
Cordelia: Nothing.
Lear: Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
Cordelia: Well, pops, that’s hot air for you.

Later in the same scene, Cnut and Nuncle recap:

Nuncle: We’d be the better set
Were we take those things we do
Alone by quirk of flimsy convention
And bid them outright cease.
Better that, than lend them ease.
Just because one can, sirrah —
By no means means one should.
Lear: If only I could tattoo that
Upon the wretched heart
Of ev’ry tedial agent
Whose curl’d and twisted postulations
Impede our noble purpose.