Scene II
The Earl of Gloucester's castle
Enter Edmund, with a letter.[2670]
Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law[2671]
My services are bound. Wherefore should I[2671]
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit[2671][2672]
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,[2671][2673]
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines[2671] 5
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?[2671][2674]
When my dimensions are as well compact,[2671][2675]
My mind as generous and my shape as true,[2671]
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us[2671][2676]
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?[2671][2677] 10
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take[2671]
More composition and fierce quality[2671]
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,[2671][2678]
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,[2671][2679]
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,[2671][2680] 15
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:[2671]
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund[2671]
As to the legitimate: fine word,'legitimate!'[2671][2681]
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed[2671]
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base[2671][2676] 20
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:[2671][2682]
Now, gods, stand up for bastards![2671]
My services are bound. Wherefore should I[2671]
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit[2671][2672]
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,[2671][2673]
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines[2671] 5
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?[2671][2674]
When my dimensions are as well compact,[2671][2675]
My mind as generous and my shape as true,[2671]
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us[2671][2676]
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?[2671][2677] 10
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take[2671]
More composition and fierce quality[2671]
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,[2671][2678]
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,[2671][2679]
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,[2671][2680] 15
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:[2671]
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund[2671]
As to the legitimate: fine word,'legitimate!'[2671][2681]
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed[2671]
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base[2671][2676] 20
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:[2671][2682]
Now, gods, stand up for bastards![2671]
Enter Gloucester.[2671]
Glou. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted![2671][2683][2684]
And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power![2671][2684][2685]
Confined to exhibition! All this done[2671][2684][2686] 25
Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?[2671][2684]
And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power![2671][2684][2685]
Confined to exhibition! All this done[2671][2684][2686] 25
Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?[2671][2684]
Edm. So please your lordship, none.
[Putting up the letter.[2687]
Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?[2688]
Edm. I know no news, my lord.
Glou. What paper were you reading? 30
Edm. Nothing, my lord.
Glou. No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of[2689]
it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not such
need to hide itself. Let's see: come, if it be nothing, I shall[2690]
not need spectacles. 35
it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not such
need to hide itself. Let's see: come, if it be nothing, I shall[2690]
not need spectacles. 35
Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from[2691]
my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much[2692]
as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking.[2693]
my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much[2692]
as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking.[2693]
Glou. Give me the letter, sir.
Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The[2694] 40
contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.[2694][2695]
contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.[2694][2695]
Glou. Let's see, let's see.
Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote
this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.[2696]
this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.[2696]
Glou. [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes[2697] 45
the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes[2698]
from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find
an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny;
who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come[2699]
to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would 50
sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for
ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Edgar.'
Hum! Conspiracy!—'Sleep till I waked him, you should[2700]
enjoy half his revenue!'—My son Edgar! Had he a hand
to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in? When[2701] 55
came this to you? who brought it?[2702]
the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes[2698]
from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find
an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny;
who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come[2699]
to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would 50
sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for
ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Edgar.'
Hum! Conspiracy!—'Sleep till I waked him, you should[2700]
enjoy half his revenue!'—My son Edgar! Had he a hand
to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in? When[2701] 55
came this to you? who brought it?[2702]
Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning
of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.
of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.
Glou. You know the character to be your brother's?
Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear 60
it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it[2703][2704]
were not.[2703]
it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it[2703][2704]
were not.[2703]
Glou. It is his.[2705]
Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is[2706]
not in the contents. 65
not in the contents. 65
Glou. Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this[2707]
business?
business?
Edm. Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft maintain[2708]
it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining,[2709]
the father should be as ward to the son, and the[2710] 70
son manage his revenue.[2711]
it to be fit, that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining,[2709]
the father should be as ward to the son, and the[2710] 70
son manage his revenue.[2711]
Glou. O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter!
Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain!
worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him; ay, apprehend[2712]
him: abominable villain! Where is he? 75
Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain!
worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him; ay, apprehend[2712]
him: abominable villain! Where is he? 75
Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please[2713]
you to suspend your indignation against my brother till you
can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you[2714]
should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed[2715]
against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great 80
gap in your own honour and shake in pieces the heart of[2716]
his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him that he[2717]
hath wrote this to feel my affection to your honour and to[2718]
no further pretence of danger.[2719]
you to suspend your indignation against my brother till you
can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you[2714]
should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed[2715]
against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great 80
gap in your own honour and shake in pieces the heart of[2716]
his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him that he[2717]
hath wrote this to feel my affection to your honour and to[2718]
no further pretence of danger.[2719]
Glou. Think you so? 85
Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you
where you shall hear us confer of this and by an auricular[2720]
assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further
delay than this very evening.
where you shall hear us confer of this and by an auricular[2720]
assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further
delay than this very evening.
Glou. He cannot be such a monster—[2721] 90
Edm. Nor is not, sure.[2722]
Glou. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves[2722]
him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me[2722][2723]
into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own[2724]
wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution. 95
him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me[2722][2723]
into him, I pray you: frame the business after your own[2724]
wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution. 95
Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently, convey the business[2725]
as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.[2726]
as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.[2726]
Glou. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend[2727][2728]
no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it[2729]
thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent[2730] 100
effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide:
in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces,[2731]
treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This[2732][2733]
villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son[2733]
against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's[2733] 105
father against child. We have seen the best of our time:[2733]
machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous disorders[2733]
follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this[2733]
villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully.[2734]
And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, 110
honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit.[2735]
no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it[2729]
thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent[2730] 100
effects: love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide:
in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces,[2731]
treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father. This[2732][2733]
villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son[2733]
against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's[2733] 105
father against child. We have seen the best of our time:[2733]
machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous disorders[2733]
follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this[2733]
villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully.[2734]
And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his offence, 110
honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit.[2735]
Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that[2736]
when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own[2737]
behaviour—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the
moon and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity,[2738] 115
fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves and treachers,[2739]
by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers,[2740]
by an enforced obedience of planetary influence;
and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable
evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish 120
disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded[2741]
with my mother under the dragon's tail, and my nativity
was under Ursa major; so that it follows I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the[2742]
maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.[2743] 125
Edgar—[2744][2745][2746]
when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own[2737]
behaviour—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the
moon and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity,[2738] 115
fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves and treachers,[2739]
by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers,[2740]
by an enforced obedience of planetary influence;
and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable
evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish 120
disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded[2741]
with my mother under the dragon's tail, and my nativity
was under Ursa major; so that it follows I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the[2742]
maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.[2743] 125
Edgar—[2744][2745][2746]
Enter Edgar.
And pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy:[2744][2745]
my cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'[2745][2747]
Bedlam. O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa,[2745][2748][2749]
sol, la, mi.[2749][2750] 130
my cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o'[2745][2747]
Bedlam. O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! fa,[2745][2748][2749]
sol, la, mi.[2749][2750] 130
Edg. How now, brother Edmund! what serious contemplation
are you in?
are you in?
Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read
this other day, what should follow these eclipses.[2727]
this other day, what should follow these eclipses.[2727]
Edg. Do you busy yourself about that?[2751] 135
Edm. I promise you, the effects he writ of succeed[2752]
unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the[2753]
parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions[2753][2754]
in state, menaces and maledictions against king and[2753]
nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation[2753] 140
of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.[2753][2755]
unhappily; as of unnaturalness between the child and the[2753]
parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions[2753][2754]
in state, menaces and maledictions against king and[2753]
nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation[2753] 140
of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.[2753][2755]
Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical?[2753]
Edm. Come, come; when saw you my father last?[2753]
Edg. Why, the night gone by.[2756]
Edm. Spake you with him? 145
Edg. Ay, two hours together.[2757]
Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure
in him by word or countenance?[2758]
in him by word or countenance?[2758]
Edg. None at all.
Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended[2759] 150
him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence till some[2760]
little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which
at this instant so rageth in him that with the mischief of[2761]
your person it would scarcely allay.[2762]
him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence till some[2760]
little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which
at this instant so rageth in him that with the mischief of[2761]
your person it would scarcely allay.[2762]
Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. 155
Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent[2763]
forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower and, as I[2763]
say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly[2763]
bring you to hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my[2763][2764]
key: if you do stir abroad, go armed.[2763] 160
forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower and, as I[2763]
say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly[2763]
bring you to hear my lord speak: pray ye, go; there's my[2763][2764]
key: if you do stir abroad, go armed.[2763] 160
Edg. Armed, brother![2763]
Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best: go armed: I[2763][2765]
am no honest man if there be any good meaning towards[2766]
you: I have told you what I have seen and heard; but[2767]
faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it: pray you,[2767] 165
away.
am no honest man if there be any good meaning towards[2766]
you: I have told you what I have seen and heard; but[2767]
faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it: pray you,[2767] 165
away.
Edg. Shall I hear from you anon?
Edm. I do serve you in this business. [Exit Edgar.[2768]
A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms 170
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy. I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's meet that I can fashion fit. [Exit.[2769]
A credulous father, and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms 170
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy. I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:
All with me's meet that I can fashion fit. [Exit.[2769]
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