Lag of a brother?* and why baftard? base? Got 'tween a-fleep and wake? Well then, good brother, SCENE VII. To him, Enter Glo'fter. 7 Glo. Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted And the King gone to night! subscrib'd his pow'r, Confin'd to exhibition! all is gone Upon the gad! -Edmund, how now? what news? Baft. So pleafe your Lordship, none. [Putting up the letter. Glo. Why fo earneftly feek you to put up that letter? Baft. I know no news, my Lord. Glo. What paper were you reading? Baft. Nothing, my Lord. Glo. No! what needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your pocket? the quality of nothing hath not fuch * Edmund is here inveighing against the tyranny of custom, of which he produces two distinct inftances, one with respect to younger brothers, the other with refpect to baftards. In the former he muft not be underflood to mean himself though he speaks in the first perfon, but according to a common mode of fpeech to fuppofe the cafe his own, and as in his own perfon to exclaim against the unreasona bleness and injuftice of the thing: the argument thus becomes general, implying more than is faid, namely, wherefore should I, or any man, &c. + As the treading upon another's heels is an expreffion used to fignify the being not far behind him; fo to tee another means to come up to and be upon even ground with him. need need to hide it felf. Let's fee; come, if it be nothing, I fhall not need fpectacles. Baft. I befeech you, Sir, pardon me; it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for fo much as I have perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'cr-looking, Glo. Give me the letter, Sir. Baft. I fhall offend, either to detain, or give it; the contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. Let's fee, let's fee. Buft. I hope, for my brother's juftification, he wrote this but as an effay, or taste of my virtue. Glo. reads.] This policy in reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppreffion of aged tyranny; which frways, not as it hath power, but as it is fuffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would fleep 'till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother. Edgar. -Hum-Confpiracy!-1 -fleep 'till I wake him-you should enjoy half his revenue- -My fon Edgar! had he a hand to write this! a heart and a brain to breed it in l When came this to you? who brought it? Baft. It was not brought me, my Lord; there's the cunning of it. I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet. 1 Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Baft. If the matter were good, my Lord, I durft fwear it were his; but in refpect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glo. It is his. Baft. It is his hand, my Lord; I hope his heart is not in the contents: Glo. Has he never before founded you in this business? Baft. Never, my Lord, But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons being at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father fhould be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue. Glo. O villain, villain! his very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain! unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, Sirrah, feek him; I'li apprehend him. Abominable villain! where is he? Baft. I do not well know, my Lord; if it fhall please you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you fhould run a certain courfe; where, if you violently proceed against him, miftaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your honour, and fhake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger. Glo. Think you fo? Baft. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening. Glo. He cannot be fuch a monster. Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate my self, to be in a due refolution. Baft. I will feek him, Sir, presently, convey the bufinefs as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. Glo. These late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us; though the wisdom of mankind can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds it felf fcourg'd by the fequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in palaces, treafon; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction, there's fon against father; the King falls from biafs of nature, there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous diforders, follow us difquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it fhall lose thee nothing, do it carefully -and the noble and true-hearted Kent banifh'd! his offence, Honefty. 'Tis ftrange. [Exit. SCENE VIII. Baft. This is the excellent foppery of the world; that when we are fick in fortune, (often the furfeits of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon moon and ftars; as if we were villains on neceffity, fools by heavenly compulfion, knaves, thieves, and treacherous by fpherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an inforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evafion of whore-mafter Man, to lay his goatifh difpofition on the charge of a star! my father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Urfa major, fo that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Í fhould have been what I am, had the maidenlieft ftar in the firmament twinkled on my baftar dizing. SCENE IX. To bim, Enter Edgar. Baft. Pat! Tom o' Bedlam he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy; my cue is villainous Melancholy, with a figh like O, these eclipfes portend thefe divifions! [Humming. Edg. How now, brother Edmund, what ferious contemplation are you in? Baft. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what fhould follow these eclipses. Edg. Do you bufie your self with that? Paft. I promife you, the effects he writes of fucceed unhappily. When faw you my father laft? Edg. The night gone by. Baft. Spake you with him? Edg. Ay, two hours together. Baft. Parted you in good terms, found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance? Edg. None at all. Baft. Bethink your felf wherein you have offended him: and at my intreaty forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this inftant fo rageth in him, that without the mischief of your perfon it would scarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Baft. That's my fear I pray you have a continent forbearance 'till the fpeed of his rage goes flower: and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will K 3 fitly fitly bring you to hear my Lord speak: pray you go, there's my key: if you do ftir abroad, go arm'd. * Edg. Arm'd, brother! Baft. Brother, I advise you to the best; I am no honest man if there be any good meaning toward you: I have told you what I have feen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and horror of it; pray you, away. Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? SCENE Baft. I ferve you in this business: X. A credulous father, and a brother noble, All with me's meet, that I can fashion fit. [Exit. [Exit. SCENE XI. The Duke of Albany's Palace. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? Stew. Ay, Madam.. Gon. By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one grofs crime or other, That fets us all at odds; I'll not endure it ; His Knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us Gon. Put on what wary negligence you please, You and your fellows: I'd have it come to question : If he diftafte it, let him to my fifter, Whofe mind and mine I know in that are one. Remember what I have faid. Stew. Very well, Madam. Gon, And let his Knights have colder looks among you: What grows of it no matter, and advise Your fellows fo: I'll write ftrait to my fifter To hold my courfe. Go and prepare for dinner. [Exeunt. SCENE |