Edmund. I hear my father coming! Pardon me; 30 In cunning I must draw my sword upon you. Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well. Enter Gloucester and Servants with torches. Gloucester. Now, Edmund, where 's the villain? Edmund. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon To stand auspicious mistress. Gloucester. But where is he? 31. quit: acquit yourself, do well. 32. The words are spoken loudly so as to be heard outside. 34. beget: occasion, cause. (Delius.) 40 Edgar is a toy in the hands of Edmund. He allows himself to be kept in hiding for several days, and now to be put to flight by his brother's report of Gloucester's wrath. In this is an added evidence of the utter lack of any sympathetic understanding or acquaintanceship between Gloucester and his son. We cannot but feel that Edgar is a weakling; yet his weakness is that of too great trust in a brother, whose strength of physical manhood he admires, against a father of whom he has had little occasion for personal knowledge. Gloucester has shown himself to be superstitious (I. II: 105 ff.) ; and the suggestion that Edgar is in league with spiritual forces of evil is well fitted to arouse a deeper hostility less likely to be softened by feeling of human sympathy and regard. Edmund. Look, sir, I bleed! Gloucester. Where is the villain, Edmund ? Edmund. Fled this way, sir, when by no means he Gloucester. Pursue him, Edmund. could— Pursue him, ho! Go after. 'By no means' what? Persuade me to the murder of your 45 But that I told him the revenging gods To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion But whe'r he saw my best alarum'd spirits 50 Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to th' encounter, 55 Full suddenly he fled. 46. But that: This completes the thought begun by when in line 43; when he could not persuade me—but that I—, he charges home, etc. 47. bend: direct in punishment. 48. Spoke: told. 54. whe'r: whether, Staunton's reading for And when of the Folio. vest, etc: best spirits aroused. 56. gasted: frightened. Edmund calls attention to his bleeding arm as if in need of aid; and thus he delays his father in the pursuit of Edgar whom he would have driven off and killed by others but not captured by Gloucester lest the plot be discovered. For the same reason, a wrong direction is pointed out in line 43. Gloucester. Let him fly far; Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; And found-dispatch. The noble duke, my master, My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night. By his authority I will proclaim it, That he which finds him shall deserve our thanks, He that conceals him, death. 60 Edmund. When I dissuaded him from his intent, 65 And found him pight to do it with curst speech, I threaten'd to discover him; he replied; "Thou unpossessing bastard! dost thou think, If I would stand against thee, would the reposal Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee 70 Make thy words faith'd? No; what I should deny, As this I would, ay, though thou didst produce My very character,-I 'd turn it all To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice; 75 And thou must make a dullard of the world, If they not thought the profits of my death |