ness after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself, to be in a due resolution. Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal. 111 Glou. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourg'd by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls [115 off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason ; and the bond crack'd 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father : the King falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. [120 We have seen the best of our time; machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish’d! his [125 offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. [Exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, — often the surfeits 108. unstate myself=give up my state, my position. to be in a due resolution=to be fully resolved, or satisfied. 109. convey=manage. 112. late eclipses: Astrology was looked upon with favor by people of rank and learning in Shakespeare's time. The passage may have had special reference to the eclipses of the sun and mnoon in the autumn of 1605. 113. wisdom of nature=natural philosophy, physical science. 115. sequent effects=following results. 120. bias: a term from bowls=course, tendency. 127. foppery=foolishness. Edmund's protests against astrological superstitions were perhaps shared by Shakespeare ; but Edmund is represented as a very self-reliant and skeptical person. of our own behaviour, — we make guilty of our [130 disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influence, and all that we [135 are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. . . . Edgar Enter EDGAR. and pat he comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam.-0, these eclipses do portend these divisions ! fa, sol, la, mi. Edg. How now, brother Edmund! what serious contemplation are you in? 151 Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what should follow these eclipses. Edg. Do you busy yourself with that? 155 Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily; (as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles ; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what. 163 Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical? Edm. Come, come ;] when saw you my father last? 131. disasters : cf. I, i, 177, originally an astrological term. 133. treachers=traitors. 136. a divine thrusting on : a heavenly (astrological) instigation. 156. succeed=come to pass. 173 Edg. [Why,] the night gone by. 168 Edm. Spake you with him? Edg. Ay, two hours together. Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by word nor countenance ? Edg. None at all. Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him; and at my entreaty forbear his presence until some little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mischief of your person it would scarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. 180 Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord speak. Pray ye, go; there's my key. If you do stir abroad, go arm’d. Edg. Arm’d, brother! 187 Edm. 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 seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you, away. 192 Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do serve you in this business. [Exit Edgar. A credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty 196 178. with : i.e. even with. 181. continent forbearance=forbearing continence (restraint). 191. image and horror : hendiadys for image of its horror. My practices ride easy. I see the business. [Exit. SCENE III. The DUKE OF ALBANY's palace. Enter GONERIL and [OSWALD her] Steward. Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chid ing of his Fool? Osw. Ay, madam. Gon. By day and night he wrongs me; every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other That sets us all at odds. I'll not endure it. 5 His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle. When he returns from hunting, I will not speak with him ; say I am sick. If you come slack of former services, You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer. 10 Osw. He's coming, madam ; I hear him. [Horns within. 1 Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows; I'd have it come to question. If he distaste it, let him to my sister, Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, 15 [Not to be over-rul'd. Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities That he hath given away! Now, by my life, Old fools are babes again, and must be us’d With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus'd.] Remember what I have said. 198. practices=plots. 20. checks . . . abus'd=checks as well as with flatteries, when the latter are seen to be abused. Osw. Well, madam. 21 Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you; What grows of it, no matter. Advise your fellows so. [I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, That I may speak.] I'll write straight to my sister, 25 To hold my [very] course. Prepare for dinner. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A hall in the same. Enter KENT [disguised]. Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, For which I raz'd my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent, 6 Horns within. Enter LEAR, [Knights,] and Attendants. Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. [Exit an Attendant.] How now! what art thou? Kent. A man, sir. 10 Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us? 13 Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem; to serve him truly that will put me in trust; to love him that is honest; to converse with him that is wise and says little; to fear judgement; to fight when I cannot choose; and to eat no fish. Lear. What art thou? 2. defuse disorder, disguise. 18. to eat no fish: i. e. to be a Protestant. 18 |