Who cover faults at last shame them derides. France. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt FRANCE and CORDELIA. Gon. Sister, it is not little I have to say, of what most nearly appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night. Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. Gon. You see how full of changes his age is; the observation we have made of it hath not been little he always loved our sister most; and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off appears too grossly. Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself. Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash then must we look from his age to receive not alone the imperfections of long-engraffed condition, but, therewithal, the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them. Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent's banishment. Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and him.1 Pray you, let us hit together: if our father carry authority with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his will but offend us.2 Reg. We shall further think of it. Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat. [Exeunt. plait, to lay in folds. And in my face deep furrows eld hath plight.' -Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, Aegl. 12. 1 Further compliment, &c.] Goneril refers to the dissolution of amity between France and Britain: 'France in choler parted,' as Gloucester says in the next Scene. 2 This last surrender, &c.] The surrrender to us of Cordelia's portion will be only a source of trouble to us. SCENE II.-A Hall in the EARL OF GLOSTER's Castle. Enter EDMUND, with a letter. 1 Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; 1 to thy law The curiosity of nations to deprive me,3 For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines My mind as generous, and my shape as true, Enter GLOSTER. Glo. Kent banished thus! and France in choler parted! And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power! 1 Thou, Nature, &c.] Edmund alludes to his being a natural son. 2 Stand in the plague.] Endure to be the victim. So in the Psalter, xxxviii. 17: And I truly am set in the plague.' 6 3 To deprive me.] To dispossess or incapacitate me. 4 Some twelve or fourteen, &c.] Some twelve or fourteen months later, or younger, than a brother. 5 Subscribed.] Reduced to a state of obedience or dependence. Confined to exhibition! All this done Upon the gad! 2-Edmund, how now? what news? [Putting up the letter. Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glo. What paper were you reading? Edm. Nothing, my lord. Glo. No? What needed then that terrible despatch of 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 not need spectacles. Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'erread:, and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking. Glo. Give me the letter, sir. Edm. I shall offend either to detain or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glo. 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 3 virtue. Glo. [Reads.] This policy, and 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 oppression of aged tyranny ; who sways,1 not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR. 1 Exhibition.] Allowance. One of the meanings of exhibit is, to prescribe a dose or allowance. 2 Upon the gad.] * Idle and fond.] Upon the goading or spur of the moment. Senseless and foolish. See Note 1, p. 23. 4 Who sways.] Who for which is often used by Shakspeare as relative to a neuter antecedent. Hum-conspiracy! Sleep till I waked him-you should enjoy half his revenue.-My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it?-When came this to you? Who brought it? Edm. It was not brought to me, my lord; there's the cunning of it: I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet. Glo. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glo. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents. Glo. Has he never heretofore sounded you in this business? Edm. Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that, sons1 at perfect age and fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. Glo. O villain, villain !—his very opinion in the letter! -Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain ! worse than brutish!-Go, sirrah, seek him; I'll apprehend him!-abominable villain !-Where is he? Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend your indignation against my brother, till you can derive from him better testimony of his intent, you shall run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake 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 2 of danger. 'Sons.] That is, sons being, or when sons are. 2 Pretence.] Intention.—To pretend formerly signified to intend. Glo. Think you so? Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and without any further delay than this very evening. Glo. He cannot be such a monster Edm. Nor is not, sure. Glo. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth!-Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business 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. Glo. 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 scourged by the sequent effects-love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked '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. We have seen the best of our time: 3 Thus Bacon (Advancement of Learn. i.), speaking of astrology, &c., says, 'Of which sciences, nevertheless, the ends or pretences were noble; for astrology pretendeth to discover,' &c. In Shakspeare's Two Gent. of Ver. 'pretended flight' (ii. 6) means intended flight, and 'this pretence' (iii. 1) means this design. 1 I would unstate myself, &c.] I would give up my earldom to be duly resolved, or assured, on this point. 2 The wisdom of Nature, &c.] Natural philosophy can account for it in such and such ways. 3 We have seen, &c.] Shakspeare has here in mind the signs and calamities predicted in Matt. x. 21, Luke xxi. 16, 25, and other parts of Scripture. So, in the last scene of the play, 'Is this the promised end, or image of that horror?' |