King Lear | Page 8

we were villains on
necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers
by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers 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 disposition to the charge of a star! My father
compounded 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 maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing.
[Enter Edgar.]
Pat!--he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy: my cue is
villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam.--O, these
eclipses do portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.
Edg. How now, brother Edmund! what serious contemplation are you
in?
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?
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.
Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical?
Edm. Come, come! when saw you my father last?
Edg. The night gone by.
Edm. Spake you with him?
Edg. Ay, two hours together.
Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by
word or 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.
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
you, go; there's my key.--If you do stir abroad, go armed.
Edg. Armed, brother!
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!

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 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.]

Scene III. A Room in the Duke of Albany's Palace.
[Enter Goneril and Oswald.]
Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding 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: 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.
Osw. He's coming, madam; I hear him.
[Horns within.]
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 our sister,
Whose mind and mine, I know, in that are one, Not to be overruled.
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.
Osw. Very well, madam.
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
To hold my very course.--Prepare for dinner.
[Exeunt.]

Scene IV. A Hall in Albany's Palace.
[Enter Kent, disguised.]
Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, That can my speech defuse,
my good intent May carry through itself to that full issue For which I
rais'd my likeness.--Now, banish'd Kent, If thou canst serve where thou
dost stand condemn'd, So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov'st,
Shall find thee full of labours.
[Horns within. Enter