Page 18
p. 18
90
The
Tragedy
of
King
Lear.
Glo.
You
know
the
character
to
be
your
Brother's?
Bast.
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.
Bast.
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?
Bast.
Never,
my
Lord.
But
I
have
heard
him
oft
maintain
it
to
be
fit,
that
Sons
at
perfect
age,
and
Fathers
declin'd,
the
Father
should
be
as
Ward
to
the
Son,
and
the
Son
ma-
nage
his
Revenue.
Glo.
O
Villain,
villain:
his
very
opinion
in
the
Letter.
Abhorred
Villain,
unnatural,
detested,
bruitish
Villain;
worse
than
bruitish:
Go,
sirrah,
seek
him:
I’le
apprehend
him.
Abominable
Villain,
where
is
he?
Bast.
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
should
run
a
certain
course:
where,
if
you
violently
proceed
against
him,
mistaking
his
purpose,
it
would
make
a
great
gap
in
your
honour,
and
shake
in
pieces
the
heart
of
his
obedieuce.
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
so?
Bast.
If
your
honour
judge
it
meet,
I
will
place
you
where
you
shall
hear
us
confer
this,
and
by
an
Auricular
assurance
have
your
satisfaction,
and
that
without
any
further
delay,
than
this
very
Evening.
Glo.
He
cannot
be
such
a
Monster.
Edmund,
seek
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
resolution.
Bast.
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
it
self
scourg’d
by
the
se-
quent
effects.
Love
cools,
Friendship
falls
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
biass
of
na-
ture,
there’s
Father
against
Child.
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
offence,
honesty.
’Tis
strange.
[Exit.
Bast.
This
is
the
excellent
foppery
of
the
world,
that
when
we
are
sick
in
fortune,
often
the
surfeits
of
our
own
behaviour,
we
make
guilty
of
our
disasters,
the
Sun,
the
Moon,
and
Stars,
as
if
we
were
Villains
on
necessity,
Fools
by
heavenly
compulsion,
Knaves,
Thieves,
and
Treachers
by
Spherical
predominance,
Drunkards,
Lyars,
and
Adulterers
by
an
inforc’d
obedience
of
Planetary
in-
fluence;
and
all
that
we
are
evil
in,
by
a
divine
thrusting
on.
An
admirable
evasion
of
Whore-master
man,
to
lay
his
Goatish
disposition
on
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.
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
villanous
Melancholy,
with
a
sigh
like
Tom
o’
Bedlam
O
these
Eclipses
do
portend
these
divisions:
Fa,
Sol,
La,
Me.
Edg.
How
now,
Brother
Edmund,
what
serious
contem-
plation
are
you
in?
Bast.
I
am
thinking,
Brother,
of
a
Prediction
I
read
this
other
day,
what
should
follow
these
Eclipses.
Edg.
Do
you
busie
your
self
with
that?
Bast.
I
promise,
the
effects
he
writes
of,
succeed
un-
happily.
When
saw
you
my
Father
last?
Edg.
The
night
gone
by.
Bast.
Spake
you
with
him?
Edg.
I,
two
hours
together.
Bast.
Parted
you
in
good
terms?
Found
you
no
dis-
pleasure
in
him,
by
word,
nor
countenance?
Edg.
None
at
all.
Bast.
Bethink
your
self
wherein
you
have
offended
him:
and
at
my
entreaty
forbear
his
prefence,
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
for-
bearance
till
the
speed
of
his
rage
goes
flower:
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?
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.
No-
thing
like
the
image,
and
horrour
of
it,
pray
you
away.
Edg.
Shall
I
hear
from
you
anon?
[Exit.
Edm.
I
do
serve
you
in
this
business:
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
easie:
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.
Scena
Tertia.
Enter
Goneril,
and
Steward.
Gon.
Did
my
Father
strike
my
Gentleman
for
chiding
of
his
fool?
Stew.
I,
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’le
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'le
answer.
Stew.
He’s
coming,
Madam,
I
hear
him.
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,
Remember
what
I
have
said.
Stew.
Well,
Madam.
Gon.
And
let
his
Knights
have
colder
looks
among
you:
what
grows
of
it
no
matter,
advise
your
fellows
so,
I'le
write
straight
to
my
Sister
to
hold
my
course:
prepare
for
dinner.
[Exeunt.
Scena
Quarta.
Enter
Kent.
Kent.
If
but
as
well
I
other
accents
borrow,
That
can
my
speech
diffuse,
my
good
intent
May
carry
through
it
self
to
that
full
issue
For
which
I
rais’d
my
likeness.
Now,
banisht
Kent,
If