Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/29

King Lear, I. ii

us hit together: if our father carry authority

with such dispositions as he bears, this last

surrender of his will but offend us.

Reg. We shall further think on 't.

Gon. We must do something, and i' the heat.

Exeunt.

Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of custom, and permit

The curiosity of nations to deprive me,

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines

Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?

When my dimensions are as well compact,

My mind as generous, and my shape as true,

As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us

With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?

Who in the lusty stealth of nature take

More composition and fierce quality

Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,

Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,

Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,

Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:

Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund

As to the legitimate. Fine word, 'legitimate!'

Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,

And my invention thrive, Edmund the base

 308 hit: agree

310 offend: harm  3 plague: snare

4 curiosity: pedantry

6 Lag of: behind

14 fops: fools

19 speed: succeed

