f "I may fpeak more. If our father would sleep "till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his re<< venue for ever, and live the beloved of your "brother, EDGAR." Sleep till I wake him-you should enjoy half his revenue-My fon Edgar! had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the cafement of my clofet. Gloc. You know the character to be your brother's? Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durft fwear it were his; but, in refpect of that, I would fain think it were not. Gloc. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord; I hope, his heart is not in the contents. Gloc. Has he never before founded you in this bufinefs? Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that fons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father fhould be as a ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue. Gloc. Oh, villain, villain! his very opinion in the the letter. Abhorred villain! Go, feek him; T'il apprehend him. Abominable villain! where is he? Edm. I do not well know, my lord. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to other pretence of danger. Gloc. Think you fo? no Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you fhall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction: And that, without any further delay than this very, evening. Gloc. He cannot be fuch a monster. Edm. Nor is not, fure. Gloc To his father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him-Heaven and earth! Edmund, feek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business after your own wifdom. I would unftate myself to be in a due refolution. Edm. I will feek him, Sir, presently; convey the business as I fhall find means, and acquaint you withal. Gloc. These late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us; tho' the wifdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself fcourg❜d by the frequent effects. Love cools, friendship friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. We have feen the best of our time.-Find out this villain, Edmund ; and it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully-and the noble and true-hearted Kent banished his offence, honefty. 'Tis ftrange. Manet Edmund. [Exit, Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, (often the furfeits of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters, the fun, the moon and ftars; as if we were villains on neceffity; fools by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, liars and adulterers, by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influ ence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrufting on. An admirable evafion of whoremafter man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star! I should have been what I am, had the maidenlieft ftar in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. To him enter Edgar. Pat! he comes, like the cataftrophe of the old comedy; comedy; my cue is villainous melancholy, with a figh like Tom o' Bedlam-O, thefe eclipfes portend thefe divifions! Edgar. How now, brother Edmund? what ferious contemplation are you in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, what fhould follow these eclipfes. Edgar. Do you busy yourself with that? Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of fucceed unhappily. When faw you my father last? Edgar. The night gone by. Edm. Spake you with him? Edm. Parted you in good terms? found you no difpleasure in him, by word or countenance ? Edgar. None at all. Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you have offended him and, at my entreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his displeasure; which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mifchief of your perfon it would scarcely allay. Edgar. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear; I pray you, retire with me to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you you to hear my lord fpeak: pray you, go; Edgar. Armed, brother! if you Edm. Brother, I advise you to the beft; I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning to wards you; I have told you what I have seen and heard, but faintly; nothing like the image and hor ror of it; pray you, away! Edgar. Shall I hear from you anon? Edm. I do ferve you in this business : [Exit Edgar. Scene, the Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Gonerill and Steward. Gon. My father strike my gentleman? blod Gon. By day and night, he wrongs me; I'll not endure it: His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On |