Previous - Next

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we
are
sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we
make
guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as
if
we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion;
knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance;
drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a
divine
thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master 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. Fut! I should have been that I am, had the
maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my
bastardizing.
Edgar-

Enter Edgar.

and 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 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. Go arm'd. 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

Previous - Next