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Enter Edmund the Bastard solus [1] ,with a letter.
Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague [2] 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 [3] stealth [4] of nature, take More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale [5] , tired bed, Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops [6] Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then, Legitimate [7] Edgar, I must have your land. Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to th' legitimate. Fine word, 'legitimate'!Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Enter Gloucester.
Glou. Kent banish'd thus? And France in choler [8] parted? And the king gone tonight? Prescribed his pow'r, Confin'd to exhibition? All this done Upon the gad [9] ? Edmund, how now? What news?
Edm. So please your lordship, none. He hastily [10] puts the letter into his pocket.
Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
Edm. I know no news, my lord.
Glou. What paper were you reading?
Edm. Nothing, my lord.
Glou. No? What needed then that terrible dispatch [11] of it into your pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide itself. Let's see. Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.
Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter from my brother that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much as I have perus'd [12] , I find it not fit for your o'er-looking.
Glou. Give me the letter, sir.
Edm. I shall off end, either to detain [13] or give it. The contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.
Glou. Let's see, let's see.
Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.
Glou. [ Read. ] ‘This policy and reverence [14] of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish [15] them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage [16] in the oppression of aged tyranny [17] , who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suff er'd. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, EDGAR.' Hum! Conspiracy [18] ? ‘Sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue.' My son 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 casement [19] of my closet.
Glou. You know the character to be your brother's?
Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but in respect of that, I would fain [20] think it were not.
Glou. It is his.
Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents.
Glou. Hath he never before sounded you in this business?
Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft [21] maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.
Glou. O villain [22] , villain: his very opinion in the letter! Abhorred [23] villain! Unnatural, detested [24] , brutish [25] villain; worse than brutish! Go, sirrah [26] , seek him. I'll apprehend [27] him. Abominable [28] villain! Where is he?
Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend [29] your indignation [30] against my brother till you can derive [31] from him better testimony [32] of his intent [33] , you should run a certain course; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him that he hath writ [34] this to feel my aff ection to your honour, and to no other pretence of danger.
Glou. Think you so?
Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular [35] assurance have your satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very evening.
Glou. He cannot be such a monster.
Edm. Nor is not, sure.
Glou. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you; frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate myself to be in a due resolution.
Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal [36] .
Glou. These late eclipses [37] in the sun and moon portend [38] no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourg'd [39] by the sequent eff ects. Love cools, friendship falls off , brothers divide. In cities, mutinies [40] ; in countries, discord [41] ;in palaces, treason [42] ; and the bond crack'd 'twixt [43] son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations [44] , hollowness, treachery [45] , 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 off ence, honesty! 'Tis strange.Exit.
Edm. This is the excellent foppery [46] of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit [47] of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on ne-cessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves and treachers by spherical [48] predominance; drunkards [49] , liars, and adulterers [50] by an enforc'd 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 [51] 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 [52] . Fut [53] ! I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament [54] twinkled on my bastardizing. Edgar— Enter Edgar. and pat! He comes like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue [55] is villainous melancholy [56] , 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?
Edna. I promise you, the eff ects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unna-turalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth [57] , dissolutions of ancient amities [58] ; divisions in state, menaces [59] and maledictions [60] against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation [61] of cohorts [62] , nuptial [63] breaches [64] , and I know not what.
Edg. How long have you been a sectary [65] astronomical?
Edm. Come, come! When saw you my father last?
Edg. The night gone by.
Edm. Spake [66] you with him?
Edg. Ay, two hours together.
Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance [67] ?
Edg. None at all.
Edm. Bethink [68] yourself wherein you may have off ended him; and at my entreaty [69] 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 [70] of your person it would scarcely allay [71] .
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 [72] , 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, nothing like the image and horror of it. Pray you, away!
Edg. Shall I hear from you anon [73] ?
Edm. I do serve you in this business. Exit Edgar. A credulous [74] 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.
[1] solus [ˈsəuləs] a． 单独的，独自的（舞台指示语）
[2] plague [pleiɡ] n． 灾害，灾祸
[3] lusty [ˈlʌsti] a． 精力充沛的，活泼的
[4] stealth [stelθ] n． 隐秘的活动；鬼祟
[5] stale [steil] a． 乏味的；厌烦的
[6] fop [fɔp] n． 〈废〉 蠢人，傻瓜
[7] legitimate [liˈdʒitimət] a. 合法的，正当的
[8] choler [ˈkɔlə] n． 怒气
[9] upon the gad 游荡着，闲逛着
[10] hastily[ˈheistili] ad． 急忙地，急躁地
[11] dispatch [disˈpætʃ] n． 快信，急件
[12] peruse [pəˈru:z] v． 详细考察；细读
[13] detain [diˈtein] v. 〈古〉 扣留，不给
[14] reverence [ˈrevərəns] n． 尊敬，敬重
[15] relish [ˈreliʃ] v． 欣赏，玩味
[16] bondage [ˈbɔndidʒ] n． 奴役，束缚
[17] tyranny [ˈtirəni] n． 专制统治
[18] conspiracy [kənˈspirəsi] n. 密谋，阴谋
[19] casement [ˈkeismənt] n． 窗扉
[20] fain[fein] ad. 〈古〉热切地，乐意地，欣然（仅与would连用，后接动词原形）
[21] oft[ɔft;ɔ:ft] ad. 〈古〉〈诗歌〉 （= often）经常
[22] villain [ˈvilən] n． 恶棍，歹徒，流氓
[23] abhor [əbˈhɔ:] v． 憎恶；痛恨
[24] detest [diˈtest] v． 厌恶，憎恶
[25] brutish [ˈbru:tiʃ] a． 野兽般的；野蛮的，残忍的
[26] sirrah [ˈsirə] n. 〈古〉 小子，家伙
[27] apprehend [æpriˈhend] v. 逮捕，拘押
[28] abominable [əˈbɔminəbl] a. 可憎的，可恶的
[29] suspend [səˈspend] v． 延缓，推迟
[30] indignation [indiɡˈneiʃən] n． 愤慨，义愤
[31] derive [diˈraiv] v． 得到，取得
[32] testimony [ˈtestiməni] n． 证词，口供
[33] intent [inˈtent] n． 意图，目的
[34] writ [rit] v. 〈古〉 （write的过去式和过去分词）写
[35] auricular [ɔ:ˈrikjulə] a． 听觉的
[36] withal[wiˈðɔ:l;-ˈθɔ:l] ad. 〈古〉 以此
[37] eclipse [iˈklips] n. 〈天文〉食，食相
[38] portend [pɔ:ˈtend; pəu-] v. 预兆
[39] scourge [skə:dʒ] v． 严惩，重责
[40] mutiny [ˈmju:tini] n． 暴动
[41] discord [ˈdiskɔ:d; disˈkɔ:d] n． 不和，纷争
[42] treason [ˈtri:zən] n． 叛逆罪；谋反
[43] twixt [twikst] prep. 〈诗歌〉（=between）在……之间
[44] machination [mækiˈneiʃən] n． 阴谋，诡计
[45] treachery [ˈtretʃəri] n． 背叛，变节
[46] foppery [ˈfɔpəri] n． 愚蠢的行为
[47] surfeit [ˈsə:fit] n． 过量，过度
[48] spherical [ˈsferikəl; ˈsfiə-] a． 天球的，天体的
[49] drunkard [ˈdrʌŋkəd] n． 酒鬼，醉汉
[50] adulterer [əˈdʌltərə] n． 奸夫
[51] goatish [ˈɡəutiʃ] a． 好色的，淫荡的
[52] lecherous [ˈletʃərəs] a． 好色的，纵欲的
[53] fut [fʌt] n． 砰的一声
[54] firmament [ˈfə:məmənt] n. 天空，天穹
[55] cue [kju:] n． 信号；提词
[56] melancholy [ˈmelənkəli] n. 忧郁
[57] dearth [də:θ] n． 匮乏；饥荒
[58] amity [ˈæməti] n． 友好，和睦
[59] menace [ˈmenəs] n． 威胁，恐吓
[60] malediction [mæliˈdikʃən] n． 诅咒；中伤
[61] dissipation [disiˈpeiʃən] n. 驱散；分散，散开
[62] cohort [ˈkəuhɔ:t] n． 步兵队
[63] nuptial [ˈnʌpʃəl] a． 婚姻的
[64] breach [bri:tʃ] n． 破坏，违背
[65] sectary [ˈsektəri] n． 宗派成员
[66] spake [speik] v. 〈古〉（speak的过去式）说
[67] countenance [ˈkauntənəns] n． 面容，面部表情
[68] bethink [biˈθiŋk] v． 使想起，使思考
[69] entreaty [inˈtri:ti] n． 恳求，请求
[70] mischief [ˈmistʃif] n． 损害，危害
[71] allay [əˈlei] v． 平息；使镇静
[72] lodging [ˈlɔdʒiŋ] n． 住宿；寓所
[73] anon[əˈnɔn] ad． 不久
[74] credulous [ˈkredjuləs] a. 轻信的