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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated)

Page 553

by William Shakespeare


  And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power!

  Confined to exhibition! All this done

  Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?

  Kent exiled like this! And France gone off in anger!

  And the King going tonight! He's handed over his power!

  Restricted himself to an allowance! And all this done

  on the spur of the moment! Edmund, what's up! What's the news?

  EDMUND

  So please your lordship, none.

  Putting up the letter

  None, my good lord.

  GLOUCESTER

  Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?

  Why are you trying so hard to hide that letter?

  EDMUND

  I know no news, my lord.

  I have no news, my lord.

  GLOUCESTER

  What paper were you reading?

  What was that letter you were reading?

  EDMUND

  Nothing, my lord.

  Nothing, my lord.

  GLOUCESTER

  No? What needed, then, that terrible dispatch 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.

  Nothing? Then why did you need to put it

  in your pocket so hurriedly? If it is nothing

  then you have nothing to hide. Show me: come on,

  if it's nothing, I shan't need my glasses.

  EDMUND

  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 perused, I find it not

  fit for your o'er-looking.

  I beg you, sir, not too ask me: it is a letter

  from my brother, and I have not read it fully;

  as for the bit which I have read, I do not think

  it's suitable for you.

  GLOUCESTER

  Give me the letter, sir.

  Give it to me, sir.

  EDMUND

  I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The

  contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.

  I will offend you whether I refuse or hand it over.

  That's the fault of its content, as far as I understand it.

  GLOUCESTER

  Let's see, let's see.

  Come on, show me.

  EDMUND

  I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote

  this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.

  I hope, for my brother's sake, that he wrote

  this just to make a test of my loyalty.

  GLOUCESTER

  [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes

  the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps

  our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish

  them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage

  in the oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not

  as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to

  me, that of this I may speak more. If our father

  would sleep till I waked him, you should half his

  revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your

  brother, EDGAR.'

  Hum--conspiracy!--'Sleep till I waked 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?

  ‘This tradition of favouring the old makes

  the world a worse place for the best men of the time;

  it keeps our fortune from us until we are too old

  to enjoy it. I am beginning to think that the oppression of

  that old tyrant is useless and stupid slavery; he only

  has power because we put up with him. Come and see me

  so I can say more about this. If our father

  could be put to sleep, you would have half of

  his income for ever, and be greatly loved by

  your brother, Edgar.’

  Hmm, conspiracy! ‘Put to sleep–you

  will have half of his income,’–my son Edgar!

  Did he write this with his own hand? Did he

  think and feel this? How did you get this?

  Who brought it?

  EDMUND

  It was not brought me, my lord; there's the

  cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the

  casement of my closet.

  Nobody gave it to me, my lord; there's the

  deviousness of it; it was thrown in through

  my bedroom window.

  GLOUCESTER

  You know the character to be your brother's?

  Do you recognise your brother's handwriting?

  EDMUND

  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.

  If the subject was good, my lord, I would swear

  that it was; but given the subject matter

  I would rather believe that it is not.

  GLOUCESTER

  It is his.

  It is his.

  EDMUND

  It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is

  not in the contents.

  It is his handwriting, my lord; but I hope

  the contents do not reflect his heart.

  GLOUCESTER

  Hath he never heretofore sounded you in this business?

  Has he never sounded you out about this sort of thing before?

  EDMUND

  Never, my lord: but I have heard him oft

  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.

  Never, my lord: but I've often heard him

  say that it is right, when sons are in their prime

  and fathers getting old, that the father should be

  obedient to the son, and the son should manage his income.

  GLOUCESTER

  O villain, villain! His very opinion in the

  letter! Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested,

  brutish villain! worse than brutish! Go, sirrah,

  seek him; I'll apprehend him: abominable villain!

  Where is he?

  Oh, the scoundrel! This is just what he says

  in the letter! Disgusting scoundrel! Unnatural, hated,

  brutal scoundrel! Worse than brutal! Go, sir,

  find him; I'll question him: terrible scoundrel!

  Where is he?

  EDMUND

  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 shall 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 wrote this to feel my

  affection to your honour, and to no further

  pretence of danger.

  I'm not sure, my lord. It would be best

  for you to hold back your anger against my

  brother until you can get a better idea

  of what he means; if you rush to judge

  him, misunderstanding what he means, it would

  be a great stain on your own honour, and it would

  destroy his loyalty. I would bet my life

  that he wrote this to test my loyalty to you,

  and that's all there is to it.

  GLOUCESTER

  Think you so?

  Do you think so?

  EDMUND
/>   If your honour judge it meet, I will place you

  where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an

  auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and

  that without any further delay than this very evening.

  If your honour thinks it appropriate, I will hide you

  somewhere where you can hear us talk about this,

  and you shall be reassured by the proof you hear;

  we'll do this this evening at the latest.

  GLOUCESTER

  He cannot be such a monster--

  He can't be such a monster–

  EDMUND

  Nor is not, sure.

  I'm sure he's not.

  GLOUCESTER

  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.

  To his father, who gives him such tender and complete

  love. Good heavens! Edmund, find him:

  worm your way into his confidence for me, please: do

  it in whatever ways seems best to you. I would give up

  everything to get to the bottom of this.

  EDMUND

  I will seek him, sir, presently: convey the

  business as I shall find means and acquaint you withal.

  I will look for him, sir, shortly: I'll carry it out

  in whatever way appears best and let you know at once.

  GLOUCESTER

  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 itself

  scourged by the sequent effects: love cools,

  friendship falls off, brothers divide: in

  cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in

  palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt 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, 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 banished! his

  offence, honesty! 'Tis strange.

  Exit

  These recent eclipses of the sun and moon

  mean us no good: although science can say

  it has reasons for it, nature itself

  suffers the after-effects: love cools,

  friendship fades, brothers fight: there are

  rebellions in the cities; countries are unsettled; there is

  treason in palaces; and the bond between a son and his father

  is broken. My villainous son fits into this;

  the son who's going against his father: the King

  has fallen from his natural place; a father has

  fallen out with his child. We are past the good times now:

  plotting, falseness, treachery, and all other

  terrible disruptions, will follow us unhappily to our

  graves. Uncover this villain, Edmund; you

  won't be the loser by it; do it carefully. And the

  noble and loyal Kent has been exiled, for being honest!

  It's strange.

  EDMUND

  This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,

  when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit

  of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our

  disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as

  if we were villains by necessity; fools by

  heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and

  treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,

  liars, and adulterers, by an enforced 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

  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. Tut, 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 villanous melancholy, with a

  sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. O, these eclipses do

  portend these divisions! fa, sol, la, mi.

  This is the great stupidity of the world, that,

  when things go against us–often due to

  our own behaviour–we blame the sun,

  the moon, and the stars for disasters: as if

  we were forced to be villains; the heavens

  made us fools; the stars forced us to be knaves,

  thieves and traitors; we are only drunkards,

  liars, and adulterers because of the influence

  of the planets; and we blame everything we do wrong

  on the influence of heaven: what a great excuse

  for these sluttish men, to blame their randy nature

  on the stars! My father mated with my mother under

  the sign of the Dragon, and I was born under Ursa

  major; so it follows that I must be rough and

  lecherous. What nonsense, I would have been the person I am,

  if the most chaste star in the sky had shone

  on my bastard conception.

  And here he comes, like the denouement of an old comedy,

  I shall look deeply sad, sighing like a mad beggar.

  Oh! How the eclipses signal divisions! Tra la, tra la…

  EDGAR

  How now, brother Edmund! what serious

  contemplation are you in?

  Hello there, brother Edmund! What are you

  thinking about so seriously?

  EDMUND

  I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read

  this other day, what should follow these eclipses.

  I'm thinking, brother, of a horoscope I read

  the other day saying what effects these eclipses would have.

  EDGAR

  Do you busy yourself about that?

  Are you wasting your time with that?

  EDMUND

  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.

  I can assure you that unfortunately the consequences

  he writes of are happening; such as separations

  between children and parents; death, famine, the breaking

  of ancient alliances; splits in government, threats and curses

  against the King and nobility; baseless

  suspicions, the exile of friends, desertion of

  soldiers, breaking of marriages, and heaven knows what else.

  EDGAR

  How long have you been a sectary astronomical?

  How long have you been an astrologer?

  EDMUND

  Come, come; when saw you my father last?

  Never mind that; when did you last see my father?

  EDGAR

  Why, the night gone by.

  Why, last night.

  EDMUND

  Spake you with him?

  Did you speak
with him?

  EDGAR

  Ay, two hours together.

  Yes, for a whole two hours.

  EDMUND

  Parted you in good terms? Found you no

  displeasure in him by word or countenance?

  Did you part on good terms? Didn't you notice

  anything in his words or appearance that showed displeasure?

  EDGAR

  None at all.

  Nothing at all.

  EDMUND

  Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended

  him: and at my entreaty forbear his presence

  till 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.

  Try and think how you might have offended him;

  take my advice, steer clear of him until

  time has cooled his anger;

  at the moment he is so boiling with it

  that he would hardly be able to keep his hands off you.

  EDGAR

  Some villain hath done me wrong.

  Some villain has been speaking against me.

  EDMUND

  That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent

  forbearance till the spied 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 armed.

  That's what I'm worried about. I'm begging you

  to be patient until he calms down;

  and I advise you to come with me to my

 

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