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Character
Name: Edmund
Gender: Male
Age Range: 20s - Late
Dialects: Standard American, Standard English
Ethnicities: Unspecified -
Play
Name: King Lear
Period: Classical
Rating: Suitable for all ages
Copyright Status: Public domain
Men: 13
Women: 3
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in...
View Full Monologue TextThou, 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 moon-shines
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
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
Summary
In this soliloquy, Edmund discusses his contempt towards his father who favors Edgar, his legitimate son, over him. Dramatic with comic elements.