King Lear Edmund Quotes

KENT: Is not this your son, my lord?
GLOUCESTER: His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to ‘t.
KENT: I cannot conceive you.
GLOUCESTER: Sir, this young fellow’s mother could: whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. The Earl of Gloucester jokes to the Duke of Kent about his illigitimate son Edmund, setting the scene for some family drama to come. Gloucester admits that Edmund has been an embarrassment to him and Kent says he doesn’t understand what he means. Gloucester responds with verbal irony, playing on the word "conceive," to explain how Edmund was born out of wedlock. He then cracks a rude joke about female genitals, mocking Edmund’s mother while ignoring Edmund’s presence. "Do you smell a fault?" he tells Kent. This is foreshadowing of how a resentful Edmund will embark on a plot against his father and half-brother.

But I have a son, sir by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. – Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. Gloucester makes a lewd and cruel joke to Kent about his bastard son Edmund arriving "saucily" into the world. He says he had "good sport" with his "fair" mother at Edmund’s making. The tactless Earl associates lust with love and is also blind to the feelings of Edmund who is standing beside him, calling him a "whoreson." Gloucester also tells Kent that he has another legitimate son Edgar, although he doesn’t love him any more than Edmund. This passage is foreshadowing of the family conflict to come as Gloucester is punished by a resentful Edmund.

Thou, 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 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 stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to th’ 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 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!

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. In this soliloquy Edmund says that the only laws he shows loyalty to are the laws of nature, exposing him as a moral nihilist and one of the play’s evil villains. The proud and resentful Edmund laments his "base" status as the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester. He questions the injustice of customs that deprive bastards like him of the birthright given to legitimate sons like his half-brother Edgar. Edmund, who does not feel bound by legal rules, shows his determination to set things right regarding this. Scheming for power, he plots to take Edgar’s legitimate inheritance of "land" – the Gloucester property and position. The letter referred to in his "bastard" speech is one Edmund forged implicating Edgar in a plot against Gloucester and which Edmund is about to present to father to trick him.

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?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund asks why society calls him bastard and why is he therefore worthless? He is as sound in mind and body as any legitimate child, he insists. Edmund believes that he is treated unfairly, made feel inferior and wrongly deprived of his inheritance because of his bastard status. His pride is also injured.

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?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund sells us the good side of being the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester. He takes pride in the fact that bastards like him are conceived in a moment of passionate and natural lust. He sees bastards as superior in composition and quality than the whole tribe of "fops" (silly kids) legitimately conceived by half asleep parents in a tedious, stale bed.

Legitimate 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.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. The Machiavellian Edmund has a lot in common with Lear’s villainous daughters Goneril and Regan – the capacity for duplicity! While the sisters fool Lear with deceptive expressions of love, Edmund forges a letter to trick his father the Earl of Gloucester and falsely accuse his innocent abrother Edgar. Edmund notes that his father loves him as much as his legitimate son, but he is unhappy that as a bastard he stands to inherit nothing. However, Edmund pledges that through his scheme to discredit his brother he will enjoy prosperity, triumph over the honest Edgar and take his inheritance. Edmund feels no loyalty to his family and believes he is entitled to the Gloucester wealth and title.

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.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund sets out to deceive Gloucester by pretending to hide a letter that he claims is from his brother Edgar. Gloucester’s curiosity is around, he takes the bait, and demands to see the letter. It is actually written by Edmund to incriminate Edgar. Edmund pretends to have conflicting loyalties his brother and father, when he puts on a show of first hiding the letter, then letting Gloucester discover it. But he is loyal to neither.

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 enjoy 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?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. The letter forged by Edmund and purporting to come from Edgar proposes that the brothers kill their father so that they can enjoy his "revenue" (wealth). Although Edgar is Gloucester’s son and heir so they must have a close and caring relationship, Gloucester appears a little too ready to believe that he is involved in a diabolical murder plot. But Gloucester is too blind to see through Edmund’s wicked subterfuge and recognize Edgar’s innocence of any betrayal of his father.

I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that, sons at perfect age and fathers declined, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund continues to lie to Gloucester about his half-brother Edgar, in the hope of tricking his father into making him heir to his fortune instead of Edgar. He makes up a story claiming that Edgar has been saying when sons reach maturity and fathers grow old and feeble, the son should take care of them and manage their money.

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, – often the surfeits of our own behaviour, – 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, 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 on the charge of a star!…I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardising.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. The amoral Edmund has nothing but scorn for people like his father who blame higher powers when things go wrong. He ridicules the foolishness of those like Gloucester who blame the sun, moon and stars for their fate. He believes that the motion of the heavenly bodies has nothing to do with determining human actions, including having a depraved nature. And he should know! He admits that his own evil is self-taught, indicating that he has a deep level of self-knowledge.

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.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund says that his father Gloucester had sex with his mother under the constellation of Draco and he was born under Ursa Major. So it naturally follows that he has a rough and lecherous nature. But he absolutely believes that would have been the villain he is, had the most virginal star in the sky twinkled over his birth.

A credulous 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.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2.
At the end of Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund says this to himself after Edgar exits. If he cannot have Edgar’s "lands" – inheritance of property, wealth, title – by birthright, then he will seek to get them by cunning. There is no denying Edmund’s manipulative and persuasive skills in pursuit of his evil plan to inherit the Gloucester wealth and position. He is successful in creating division between his father Gloucester and brother Edgar. He admits doing this by exploiting Gloucester’s "credulous" ways (gullible and too ready to believe Edmund’s deceptions) and the "foolish honesty" of his "noble" brother Edgar. In philosophical terms, Edmund was centuries ahead of his time. How proud Nietzsche, the 19th century German father of nihilism, would be of Edmund’s nihilistic sentiments expressed in the last line, where he says that he can adapt his amoral nature to fit his own purposes.

And of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I’ll work the means
To make thee capable.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 1. Failing to see through Edmund’s deception, Gloucester praises his bastard son Edmund for his loyalty and tells him that he will find a way to make him his legitimate heir so that he will inherit his land and titles. Gloucester is taken in by Edmund’s story that Edgar wounded him after Edgar tried to get him to join in the plot to kill Gloucester and take his title. Edmund in fact cut himself with his own sword.

CORNWALL: Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father
A childlike office.
EDMUND: It was my dury, sir.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 1. Gloucester and others are completely taken in by Edmund’s vicious lies about Edgar. The Duke of Cornwall says that he has been told Edmund acted like a true son to his father Gloucester. Basking in his new popularity, Edmund replies that it was his duty, suggesting that it is a child’s duty to protect his father. The reality is that Edmund is not a good son, but an evil villain scheming to usurp Gloucester’s title and possessions from Edgar.

GLOUCESTER: Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing. When I desired their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house, charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, or any way sustain him.
EDMUND: Most savage and unnatural.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 3. Goneril and Regan have taken charge of Gloucester’s castle and ordered him not to speak to Lear, appeal on his behalf, or care for him in any way. In this passage he complaints bitterly about the "unnatural" behavior of Lear’s daughters and Edmund quickly agrees. There is dramatic irony here, as the audience knows that Edmund cannot be trusted and is deceiving his father. Edmund is putting on a pretence of being outraged, while Gloucester is blind to his duplicity.

This courtesy forbid thee shall the Duke
Instantly know, and of that letter too.
This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me
That which my father loses – no less than all.
The younger rises when the old doth fall.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 3. The evil Edmund’s true colors really come out here when he decides to betray his father Gloucester for political gain, after learning that he is helping King Lear against the wishes of the Duke of Cornwall. A backstabber, opportunist and selfish individual, who is willing to do anything to achieve his goals, the only loyalty Edmund knows is to himself and his self-interest. He also places no value on family. The amoral destructiveness of Edmund in plotting his the downfall of his father, after having his brother Edgar falsely accused of a murder conspiracy, shows how much of a nihilistic character he is.

Who gives anything to Poor Tom, whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlipool e’er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; set ratsbane by his porridge; made film proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting-horse over four-inched bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 4. Edgar as the mad Poor Tom babbles about being chased by the "foul fiend" trying to get him to commit suicide by laying knives under his pillow. The "foul fiend" is a reference to his evil half-brother Edmund who tricked and deceived the honest Edgar who was forced to flee after hearing himself declared an outlaw.

How malicious is my fortune that I must repent to be just! This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens, that this treason were not, or not I the detector.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 5. Edmund betrays his father Gloucester and gains Cornwall’s approval by showing him a letter proving Gloucester’s support for an invasion of England by the French. Edmund pretends to be shocked by his father’s "treason" and that he was the one who detected it. But in reality he is very pleased, as Cornwall now makes him Earl of Gloucester. When Edmund says he must repent of being just, he is pretending to be in a difficult moral position where he has to apologize for doing the right thing. Deception comes naturally to Edmund, who cheats and lies to everybody he meets.

One way I like this very well,
But being widow and my Gloucester with her
May all the building in my fancy pluck
Upon my hateful life.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 2. Goneril says this in an aside after hearing about Cornwall’s death. On one hand she is glad that Cornwall is dead, but on the other she is worried because Regan is now a widow and Edmund ("my Gloucester") is with her and might choose her over Goneril. Goneril’s hopes of having Edmund to herself would then be shattered and she would have to continue this hateful life, she says. Both sisters are in love with Edmund and jealous of one another. Goneril’s use of the words "hateful life" and "pluck" – Gloucester’s eyes were plucked out by Goneril’s cruel husband Cornwall on her bidding – could be seen as Goneril foreshadowing her own downfall.
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