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King Lear:Monologue Analysis
30
Edmund's Speech: 1.2.1-22
Works Cited
1 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,
5 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
10 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,
15 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,
20 And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
- https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:124706&datastreamId=FULL-TEXT.PDF
- http://shakespeare-art-museum.com/Watercolors/Watercolors.html
- https://kindofanihilist.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/king-lear-edmunds-soliloquy-a-passage-analysis/
- http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/A-Re-Reading-of-Edmund-in-Shakespeare-King-Lear.php
Context
- Bastard was a term for any person born out of wedlock
- Marginalized by society, but not completely outcast
- Had no inheritance
- Taken care of by local parish
- Growing numbers perceived as threat to society
Shakespeare's Plays
Broader Application
- Most bastards in the plays are portrayed as the villain or morally corrupt
- Examples: Don Jon (Much Ado About Nothing), Thersites (Troilus and Cressida)
- Exception: Philip Faulconbridge (King John)
- Encouraged negative stereotype of bastard children and discouraged illicit sex
- Broader idea of legitimacy and illegitimacy that can be applied to social status, intellect, or ability
- Countries, rulers, political ideologies
"The use of illegitimacy-based language to denote something false, counterfeit and untrustworthy adds to the impression of illegitimates being regarded as deceitful and ungodly."