_Edm._ Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law[2671] My services are bound. Wherefore should I[2671] Stand in the plague of custom, and permit[2671][2672] The curiosity of nations to deprive me,[2671][2673] For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines[2671] 5 Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?[2671][2674] When my dimensions are as well compact,[2671][2675] My mind as generous and my shape as true,[2671] As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us[2671][2676] With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?[2671][2677] 10 Who in the lusty stealth of nature take[2671] More composition and fierce quality[2671] Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,[2671][2678] Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,[2671][2679] Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,[2671][2680] 15 Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:[2671] Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund[2671] As to the legitimate: fine word,'legitimate!'[2671][2681] Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed[2671] And my invention thrive, Edmund the base[2671][2676] 20 Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:[2671][2682] Now, gods, stand up for bastards![2671] _Enter_ GLOUCESTER.[2671] _Glou._ Kent banish'd thus! and France in choler parted![2671][2683][2684] And the king gone to-night! subscribed his power![2671][2684][2685] Confined to exhibition! All this done[2671][2684][2686] 25 Upon the gad! Edmund, how now! what news?[2671][2684] _Edm._ So please your lordship, none. [_Putting up the letter._[2687] _Glou._ Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?[2688] _Edm._ I know no news, my lord. _Glou._ What paper were you reading? 30 _Edm._ Nothing, my lord. _Glou._ No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of[2689] 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[2690] not need spectacles. 35 _Edm._ I beseech you, sir, pardon me: it is a letter from[2691] my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much[2692] as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking.[2693] _Glou._ Give me the letter, sir. _Edm._ I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The[2694] 40 contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame.[2694][2695] _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.[2696]