¶ … Shakespeare structures his play King Lear, the first scene reveals how frustrated Lear is with his younger daughter Cordelia, who cannot find the words on command to express her love for him.
This sets Lear up to place his trust in her two older and conniving sister, Goneril and Regan.
In the second scene, a similar situation begins to develop for the Earl of Gloucester, who has two sons.
His situation is more complicated.
All three of King Lear's daughters are born legitimately (within marriage) to him.
However, the Earl has one legitimate and one illegitimate son.
The legitimate son, Edgar, stands to inherit his father's title and property.
Edmund, as a bastard son, is not likely to inherit anything.
The Earl has not denied Edmund's parentage, but Edmund is painfully aware, and resentful of, his second class status.
As Scene ii of Act I opens, Edmund is in his father's castle, he speaks the following words:
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 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!
In the opening of the speech, Edmund speaks of nature as his goddess:
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound.
This suggests that he is resisting mainstream Christianity.
In his situation, as a bastard, this makes sense, for it is religious rules that call him a bastard.
Marriage is a religious sacrament.
Edgar is honored and an heir apparent to his father's title, lands, social standing and prestige because his mother and father were married, something not recognized anywhere else in nature except with humans.
It isn't a biological requirement of procreation, or else he would not exist.
He sees it as an artificial construct.
This opening line also reveals that he is willing to think outside of society's typical boundaries.
He has access to power because his father has not denied him, but because society denies him status, he is within the ring of power but does not feel society's constraints in the same way others do.
He describes those customs as a plague:
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?
He suggests that had he been born first, his would have been the legitimate birth, and it would have been Edgar's mother who conceived outside the bounds of marriage.
He sees his second-class status as a matter of timing.
All of this comes across as rationalization to the reader, and rationalization serves the purpose of justifying some action that would otherwise not be justifiable.
Edward is telling the reader or play viewer that he can act with fewer restraints than others.
He continues with his argument that he is no worse than those considered his betters:
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?
He uses natural, not social status, traits, again, to make the argument, defending his view that in the natural order of things, without society's rules, there would be no difference between him and his legitimate brother.
He sees himself as just as good-looking as his brother, and just as intelligent, as Edgar, and rants about the ugly terms applied to his situation.
Then he goes further, and compares the circumstances of the two mothers, turning the tables on Edgar's mother:
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?
Edmund believes that as a bastard, he was born out of true desire between his father and mother, and that these circumstances make him a more vital individual than offspring born out of duty from a loveless, passionless marriage, suggesting that Edgar's mother probably slept through his conception.
He calls the sons born of such stale relationships "fops," dandies lacking real spirit. That suggests real danger for Edgar: Edmund is jealous of Edgar's position, and views him as soft, weak, and unworthy of the honors that will be his one day just because of his circumstance of birth.
Then he states his intentions plainly:
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate:
Gloucester may have done himself no real service when he acknowledged Edmund as his bastard son, because Edmund knows he is love and trusted by his father, and he has no intention of society stripping him of power and status.
Finally, Edmund reveals the beginnings of his plan to topple Edgar:
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!
Edmund has been holding a letter in his hand throughout this speech.
Now we find out that this is not a letter he has received but one which he intends to have delivered.
The contents of the letter have not yet been revealed, but we know a considerable amount about Edmund from this speech.
We know that he's a bastard and that he resents this terribly.
We know that one effect of his illegitimate birth is that Edmund has decided that if society is intent on rejecting him, then he is not bound by the restraints of society.
Instead, he looks to nature for guidance, and nature does not recognize the terms "bastard" and "legitimate." So in Edmund's mind, he is every bit the Earl's son as Edgar is.
For some young men of the day, they would have realized that they were in a far better position being acknowledged by their father, even though of illegitimate birth.
While they had little chance of inheriting title, other doors would be opened for them.
Edmund's birth circumstances are a problem for Edmund precisely because he has rejected society's rules where they apply to him.
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