Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey
the business as I shall find means, and acquaint
you withal. 114
Glo. These late eclipses in the sun and moon
portend no good to us: though the wisdom of
nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature
finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love
cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in
cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces,
treason; and the bond cracked between son and
father. This villain of mine comes under the
prediction; there's son against father: the king
falls from bias of nature; there's father against
child. We have seen the best of our time:
machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our
graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall
lose thee nothing: do it carefully. And the
noble and true-hearted Kent banished! his
offence, honesty! 'Tis strange! Exit.
Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the
world, that, when we are sick in fortune,—often
the surfeit 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, thieves,
and treachers by spherical predominance,
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
112 presently: instantly
114 withal: therewith
116 wisdom of nature: natural philosophy
132 excellent foppery: exceeding folly
138 spherical: planetary
141 thrusting on: impulsion
