William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Tragedy of King Lear. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Act III
Scene V
[Gloucester’s castle] Enter CORNWALL and EDMUND
Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house.
Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured1 that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.
Corn. I now perceive, it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in himself.
Edm. How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just! This is the letter which he spoke of, which approves2 him an intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!
Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty business in hand.
Corn. True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester. Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our apprehension.
Edm. [Aside.] If I find him comforting the King, it will stuff his suspicion more fully.—I will persevere in my course of loyalty, though the conflict be sore between that and my blood.
