The History of King Lear.
¶the King gone to night,
sub
scrib'd his power, confined to ex-
360hibition, all this done vpon the gad;
Edmund, how now, what
¶Bast. So plea
se y[ou]r Lord
ship, none.
¶Glost.. Why
so earne
stly
seeke you to put vp that letter?
¶Bast. I know no newes, my Lord.
365Glo. What paper were you reading?
¶Glost. No, what needs then that terrible di
spatch of it into
¶your pocket, the quality of nothing hath not
such need to hide
¶it
selfe, lets
see, come if it be nothing I
shal not need
spectacles.
¶Bast. I be
seech you
sir pardon me, it is a Letter from my bro-
¶ther that I haue not all ore read, for
so much as I haue peru
sed,
¶I finde it not fit for your liking.
375Glost. Giue me the letter
sir.
¶Bast. I
shall offend, either to detaine or giue it, the contents
¶as in part I vnder
stand them, are too blame.
¶Glo. Lets
see, Lets
see.
380Bast. I hope for my brothers iu
stification, he wrote this but
¶as an e
ssay, or ta
ste of my vertue.
¶Glost. This policy of age makes the world bitter to the be
st
¶of our times, keepes our fortunes from vs till our oldne
sse can-
¶not reli
sh them, I begin to finde an idle and fond bondage in
385the oppre
ssion of aged tyranny, who
swaies not as it hath pow-
¶er, but as it is
suffered, come to mee, that of this I may
speake
¶more; if our Father would
sleepe till I wakt him, you
should
¶enioy halfe his reuenew for euer, and liue the beloued of your
390_Hum, con
spiracy,
slept till I wakt him, you
should enioy halfe
¶his reuenew: my
sonne
Edgar, had he a hand to write this, a hart
¶and braine to breed it in? when came this to you, who brought
¶Bast. It was not brought me my Lord, there's the cunning
395of it, I found it throwne in at the ca
sement of my Clo
set.
¶Glost. You know the carracter to be your brothers?
¶Bast. If the matter were good, my Lord, I dur
st
sweare it
¶were his, but in re
spect of that, I would faine think it were not.
