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]
Glou. [Reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes[2697] 45
the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes[2698]
from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find
an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny;
who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come[2699]
to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would 50
sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for
ever, and live the beloved of your brother, Edgar.'
Hum! Conspiracy!—'Sleep till I waked him, you should[2700]
enjoy half his revenue!'—My son Edgar! Had he a hand
to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in? When[2701] 55
came this to you? who brought it?[2702]
Edm. It was not brought me, my lord; there's the cunning
of it; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet.
Glou. You know the character to be your brother's?
Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear 60
it were his; but, in respect of that, I would fain think it[2703][2704]
were not.[2703]