GLOUCESTER

[Reads]

‘This policy and reverence of age makes

the world bitter to the best of our times; keeps

our fortunes 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 to

me, that of this I may speak more. If our father

would sleep till I waked him, you should half his

revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your

brother, EDGAR.’

Hum — conspiracy! — ‘Sleep till I waked him, — you

should enjoy half his revenue,’ — My son Edgar!

Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain

to breed it in? — When came this to you? who

brought it?