Shakespeare Great Tragedy

Why Not the Bastard

Doubt 16, Edmund's Reason

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In a palace hall three men stand talking, with a dog at their feet.
Illustration by John Gilbert, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers, The Plays of Shakespeare, ed. Howard Staunton, Routledge, 1858-64Original

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Go back to the very first scene of this play. Gloucester is talking with a guest and introduces one of his sons. There was good sport at the making of him, he jokes.

Edmund is standing there. He listens to his father make his birth a joke in front of a stranger. He bows politely.

That is how this play begins. Before the king has his daughters price their love, this scene comes first. The two households come out of the same door.

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