Act I, Scene II

• Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, starts out with a speech decrying society for treating illegitimate children as it does
• He ends with the famous line...
• "Now gods, stand up for bastards!"
• Edmund has decided to trick his brother, Edgar, out of his rightful inheritance
• He will do this with a letter that he has already prepared
• Gloucester enters Edmund's room and Edmund puts away the letter in a hurry (intentionally) so that Gloucester will want to see it
• Gloucester asks to see the letter, Edmund says that it is nothing, Gloucester makes a play on words, then demands to see the letter
• Edmund says that it appears to be the hand of his brother, but he hopes that Edgar's heart is not where his words are
• The letter says that the two brothers should kill Gloucester and divide his wealth between them
• Gloucester is easily duped into believing this and blames the recent eclipses for all of the strange happenings
• Edmund then tells Edgar that Gloucester is enraged because of the eclipses and that he is out to get Edgar
• He also advises him that if he leaves his house, he had better be armed
• Edmund gloats over how easy it was to trick both of them

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