A credulous father and a brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing harms
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy. I see the business.
Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit.
All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2.
At the end of Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund says this to himself after Edgar exits. If he cannot have Edgar’s "lands" – inheritance of property, wealth, title – by birthright, then he will seek to get them by cunning. There is no denying Edmund’s manipulative and persuasive skills in pursuit of his evil plan to inherit the Gloucester wealth and position. He is successful in creating division between his father Gloucester and brother Edgar. He admits doing this by exploiting Gloucester’s "credulous" ways (gullible and too ready to believe Edmund’s deceptions) and the "foolish honesty" of his "noble" brother Edgar. In philosophical terms, Edmund was centuries ahead of his time. How proud Nietzsche, the 19th century German father of nihilism, would be of Edmund’s nihilistic sentiments expressed in the last line, where he says that he can adapt his amoral nature to fit his own purposes.
At the end of Act 1, Scene 2. Edmund says this to himself after Edgar exits. If he cannot have Edgar’s "lands" – inheritance of property, wealth, title – by birthright, then he will seek to get them by cunning. There is no denying Edmund’s manipulative and persuasive skills in pursuit of his evil plan to inherit the Gloucester wealth and position. He is successful in creating division between his father Gloucester and brother Edgar. He admits doing this by exploiting Gloucester’s "credulous" ways (gullible and too ready to believe Edmund’s deceptions) and the "foolish honesty" of his "noble" brother Edgar. In philosophical terms, Edmund was centuries ahead of his time. How proud Nietzsche, the 19th century German father of nihilism, would be of Edmund’s nihilistic sentiments expressed in the last line, where he says that he can adapt his amoral nature to fit his own purposes.