Naughty Edmund

Thinking about Edmund's first soliloquy...

Thou Nature art my Goddess, to thy Law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, or permit
The curiosity of Nations, to deprive me?
For that I am some twelve, or fourteen Moonshines
Lag of a Brother? Why Bastard? Wherefore base?

The scene comes hard on the heels of Act 1, Scene 1, which ends with Goneril and Regan alone onstage ("We must do something," says Goneril, "and i'th'heat."). My high school English teacher, Mr. Carson, described this sort of moment as the "Shakespearean Revolving Door" in action. Characters enter and exit simultaneously, giving them a chance to catch a glimpse of one another as the scenes overlap. A good director would be a fool to pass up this early opportunity for flirtation between Edmund and the queens.

So, Goneril says "We must do something..." to her sister...but her sister is already stalking off-stage, offended at being told what she should & should not think. Goneril allows her gaze to drift over to this strapping young lad who's just come onstage, and the second part of her speech acquires a naughty double meaning. "...and in the heat..."

Edmund is about to heat things up considerably. But that doesn't mean he can't afford to gloat a bit first. What if the first line of his speech is a reference to Goneril...or to her magnificent caboose, as it sashays off the stage?...or maybe even a glib reference to his own manhood, swelling up at the sight?

"Thou, Nature, art my goddess," he says, gleefully acknowledging that he is subject to all the same hormonal and instinctual laws as any base creature. "Wherefore should I stand in the plague of custom?" he asks, referring now to his father, Gloster, whose bluffness about his infidelities barely fail to mask his shame. "Or...permit the curiosity of Nations to deprive me?" Now, perhaps thinking again of the queen's delightful rump, he asks: why can't I have my cake and eat it?

Gloster lets his shame define him, and that's what has kept him down for so long. But Edmund, whom the whole world knows to be a Bastard, can afford to be direct about his sins. He can trumpet them to the world. He will ride his unlicensed sexuality all the way up the hierarchy, until he is within spitting distance of the throne.

At the end of his speech: "Now, Gods, stand up for bastards!" Maybe one more naughty reference to erections? Yes, Edmund definitely needs to lead from the 'nads.