“ when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars ”
William Shakespeare, King Lear (1623). copy citation
| Author | William Shakespeare |
|---|---|
| Source | King Lear |
| Topic | guilt disaster behavior |
| Date | 1623 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Written between 1603 and 1606 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1128/pg1128-images.html |
Context
“Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. EXIT. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon's Tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous.”
source
Meaning and analysis
