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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

This is the excellent foppery of the...
Language: English 
This is the excellent foppery of the world,
that, when we are sick in fortune,
-- often the surfeitof our own behavior, --
we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars;
as if we were villains by necessity;
fools by heavenly compulsion;
knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance;
drunkards, liars, and adulterers,
by an enforced obedience of planetary influence;
and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on:
an admirable evasion of whoremaster man,
to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Edmund's speech", 2011 [baritone and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-12-28
Line count: 12
Word count: 91

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