The Betrayer Gets His Reward — King Lear

A brief scene, almost businesslike in its efficiency: which makes it all the more chilling.

Cornwall has made up his mind about Gloucester. Edmund plays the difficult role of the loyal son torn between family and duty: "How malicious is my fortune, that I must repent to be just!" He hands over Gloucester's letter: the one describing the French forces and the intelligence Gloucester has been passing. "O heavens! that this treason were not, or not I the detector!"

Cornwall takes the letter and moves at once. What is most revealing is his next line: "True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester." He is not interested in verification. The letter is useful because it justifies what he already intends to do. Edmund is useful because he provided it. Truth is beside the point.

Edmund, in an aside, notes that if he finds his father actually comforting the King, it will "stuff his suspicion more fully": meaning he hopes to catch Gloucester in the act and use it as further evidence. He adds, for Cornwall's benefit, that the conflict between loyalty and blood is "sore." The performance of conscience is, by now, entirely automatic.

Cornwall closes with a line that lands with quiet viciousness: "I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer father in my love."

Edmund has just destroyed his father to acquire an earldom and a patron who promises to replace him. Cornwall has just acquired a willing instrument and a pretext for revenge. The exchange is eight lines and takes less than a minute, and at the end of it, Gloucester is finished.