| “ | Who would not choose, like me, to yield his breath, to have rival queens contend for him in death? | „ |
| ~ The Bastard's final words, showing glee that the sisters killed each other over him. |
Edmund the Bastard is the main antagonist of Shakespeare's King Lear and its 1681 Nahum Tate rewrite The History of King Lear, in which he drops all of his redeeming qualities and is referred to as simply The Bastard.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He manipulates his father Gloucester into thinking that his legitimate son Edgar is out to kill him and inherit his land. This forces Edgar into exile, and he has to live his life disguised as a beggar named Poor Tom.
- He reveals to the Duke of Cornwall that Gloucester is sympathetic to the French army, causing his own father to be horrifically tortured by having his eyes torn out. Gloucester is then thrown to the streets, permanently blinded, and Edmund is merely delighted to steal his father's former power.
- He sends ruffians to capture King Lear's daughter Cordelia so he can rape her in a field. He muses the wind will drown out her cries.
- When the two evil sisters, Regan and Goneril, both fall for Edmund, Edmund just juggles them both duplicitously, and considers killing both of them after the war with the commoners . He also plots the death of Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany.
- When Cordelia and Lear are captured and rendered harmless, Edmund orders for them both to be hanged in their cell to wipe out any challenge to his newfound kingship.
- Upon being confronted by his brother Edgar, Edmund has no qualms trying to kill him.
- As he lays dying, Edmund makes no attempt to atone, but only gloats over Regan and Goneril poisoning each other over him.
Trivia[]
- He is one of the three Shakespeare villains to be Pure Evil, alongside Iago and King Richard III.
See Also[]
- The Bastard on the Villains Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Iago | King Richard III | The Bastard | ||
