February 2025

What do you think Edmund was doing pre-play? It isn't really specified.

other than the 9 years abroad?

jk I have so many thoughts. SO many.

so the only canonical thing we know about his life pre-play is that “he hath been out nine years (and away he shall again).” Of course we gotta keep in mind that this is said by gloucester, and he’s not exactly the most reliable narrator when it comes to his sons.

so we’ve got some options

1- it’s exactly gloucester says– Edmund moved out and was abroad, and returned for whatever Lear’s got going on here. (the most boring option)

2- depending on Edmund’s age, it could just be. school. like you could totally dorm for nine years. you go dorm at the start of high school, take a gap year, and then continue with four years of college.

(I’m sure none of this is historically accurate to how education worked back then we can overlook that :))

3- gloucester could just. straight up not know what he’s talking about. I picture Edmund mainly keeping to himself in the gloucester household, and it would be hilarious if gloucester was just like “hmmm I haven’t seen him around in a while… I guess he’s been abroad or something 🤷‍♂️” (funniest option but unlikely)

4- a combination of the previous ones– Edmund was away, but not for nine years straight. I have so many headcanons. that he does assorted work for the gloucester household. so at some point he was like “I’m moving out, surely you’ll all be fine without the work I do here?”

and gloucester was like “of course.” but quickly realizes how much edmund does to hold his household together. so he calls him back every six months like “hey edmund just one little favor. just come back for two weeks. then you could go back to whatever you do.”

5- edmund was never gone, gloucester just doesn’t want to have to account for an illegitimate child on a constant basis, so when he actually does introduce edmund to someone, he tells them that edmund isn’t usually around– as a sort of precaution against them asking where he is in front of people who don’t know he exists.

basically. choose how sad and/or funny you want those mysterious 9 years to be

Do you reckon edmund feels any affection for either of the sisters?

I think this depends on two factors– 1) how does Edmund view himself, and 2) how fast was everything going down in King Lear

Edmund likes to talk very pridefully, but we’ve also got “yet Edmund was beloved” – something that comes off as almost surprised that he was loved. It seems to only occurs to him as he’s dying just how real the Lear sisters’ affection for him was.

for the majority of the play he’s stuck in tunnel vision, solely focused on destroying the Gloucester household and getting the Earldom. Given the timeline, if it all happened as quickly as it feels like– then he goes from being at the very outskirts of what could be considered nobility and someone who’s constantly degraded by those around him, straight to being the Earl.

Psychologically, I don’t think it even caught up with him that the king’s daughters could be potential dating options for him. As much as they blatantly flirt with him, it’s standard enough for nobility to have affairs (and Edmund would know that better than anyone–). So being considered an equal worthy of a real relationship with them is a fact that would take more time to sink in.

in short– I don’t think he considered either of them as potential dating partners until either when he was dying or sometime earlier in that scene.

and either way, the change in his own social status would have been a massive paradigm shift for him.

I do believe that he could have developed feelings for either of them, but I don’t think enough time passed over the course of the play for that to happen yet.