Gloucester's rightful heir, hunted by his own brother, who survives by becoming the beggar Poor Tom and learns pity from the bottom of the world.
major
Also known as Exit Edgar, Edgar Hail, Poor Tom, Tom, Enter Edgar, Edgar Away, Edgar Poor Tom, Edgar Tom, poor mad Tom, Legitimate Edgar, Edgar Armed, Edgar Ay, Edgar Child Rowland, Edgar Frateretto, Edgar The foul fiend, Edgar Pillicock, Edgar Sweet marjoram
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Edgar begins as the trusting legitimate son, heir to Gloucester's title and estate, and loses everything to Edmund's forged evidence in a single afternoon. Disguised as a mad Bedlam beggar, he keeps his father alive…
Edgar begins as the trusting legitimate son, heir to Gloucester's title and estate, and loses everything to Edmund's forged evidence in a single afternoon. Disguised as a mad Bedlam beggar, he keeps his father alive through blindness and despair, discovering a compassion he could not have imagined from the safety of his birth. His long masquerade threads through the middle of the play, quietly holding the moral center while the great ones destroy each other.
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