Original artwork, not a still
Absalom and Achitophel · 1681
And all to leave what with his toil he won To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker bitterly mocks the idea of working hard to win wealth, only to leave it to a son, whom he dismisses as a featherless two-legged creature. The jab treats the heir as barely more than an animal, undercutting the value of a lifetime's toil.
Context reviewed
