Closely analyzing Edmund's "Thou, nature, art my goddess" speech in King Lear, explain what Edmund says and what it shows about his character.In...

In act one, scene 2 of King Lear
(lines 1-23), Edmund reconfirms his life's creed and its
goals.

"Thou, nature, art my
goddess":  You, nature (natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc.) are
my inspiration and leader.

"To thy law my
services are bound":  I am not bound by society's laws but by the laws of
nature, (the law of the jungle).

"Wherefore
should I stand in the plague of custom":  Why should I be constrained by the
limitations of society...

"and permit the
curiosity of nations to deprive me":  and allow its particular and arbitrary
rules to hold me back...

"for that I am some
twelve or fourteen moonshines lag of a brother?":  just because I'm 12 or 14
months younger than my brother?

"Why 'bastard'? 
Wherefore 'base'?":  Why am I called a 'bastard' (illegitimate)? Why am I
considered 'inferior'?...

"When my dimensions are
as well compact":  considering that my body is as
strong...

"my mind as generous and my shape as
true as honest madam's issue?":  my mind is as capable, and my looks are as
good as those of a child of some respectable woman? (as opposed to that of a whore, like
my mother).

"Why brand they us with 'base,' with
'baseness,' 'bastardy,' 'base,' 'base'?":  Why do they stamp
us with terms like 'inferior,' 'inferiority,
'illegitimate,' 'inferior,' 'inferior'?...

"who,
in the lusty stealth of nature, take more composition and fierce quality than doth
within a dull, stale, tired bed go to the creating a whole tribe of fops got 'tween
asleep and wake?":  us who, conceived in hot and
hidden sexual passion, are created with more substance and strength than are a whole
tribe of weaklings made by two people in bed who are half
asleep?!

"Well then, legitimate Edgar, I must
have your land.":  Well then, my 'valid' brother Edgar - because you are one
of those weaklings (created in the way I've described above), it is only fitting that I,
the stronger and fitter brother, should have what is now considered
yours.

"Our father's love is to the bastard
Edmund as to th' legitimate":  After all, our father loves me, the 'bastard,'
as much as he loves you, the 'valid' one.

"Fine
word, 'legitimate'":  Fine word,
'valid.'

"Well, my legitimate, if this letter
speed and my invention thrive, Edmund the base shall top th' legitimate.": 
Well, my valid one, if this letter (the fake one I've devised by forging your
handwriting) works and my plan succeeds, I (the inferior one) will vanquish the
'valid.'

"I grow, I prosper.":  I get
stronger, I thrive.

"Now, gods, stand up for
bastards!":  Now, you, the powers-that-be, stand up for us
'bastards''!

Edmund, the son of a whore -- slighted,
neglected and derided from birth -- has become as hard and tough in his heart and mind
as he has in his body.  As the play will show, he will do whatever it takes (deceive,
betray, kill) to get what he feels is rightfully his.