Act 1, Scene 2 - Key Quotes

Question 1

“Thou… goddess” - E

Answer 1

“Thou nature art my goddess” - Edmund

Question 2

“base… base” - E

Answer 2

“base, baseness, bastardy, base, base” - Edmund

Question 3

“I… brother?” - E

Answer 3

“I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines lag of a brother?” - E

Question 4

“my… true” - E

Answer 4

“my mind as generous and my shape as true” - Edmund

Question 5

“dull… bed” - E

Answer 5

“dull, stale, tired bed” - Edmund

Question 6

“Nothing… lord” - E

Answer 6

“Nothing, my lord” - Edmund

Question 7

“I… spectacles” - G

Answer 7

“I shall not need spectacles” - Gloucester

Question 8

“oppression… tyranny” - E

Answer 8

“oppression of aged tyranny” - Edmund

Question 9

“These… us” - G

Answer 9

“These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us” - Gloucester

Question 10

“the… father” - G

Answer 10

“the bond cracked ‘twixt son and father” - Gloucester

Question 11

“The… child” - G

Answer 11

“The king falls from bias of nature; there’s father against child” - Gloucester

Question 12

“As… necessity” - E

Answer 12

“As if we were villains by necessity” - Edmund

Question 13

“My… melancholy” - E

Answer 13

“My cue is villainous melancholy” - Edmund

Question 14

“Let… wit” - E

Answer 14

“Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit” - Edmund

Question 15

Evidence that Edmund is rejecting human law and subscribing to natural law (i.e. survival of the fittest).

Answer 15

“Thou nature art my goddess” - Edmund

Question 16

Edmund’s repetition evidences his anger towards the labels he is given as a bastard.

Answer 16

“base, baseness, bastardy, base, base” - Edmund

Question 17

Edmund rejecting the idea that the older deserve power more (such as Edgar inheriting their father’s land).

Answer 17

“I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines lag of a brother?” - E

Question 18

Edmund, saying he is the same as if he were legitimate.

Answer 18

“my mind as generous and my shape as true” - Edmund

Question 19

Edmund highlights the idea of him having a ‘natural’ bond with Gloucester and he sees sex as natural, not wrong.

Answer 19

“dull, stale, tired bed” - Edmund

Question 20

Edmund to Gloucester echoes Cordelia to King Lear.

Answer 20

“Nothing, my lord” - Edmund

Question 21

Gloucester to Edmund references his tragic blindness - it is irony as like Lear he has failed to see the true nature of his child

Answer 21

“I shall not need spectacles” - Gloucester

Question 22

Edmund through ‘Edgar’s’ letter, insults age, similar to Goneril and Regan’s criticism of Lear.

Answer 22

“oppression of aged tyranny” - Edmund

Question 23

Evidence of Gloucester’s superstition (part of the old world).

Answer 23

“These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us” - Gloucester

Question 24

Gloucester to Edmund, shows that whilst Edmund sees his plan as ‘natural’ Gloucester sees the opposite; the division between families in unnatural.

Answer 24

“the bond cracked ‘twixt son and father” - Gloucester

Question 25

Gloucester to Edmund, shows he sees the king’s decision as going against nature as well.

Answer 25

“The king falls from bias of nature; there’s father against child” - Gloucester

Question 26

Edmund, ridiculing his father’s beliefs that the heavens dictate our fate.

Answer 26

“As if we were villains by necessity” - Edmund

Question 27

Edmund manipulates the plot like he is writing his own play.

Answer 27

“My cue is villainous melancholy” - Edmund

Question 28

Last lines of the scene, shows Edmund will do anything to get what he wants.

Answer 28

“Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit” - Edmund