Act 1 Summary Flashcards
Act 1, Scene 1
-play begins with Kent and Gloucester discussing Lear’s plans for ‘the divine of the kingdom’
-Kent meets Gloucester’s illegitimate son Edmund (a year younger than Edgar)
-Lear than uses the ‘Love Test’ as a way to divide the Kingdom between his 3 daughters
-G + R expresses hyperbolic love towards Lear (poetic speeches)
-Cordelia refuses to declare love to Lear ‘I love your majesty According to my bond, no more nor less’
-Lear gets angry and disowns Cordelia giving her share of the kingdom to sisters
-Kent stands up to Lear but he gets banished as well
-Duke of Burgundy no longer wants to marry her BUT France declares ‘Thy powerless daughter, King, thrown to my chance Is Queen of us, of ours and our fair France’
-sisters say goodbye to each other
-G + R discuss father’s ‘poor judgement’ and ‘unconstant starts’
Act 1, Scene 2
-Edmund soliloquy about his ‘bastardy’ asking ‘Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom’ + resents that he is different + ‘Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land’
-‘Gods stand up for bastards’
-Edmund forges a letter from Edgar (letter is about a plot to kill Gloucester)
-Gloucester (Edmund is super sneaky and tries to hide letter) but it makes Gloucester want to see it
-Letter says: Edgar has a plot suggesting to Edmund that they need to work together to get rid of Gloucester and share his wealth
-‘These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us’
-Edgar then turns up and Edmund tells him that father is angry at him
-Edgar: ‘Some villain hath done me wrong’
-Edmund than has another soliloquy to giggle at ‘credulous father, and a brother noble, Whose nature is so far from doing harms That he suspects none’
Act 1, Scene 3
-King Lear + 100 knights are all staying with G
-G complains to servant Oswald about father and ‘riotous’ knights saying ‘By day and night he wrongs me’
-G orders Oswald ‘Put on what weary negligence you please’ when called to serve Lear
-G also says her sister is not prepared to tolerate them
Act 1, Scene 4
-Kent tells audience he is in disguise to return and serve King Lear
-Kent introduction to Lear as: ‘A very honest-hearted fellow’
-Lear approves: ‘thou shalt serve me’
-Kent helps Lear punish Oswald for his behaviour towards him
-Fool turns up and suggests that Lear has been a fool to give Kingdom away: ‘thou hast pared thy wit o’both sides and left nothing t’th’middle’
-Goneril enters and complains to Lear about his ‘all licensed fool’ and his ‘insolent retinue’ who do ‘hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth In rank and not-to-be endured riots’
-Lear gets mad and curses her ‘Into her womb convey sterility’
-Lear leaves to stay with Regan as he believes she will be ‘kind and comfortable’
-Lear leaves and Goneril calls Oswald and sends him with letter to R
Act 1, Scene 5
-Lear sends Kent (in-disguise) to go ahead and take letter to R and give her the heads up
-Kent = loyal and promises ‘I will not sleep, my lord, til I have delivered your letter’
-Lear is now just with
-Fool has weird wisdom telling him that a snail has a shell ‘to put’s head in, not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case’
-Lear: ‘I did her wrong’ then begins to believe he is going ‘mad’
