King Lear Flashcards
“Nothing, my lord” - act 1 scene 1, pg 164
Cordelia to Lear
She doesn’t want anything from Lear except fatherly love and refuses to flatter him.
“Why have my sisters husbands if they say they love you all” - act 1 scene 1, pg 164
Cordelia
Highlights her sisters falsness
“Let it be so. Thy truth then be thy dower” - act 1 scene 1, pg 165
Lear to Cordelia
Mocking her since she won’t flatter him, he won’t give her anything to get married with
“Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak, when power to flattery bows? … when majesty falls to folly” - act 1 scene 1, pg 168
Kent to Lear
Calling him out on his flattery competition.
“When” foreshadows Lear’s tragedy.
Kent = duty Lear = power
“If on the next day following, thy banish’d trunk be found in our dominions, the moment is they death” - act 1 scene 1, pg 170
Lear to Kent
Banishing Kent from the kingdom because he spoke out against Lear in front of the Royal Court. Kent was only trying to talk sense into Lear.
“Will you, with those infirmities she owes, unfriended, new adopted to our hate, dow’r’d with our curse, and stranger’s with our oath, take her, or leave her.” - act 1 scene 1, pg 172
Lear to Burgundy
Stabbing Cordelia in the back by making her seem undesirable as a bride. He wants to destroy her and be left destitute.
“Than on a wretch whom nature is ashamed” - scene 1, pg 173
Lear
Suggesting even nature doesn’t want her which is derogatory and objectifying.
“She is herself a dowry” - scene 1, pg 174
France to Lear
He recognises the value of Cordelia’s virtue and so he accepts her as his bride without any money from Lear.
“I know you what you are” - scene 1, pg 176
Cordelia to her sisters
Cordelia is intelligent and realises that Goneril and Regan are conniving and will want to take over their father’s power.
“Prescribe not us our duty./ Let your study” - scene 1, pg 177
Regan and Goneril
Shared line which shows they’re on the same page
“Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this of Kent’s banishment” - scene 1, pg 178
Regan to Goneril
At risk of Lears next outburst - foreshadowing it
“We must do something, and i’the heat” - scene 1, pg 179
Goneril to Regan
Going to do something dark to deal with Lear
“My mind as generous and my shape as true as honest madam’s issue?” Act 1 scene 2 pg 180
Edmunds soliloquy
Trying to get empathy from audience as he’s treated differently to Edgar.
Repetition of “B” sound act 1 scene 2 pg 180
Edmund soliloquy
Plosive b sound is harsh and repetitive
“Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund” act 1 scene 2 pg 180
Edmunds soliloquy
He deserves the land because he is loved. More sympathy for bastards at the time because Queen Elizabeth was a bastard and she just died.
“Now gods, stand up for bastards!” Act 1 scene 2 pg 181
Edmunds soliloquy
Commanding the Gods, speaking to a higher court and demand justice
“I hope, for my brother’s justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue.” Act 1 scene 2 pg 182
Edmund presents to Gloucester the letter that he forged in Edgar’s name to murder their father and seize his land and wealth. This is the only way he can overdo his brother. Edmund is manipulative.
“O villain, villian! His very opinion in the letter.” Act 1 scene 2 pg 184
Gloucester to Edmund
Gloucester fails to see through the lie and believes that Edgar wrote the letter
“An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star!” Act 1 scene 2 pg 186
Edmund to audience
Criticising Gloucester for blaming his fortune on the stars.
Shakespeare mocks the human desire to belay blame elsewhere besides on oneself.
“Some villian hath done me wrong.”/ “That’s my fear” act 1 scene 2 pg 189
Edgar and Edmund
Edmund now feigns innocence in order to gain Edgar’s trust so he can betray him later.
“And let his knights have colder looks among you” act 1 scene 3 pg 191
Goneril to her servants
Tells them to be rude to Lear and his servants to provoke him and make him leave to stay with Regan.
“Now banish’d Kent if thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemned so may it come thy master whom thou lov’st shall find thee full of labours.” Act 1 scene 4 pg 192
Kent to audience
Showing his devotion to Lear by disguising himself to come back and serve him.
“If thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb” act 1 scene 4 pg 197
Fool to Kent
Fool thinks Kent is foolish for following Lear as he doesn’t deserve it.
“Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet one?” Act 1 scene 4 pg 199
Fool to Lear
Putting himself and Lear on the same level but Lear is worse because he’s miserable is disrespectful to Lear but gets away with it
“Nothing can be made of nothing” act 1 scene 3 pg 199
Lear
Lear is and has nothing.
Echoes scene 1 with Cordelia - ‘nothing gets nothing’
Idea of nothing throughout the play
“The two crows of the egg” act 1 scene 4 pg 200
Fool to Lear
A cracked egg looks like a crown and Lear has lost his crown by splitting it between his daughters
“Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gav’st thy golden one away” act 1 scene 4 pg 200
The “golden one” is Cordelia and the Fool is calling Lear out on letting her go.
“I had rather be any kind o’thing than a Fool, and yet I would not be thee” act 1 scene 4 pg 202
Fool to Lear
He doesn’t like being a fool but being Lear would be worse
Shows how bad Lears situation is
“Does anyone here know me? Why, this is not Lear … Who is it that can tell me who I am? Act 1 scene 4 pg 204
Lear
He realises he’s lost all his power and has no one and nothing - no kingdom, no daughters, no power, nowhere to live.
“Yet have I left a daughter” act 1 scene 4 pg 206
Lear to Goneril
Lear thinks he still has Regan - dramatic irony
“And from her derogate body never spring a babe to honour her” act 1 scene 4 pg 208
Lear to Albany and Goneril
Making her infertile so cannot pass on the kingdom. Taking away her purpose as a woman
If she does have a child he hopes it causes her as much pain as she’s caused him.
Misogyny is the only power he has over her anymore
”How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” Act 1 scene 4 pg 208
Lear to Goneril and Albany
Lear is realising that Goneril and Regan are complete ungrateful and is hurt by it
“Pardon me in cunning I must draw my sword upon you … some blood drawn on me would beget opinion of my more fierce endeavour” act 2 scene 1 pg 218
Edmund to Edgar
Setting Edgar up
Cuts his own arm but tells Gloucester Edgar did it
“Of my land loyal and natural boy I’ll work the means to make thee capable” act 2 scene 1 pg 222
Gloucester to Edmund
Now that Gloucester thinks Edgar was trying to kill Edmund Gloucester entrusts his lands and wealth to him rather than to Edgar
“A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver’s, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super serviceable, finical rogue; one trunk-inheriting slave” act 2 scene 2 pg 226
Kent to Oswald
Showing Kents loyalty to Lear but has lost his rationality because of his closeness to Lear
Speaking in prose showing his uncontrollable rage
Insulting Oswald to put him in his place because Oswald has been strutting about the castle indulging his own self-interests while Kent is loyal
“Fetch forth the stocks you stubborn ancient knave you reverent braggart we’ll teach you” act 2 scene 2 pg 233
Cornwall to Kent
Cornwall wants to emphasise that Lear no longer has any power so he puts his most loyal servant into the stocks.
“TIL noon? Till night, my lord, and all night too” act 2 scene 2 pg 233
Regan
Shows Regans nastiness
“Fortune … turn thy wheel” act 2 scene 2 pg 236
Kent
Wheel of fortune - powerful image of what goes around comes around and nothings in our control
“Bedlam beggars” act 2 scene 2 pg 237
Edgar
Edgar’s going to disguise himself as a Bedlam hospital patient so he can get back into the estate without being executed
“Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way” act 2 scene 2 pg 241
Fool to Lear
The worst is yet to come (about Goneril and Regan)
“I would have all well betwixt you” act 2 scene 2 pg 245
Gloucester to Lear
Playing the peacemaker
“I cannot think my sister in the least would fail her obligation. If sir perchance she have restrained the riots of your followers ‘tis on such ground and to such wholesome end as clears her from all blame” act 2 scene 2 pg 247
Regan to Lear
Putting their conspiracy into action
Goneril has already rejected Lear so Lear goes to Regan for charity but Regan rejects her too
“On my knees I beg” act 2 scene 2 pg 248
Lear
Showing his powerlessness and is now below everyone else
Desperate and pathetic
“Return to her? Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter to this detested groom” act 2 scene 2 pg 252
Lear to Goneril and Regan
Goneril and Regan are passing Lear back and forth in an attempt to get him to surrender his power
“No you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both” act 2 scene 2 pg 256
Lear
He would rather get killed in the forest then stay with either daughter
Storm is pathetic fallacy - growing uncontrollable rage
“Shut up our doors my lord ‘tis a wild night my Regan counsels well. Come out o’ th’ storm” act 2 scene 2 pg 258
Cornwall to Gloucester
Telling Gloucester to shut Lear out Gloucester does not say no for which he will suffer later
“If you shall see Cordelia as fear not but you shall show her this ring and she will tell you who your fellow is act 3 scene 1 pg 262
Kent
Letting the audience know that France is invading England so Cordelia wants to overthrow Regan and Goneril.
Cordelia doesn’t know Kent is back in disguise so the ring lets her know she has an ally.
“Things that love night love not such nights as these” act 3 scene 2 pg 266
Kent to Lear
Nature treats everyone the same
“When I desire their leave that I might pity him they took from me the use of mine own house charged me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him entreat him or any way sustain him” act 3 scene 3 pg 270
Gloucester to Edmund
Gloucester trusting Edmund with the knowledge that he is in favour of Lear and not Regan and Goneril
This shows how naive Gloucester is regarding Edmund and his ways
“I have received a latter this night - ‘tis dangerous to be spoken I have locked the letter in the closet … we must incline to the king i will look him and privilege relieve him” act 3 scene 3 pg 270
Gloucester to Edmund
Here Gloucester trusts Edmund further with the location of a letter that would make him a traitor in Goneril and Regan.
“Didst thou give all to thy two daughters? And art thou come to this?” Act 3 scene 4 pg 274
Lear to Edgar
Showing how incredibly wrapped up in himself Lear is.
He’s asking Edgar is he’s in the exact same situation that he is himself because no one else’s situation is as bad as his.
“I shall be done I will arraign them straight” act 3 scene 6 pg 288
Lear to Fool
Self-pitying outlook again
Lear is placing blame everywhere else besides on himself
“Good friend I prithee take him in thy arms I have o’erheard a plot of death upon him. There is a litter ready lay him in’t and drive towards Dover friend where thou shalt meet both welcome and protection” act 3 scene 6 pg 293
Gloucester to Kent
Gloucester tells Kent (in disguise) to take Lear to Dover where he can be safe while waiting for the power to come back to him
“Leave him to my displeasure Edmund keep you our sister company the revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous father are not fit for your beholding” act 3 scene 7 pg 296
Cornwall to Edmund
Irony
Cornwall thinks that because Edmund supposedly saved his father’s life he should react to Gloucester’s punishment when in reality it was Edmund who set Gloucester up in the first place and has now betrayed him.
Warning for what’s about to happen
Stage direction “Regan plucks his beard” act 3 scene 7 pg 297
Foreshadows plucking out his eyes
“My lord you have one eye left to see some mischief on him” act 3 scene 7 pg 301
First servant to Cornwall
The servant on his last breath tells Cornwall to stop torturing Gloucester.
This illustrates a radical idea from Shakespeare that the servants are more noble than the noble
“Lest it see more prevent it. Out vile jelly where is thy lustre now?” Act 3 scene 7 pg 301
Cornwall to Gloucester’s second eye being plucked out
Mocking Gloucester for his traitorous behaviour
“Where’s my son Edmund” act 3 scene 7 pg 301
Gloucester
Doesn’t know Edmund is the one who’s put him in this position
Naive
“I have received a hurt. follow me lady … Regan I bleed apace untimely comes this hurt. give me your arm” act 3 scene 7 pg 302
Cornwall to Regan
Cornwall is dying and Regan leaves him to die so she can be with Edmund, the ultimate evil conspirator
“I have no way and therefore want no eyes I stumbled when I saw” act 4 scene 1 pg 305
Gloucester to Old man
Acknowledging that he was wrong to believe in Edmund now he knows of his treachery.
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods they kill us for their sport” act 4 scene 1 pg 306
Gloucester
We are at the mercy of Gods and they do with us what they please
Echoes Lear’s earlier act of placing blame on someone else for his woes
