King Lear quotes

Question 1

“How sharper than a…

Answer 1

…serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child”
- Lear about Goneril
- metaphor

Question 2

“Kite” and…

Answer 2

…“vulture”
- Lear often refers to his daughters with animalistic imagery. Vultures and kites are both birds of prey

Question 3

“Truth’s a dog…

Answer 3

…must to kennel”
- The Fool
- metaphor satirises Lear’s lack of awareness and principles

Question 4

“nothing will come…

Answer 4

…of nothing”
- Lear
- repetition of “nothing” throughout the play establishes the centrality of nihilism

Question 5

“which of you doth…

Answer 5

…love us most”
- Lear, using the royal register at the beginning of the play
- self-glorifying question

Question 6

moral obligations “dread to speak when…

Answer 6

…power to flattery bows”
- Kent
- personification, perhaps intended as a subtle moral teaching for King James I

Question 7

“See better…

Answer 7

…Lear”
- Kent undermines the king’s authority with the blunt imperative phrase and informal address

Question 8

“She herself is…

Answer 8

…a dowry”
- France about Cordelia
- metaphor implies that Cordelia’s altruistic nature is worth more than her financial status

Question 9

“nothing my lord, I love…

Answer 9

…your majesty according to my bond”
- Cordelia does not offer a false display of excessive affection like her sisters.
- she conforms to 17th century expectations of women, who were meant to devote love to their father, husband and God

Question 10

“dry up her organs…

Answer 10

…of increase”
- Lear about Goneril
- visceral verb and objectifying description of her womb

Question 11

“suspend thy…

Answer 11

…purpose”
- Lear about Goneril
reduces every woman’s worth to a biological function

Question 12

“Sir, I love you more than words…

Answer 12

…can wield the matter”
- Goneril to Lear
flattery and the alliteration implies her tone is smooth and charming

Question 13

“she names my very deed of love…

Answer 13

only she falls too short”
- Regan
- belittling phrase “too short” highlights the competitiveness that Lear inaugurated

Question 14

“Know that we have divided…

Answer 14

…our kingdom in three”
- Lear, use of the royal register
King James I was a unionist, 17th century audience would have immediately anticipated conflict

Question 15

“why brand they us with base?…

Answer 15

…With baseness, bastardy? Base, base?”
plosive alliteration and repetition - he is spiteful

Question 16

Edmund repeatedly calls his brother…

Answer 16

“legitimate”
- encapsulates everything that makes Edgar perfect and him inferior, but when it’s reduced to a single word the concept is absurd

Question 17

Edmund questions why he should “stand in…

Answer 17

…the plague of custom”
metaphor aligns primogeniture and customs around wedlock with disease

Question 18

“The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long…

Answer 18

that it had it head bit off by it young”
- The Fool, metaphor
filial ingratitude

Question 19

“the younger rises when…

Answer 19

…the old doth fall”
Shakespeare notes on common anxiety around the youth overthrowing their elders in the 17th century

Question 20

“we shall express our…

Answer 20

…darker purpose”
- Lear
adjective enforces the recurring theme of blindness
foreshadows the upcoming events

Question 21

“my cue is…

Answer 21

…villainous melancholy’”
- Edmund
paradox of hurt mistreatment and vengeful desire

Question 22

“thou, Nature…

Answer 22

…art my goddess”
- he devotes his loyalties to nature instead of man

Question 23

Edmund describes he conception as a “lusty…

Answer 23

stealth of nature”
- aligning his existence with nature implies he is pure and authentic
- seductive

Question 24

“Who is it that can…

Answer 24

…tell me who I am?”
- loss of the royal register
- questioning his identity

Question 25

“thou wouldst make a good…

Answer 25

…Fool”
- The Fool to Lear
paradoxical task of distracting Lear from his suffering and encouraging him to take responsibilty

Question 26

“it is his hand my lord…

Answer 26

but I hope his heart is not in the contents”
- false display of concern, highlights his machiavellian nature

Question 27

Edmund sings when he hears Edgar coming…

Answer 27

• “fa, sol, la, mi”
  often referred to as the diabolus in musica, due to the foreboding atmosphere it evokes

Question 28

“‘tis the infirmity of his age, yet he hath ever…

Answer 28

…but slenderly known himself”
- Regan comments on his old age and lack of self-awareness

Question 29

Goneril describes Lear’s imperfections as amplified by “choleric..

Answer 29

…years”
- the theory of the four humours
- an excess of choler resulted in irrational behaviour and increased anger

Question 30

“old fools are…

Answer 30

…babes again”
- Goneril about Lear
The Seven Ages of Man

Question 31

“O sir, you…

Answer 31

…are old”
- Regan to Lear
- patronising

Question 32

Goneril asks “What need you five and twenty? Ten? or Five?” and Regan adds…

Answer 32

…“what need one?”
they collectively undermine his authority

Question 33

“[Regan plucks…

Answer 33

…his beard.]”
- stage direction
highlights Regan’s lack of respect for someone superior in in age, sex and social satus.

Question 34

“dear father, it is thy…

Answer 34

…business I go about”
- Cordelia to Lear
Despite the way Lear mistreated her, she is still loyal to him
- she appears Christ-like, as these lines allude to a biblical passage

Question 35

“like flies to wanton boys we are to the…

Answer 35

…gods: they use us for their sport”
Gloucester
simile, implies men are pawns used for entertainment and discarded - nihilistic

Question 36

“I stumbled when…

Answer 36

…I saw”
- Gloucester
highlights how when he had sight he could not see the truth

Question 37

“thou shouldst not have been old…

Answer 37

…till thou hadst been wise”
- the Fool notes that usually age and experience brings wisdom, but Lear remained ignorant under the protection of his wealth and status

Question 38

“O let me not…

Answer 38

…be mad”
- the audience pity him

Question 39

Lear argues that without luxuries “man’s life is…

Answer 39

…cheap as beast’s”
contradicts Lear’s later line “unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal”

Question 40

“I am a man more…

Answer 40

…sinned against than sinning”
- Lear is a tragic hero, he admits he is flawed but asserts his treatment is unjust
- however it could also be argued he is victimising himself

Question 41

“I have ta’en too…

Answer 41

…little care of this”
- The regretful realisation shows Lear discovered a newfound awareness for the poor within his country

Question 42

“have his daughters brought…

Answer 42

…him to this pass?”
- Lear’s question aligns Edgar’s pretence of madness with his own true state
- he assumes every beggar’s condition is due to filial ingratitude, specifically women, as feminists would note

Question 43

“I am a very foolish…

Answer 43

…fond old man”
- Lear’s anagnorisis is a gradual process but here is takes full effect.

Question 44

“sir, do you…

Answer 44

…know me?”
- Cordelia asks Lear, a modern audience realises he shows signs of dementia

Question 45

Edmund considers which sister to marry…

Answer 45

“Both? One? Or neither?”
- series of short questions imply he is amused by the predicament, thus he holds absolute disregard for their feelings
- yet later he says “all three now marry in an instant”, thus he takes neither in life, but both in death.

Question 46

“some good I mean to do…

Answer 46

…despite of mine own nature”
- some may pity him, he believes evil is in him yet a modern audience cannot blame him for his desire to rebel. We realise he is not evil by nature, but a product of his classist environment.

Question 47

“Look there…

Answer 47

…look there!”
He dies believing Cordelia might be alive, which evokes catharsis

Question 48

“the weight of this sad time we must obey”

Answer 48

• Edgar, the final lines of the play
  he speaks in rhyme, offers a sense of finality
  The audience are encouraged to the consequences of the character’s actions