King Lear quotes

Question 1

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear expresses his desire to retire from his duties and responsibilities as he ages.

Answer 1

“To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen’d crawl toward death’”

Question 2

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear questions his daughters about their love for him, setting the stage for the division of the kingdom.

Answer 2

“Who shall we say doth love us most?”

Question 3

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear renounces his relationship with Cordelia after she refuses to flatter him.

Answer 3

“Here I disclaim all my paternal care, propinquity and property of blood”

Question 4

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear warns Kent not to interfere with his anger and decisions.

Answer 4

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath”

Question 5

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear expresses his disappointment in Cordelia’s lack of flattery, suggesting that it would have been better if she had never been born.

Answer 5

“Better thou hads’t not been born than not t’have pleased me better”

Question 6

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear questions his identity and sanity as he descends into madness.

Answer 6

“Does anyone here know me? This is not Lear: Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus?”

Question 7

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear curses Goneril’s womb, wishing her infertility and barrenness as punishment for her ingratitude.

Answer 7

“Into her womb convey sterility!”

Question 8

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear expresses the pain of ingratitude, realizing the harshness of being betrayed by his own child.

Answer 8

“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child” (Act 1, Scene 4)

Question 9

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear feels emasculated by the actions of his daughters, who disrespect him.

Answer 9

“I am asham’d That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus” (Act 1, Scene 4)

Question 10

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear threatens Goneril with the wrath of his other daughter, Regan, whom he believes will seek revenge on his behalf.

Answer 10

“I have another daughter, who, I am sure, is kind and comfortable: when she shall hear this of thee, with her nails She’ll flay thy volvish visage” (Act 1, Scene 4)

Question 11

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear commands his emotions to calm down, recognizing the madness and sorrow that are consuming him.

Answer 11

“Hysterica passio! Down, thy climbing sorrow! Thy element’s below.” (Act 2, Scene 4)

Question 12

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear curses the chaos and destruction that he believes will come upon those who have wronged him.

Answer 12

“Vengeance, plague, death, confusion” (Act 2, Scene 4)

Question 13

Speaker: King Lear. Context: Lear expresses his disgust and anger towards Goneril, likening her to a disease infecting his own body.

Answer 13

‘A disease that’s in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil … In my corrupted blood.” (Act 2, Scene 4)

Question 14

Speaker: King Lear
Context: Lear uses questionable logic to decide which daughter to stay with.

Answer 14

“Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty, And thou art twice her love.” (Act 2, Scene 4)

Question 15

King Lear. Context: Lear vows to unleash chaos and destruction upon those who have wronged him, even though he is uncertain of what actions he will take.

Answer 15

“I will do such things, What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be The terrors of the earth.” (Act 2, Scene 4)

Question 16

Speaker: Lear. Context: Lear converses with the Fool and displays concern for his well-being.

Answer 16

“My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?” (Act 3, Scene 2)

Question 16

Speaker: Lear. Context: Lear fumes about the injustices he has faced compared to his own wrongdoing.

Answer 16

“I am a man/More sinn’d against than sinning.” (Act 3, Scene 2)

Question 17

Lear commands the storm on the heath

Answer 17

“Crack Nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once That makes ingrateful man” (Act 3, Scene 2)

Question 18

Speaker: Lear. Context: Lear realizes the consequences of his negligence of the country

Answer 18

“O, I have ta’en Too little care of this” (Act 3, Scene 4)

Question 19

Lear tries to talk to Edgar to get his wisdom (in the hovel)

Answer 19

“First let me talk with this philosopher. What is the cause of Thunder?” (Act 3, Scene 4)

Question 20

Lear thinks about the fad that is authority, and how anyone can be obeyed

Answer 20

“The great image of Authority: a dog’s obeyed in office” (Act 4, Scene 6)

Question 21

Lear suggests that wealth can stop justice

Answer 21

“Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it In rags, a pigamy’s straw does pierce it.” (Act 4, Scene 6)

Question 22

Speaker: Lear. Context: Lear expresses his contentment and companionship with Cordelia, despite their imprisonment.

Answer 22

“We two alone shall sing like birds i’th’cage” (Act 5, Scene 3)

Question 23

Speaker: Lear. Context: Lear laments Cordelia’s death, questioning the unfairness of her demise compared to the existence of lesser creatures.

Answer 23

“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all?” (Act 5, Scene 3)