King Lear Quotes (2) Flashcards
“Let me teach you a speech”
AO1 Fool is wise and the King is foolish
-Perceptive fool (Trevor Nunn)
A4 S7
Cordelia “O my dear father!”
Despair
A4 7
Cordelia -
“White flakes… warring winds… deep dread bolted thunder… quick cross lightning”
Warring- long time suffering- w=long sound
Deep dread- alliteration
Images of elements and nature
Quick cross- harsh short bursts of lightning
A4 S7
Lear: “I am old and/ foolish.”
”/” realised
“.” stopping foolishness
Fool: “The hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo too long that its head was bit off by its young”
- Parallel to Cordelia
- Half rhyme- bird analogy = regan and Goneril
- wit to out do those of a higher social status
- commentary.
- If the fool used name= treason- Insulting following the great chain of being
Fool:”Nor cut purses come not to throngs […] unsurers tell their gold with field. And bawds and whores do churches build”
Fools prophecy help to predict and unfold future events
-Rhyming couplets- hidden message. Ironic : meant to entertain and be humourous whilst the fool is expressing a serious political message. It lightens the tone and reduces serious nature.
Reveals the destruction of Britain and injustice as he relays the corruption of Lears reign. Elizabeth was unmarried and did not have a heir to the throne.
Fool: “Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest”
voice of reason
Six syllable lines and continuous rhyming couplet adds a light tone- Lear not to take what he says seriously
-Fools benign nature and his belief in the natural order means his role is to encourage anagorisis in Lear- tells him the reality and reveals the web of fate
- Found mental illness entertaining- “artificial fool”- deliberately acts odd, simple and eccentric to indirectly give advice
Fool: “No he’s a Yeoman that a gentlemen to his son; for he’s a mad Yeoman that sees his son a gentlemen before him”
Parallel between Lear and Yeoman as the crazy fathers
- hand over wealth to children
- Needs the Fool to guide him due to mental state.
