King Lear Quotes

Quotes from King Lear - Shakespeare

The opening line

The opening line

‘I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall’ (Kent) A1S1

‘Son by order of…’

‘Son by order of law (…) no dearer in my account’ (Gloucester) A1S1

‘Meantime we shall…’ (Lear)

‘Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give the map there’ A1S1

‘We unburdened…’

‘We unburdened crawl towards death’ (Lear) A1S1

The Love Test

‘Which of us shall we say doth love us most’ A1S1

‘When nature doth…’

‘When nature doth with merit challenge’ (Lear) A1S1

Diction of quantity and value in Lear’s speech, A1S1

‘dowers/interest/largest bounty’

‘A love that makes…’

‘A love that makes breath poor and speech unable’ (Gonerill) A1S1

‘I profess myself an enemy…’

‘I profess myself an enemy to all other joys’ (Regan) A1S1

Cordelia’s asides in the love test

‘What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent’

‘I am sure my love’s more ponderous than my tongue’ (A1S1)

‘Nothing will come…’

‘Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again’ (Lear) A1S1

‘I cannot heave…’

‘I cannot heave my heart into my mouth’ (Cordelia) A1S1

‘I love your majesty…’

‘I love your majesty according to my bond. No more and no less.’ (Cordelia) A1S1

‘Thy truth then be…’

‘Thy truth then be thy dower’ (Lear) A1S1

‘Sacred radiance…’

‘Sacred radiance of the sun (…) mysteries of Hecate and the night (…) operation of the orbs’ (Lear) A1S1

‘I disclaim all…’

‘I disclaim all my paternal care’ (Lear) A1S1

‘With my two daughters dowers…’

‘With my two daughters dowers digest the third’ (Lear) A1S1

‘Be Kent un…’

‘Be Kent unmannerly when Lear is mad’ (Kent) A1S1

‘Now by Apollo…’

‘Now by Apollo, King, thou swears’t thy Gods in vain’ (Kent) A1S1

‘To come betwixt…’

‘To come betwixt our sentence and our power’ (Lear) A1S1

‘…(take thee, maid)’

‘The Gods to their shelter take thee, maid’ (Kent) A1S1

‘Her price…’

‘Her price is fallen’ (Lear) A1S1

‘A wretch with whom…’

‘A wretch with whom nature is afraid’ (Lear) A1S1

‘If for I want…’

‘If for I want that glib and oily art to speak when purpose not’ (Cordelia) A1S1

‘Love’s not love when…’

‘Love’s not love when it is mingled with regards that stand aloof from the point (…) she herself is a dowry’ (France) A1S1

Cordelia’s farewell to her sisters in A1S1

‘The jewels of our father, with washed eyes Cordelia leaves you’

‘Tis the infirmity…’

‘Tis the infirmity if his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself’ (Regan) A1S1

‘We must do something…’

‘We must do something, but i’th’heat’ (Gonerill) A1S1

‘Thou nature, art…’

‘Thou nature, art my goddess; to thy law, my services are bound’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘When my dimensions…’

‘When my dimensions are as well compact, my mind as generous, and my shape as true’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘Why brand they us…’

‘Why brand they us with base? With baseness? bastardy? base, base?’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘Fine word…’

‘Fine word, legitimate!’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘Now Gods stand up…’

‘Now Gods stand up for bastards!’ (Edmund) A1S2

GLOUCESTER: ‘What paper are you reading?"‘

EDMUND:

‘Nothing, my lord’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘The quality of nothing…’

‘The quality of nothing hath not such need hide itself (…) if it be nothing I shall not need spectacles’ (Gloucester) A1S2

Where Edmund ‘found’ his fake letter…

‘In the casement of my closet’ (Edmund) A1S2

Gloucester enraged with Edgar ‘…villain!’

‘Unnatural, detested, brutish villain!’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘Wind me…’

‘Wind me into him, I pray you’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘These late eclipses…’

‘These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘Nature finds itself…’

‘Nature finds itself scourged by the secret effects’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘In cities…’

‘In cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked ‘twixt son and father’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘The king falls from…’

‘The king falls from bias of nature’ (Gloucester) A1S2

‘We make guilty of our disasters…’

‘We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains on necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘had the maidenliest…’

‘had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardising’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘on whose foolish honesty…’

‘On whose foolish honesty my practices ride easily’ (Edmund) A1S2

‘Did my father strike…’

‘Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?’ (Gonerill) A1S3

‘Every hour he flashes…’

‘Every hour he flashes into one gross crime or another that sets us all at odds’ (Gonerill) A1S3

‘Idle old…’

‘Idle old man that still l would manage those authorities he hath given away!’ (Gonerill) A1S3

‘Old … again’

‘ Old fools are babes again’ (Gonerill) A1S3

‘I … likeness’

‘I razed my likeness’ (Kent) A1S4

‘Where’s my … ‘

‘Where’s my knave, my Fool? (Lear) A1S4

Lear: ‘Who … ?’ Oswald: ‘My … ?’

Lear: ‘Who am I sir?’ Oswald: ‘My lady’s father’ (A1S4)

‘Sirrah, you were best …’

‘Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb’ (Fool) A1S4

‘Truth’s a … he must … may stand … ‘

‘Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out when the Lady Brach may stand by the fire and stink’ (Fool) A1S4

Fool: ‘Can you make … ?’ Lear: ‘ … ‘

Fool: ‘Can you make no use of nothing, Nuncle?’ Lear: ‘Nothing can be made out of nothing’ (A1S4)

‘All thy other titles …’

‘All thy other titles thou hast given away; that (fool) thou wast born with’ (Fool) A1S4

‘Nuncle, give …’

‘Nuncle, give me an egg’ (Fool) A1S4

‘Thy hast little …’

‘Thy hast little in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away’ (Fool) A1S4

‘Thou madest thy daughters…'

‘Thou madest thy daughters thy mothers; for when thou gavest them the rod and puttest down thine own breeches’ (Fool) A1S4

‘I am better then thou …’

‘I am better than thou art; I am a fool; thou art nothing’ (Fool) A1S4

‘all-licensed …’

‘All-licensed fool’ (Gonerill) A1S4

‘So out went the ...’

‘So out went the candle and we were left darkling’ (Fool) A1S4

Lear: ‘Who …?’ Fool: ‘Lear’s …’

Lear: ‘Who is it?’ Fool: ‘Lear’s shadow’ A1S4

‘Men so disordered …’

‘Men so disordered, deboshed and bold, that this our court, infected with their manners’ (Gonerill) A1S4

‘Marble-…’

‘Marble-hearted fiend’ A1S4

‘ … Kite!’

‘detested kite!’ (Lear) A1S4

‘drew from my heart …’

‘Drew from my heart all love, and added to the gall.’ (Lear) A1S4

Lear’s sate direction when wishing sterility upon Gonerill

‘he kneels’ A1S4

‘Hear, nature, …’

‘Hear, nature, hear! Dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose’ (Lear) A1S4

‘Into her womb… ‘

‘Into her womb convey sterility’ (Lear) A1S4

‘What, fifty …’

‘What, fifty of my followers a clap?’ (Lear) A1S4

‘Old fond eyes…’

‘Old fond eyes, beweep this cause again, I’ll pluck ye out and cast you with the waters that you lose to temper clay’ (Lear) A1S4

‘Thou … old … wise’

‘Thous shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise’ (Fool) A1S5