King Lear 4.6 Quotes

‘Why then, your other senses grow imperfect by your eyes anguish’

Edgar— Gloucester’s other senses will develop more because he is blind— links to the idea that he is no longer metaphorically blind

‘The fishermen that walk upon the beach appear like mice’

Edgar— he is essentially saying that the people on the beach are insignificant, suggesting his altered perception

‘He kneels’

Gloucester kneels in this stage direction, which is significant because he is acknowledging his position and casting off the world because he has suffered too much.

‘shake patiently my great affliction off’

Gloucester— he is talking about his life, which is a very stoic and pre-Christian view of life and death. The stoic view is that Gloucester has the right to end his own life.

‘Had he been where he thought’

Edgar— revealing to the audience that Gloucester is not at Dover Cliffs and will not die, because he only imagined that he fell.

‘Thy life’s a miracle’

Edgar— explicitly Christian view on life, and Edgar is trying to encourage Gloucester to live through his suffering and saying he should rejoice.

‘Alack, I have no eyes’

Gloucester— we are reminded of the cruelty he has endured and are invited to pity him. Ironically he is physically blind now but can metaphorically see clearly.

‘methought his eyes were two full moons. He had a thousand noses Horns welked and engraved’

Edgar— he is describing a devil or ‘fiend’, and is trying to suggest to Gloucester that it was tempting him to die and therefore commit a sin, and by doing this Edgar is trying to convince Gloucester that ‘thy life’s a miracle’

‘Henceforth I’ll bear affliction till it do cry out itself ‘enough, enough’ and die’

Gloucester— Edgar hasn’t managed to convince him that his life is worthwhile, but has steered him away from thoughts of suicide.

‘Enter Lear mad crowned with wild flowers’

This is a significant stage direction, as it demonstrates the deterioration of Lear’s mental state and his loss of authority. It also links to the idea of the superfluous, and how Lear’s lifestyle as king has changed dramatically alongside his identity.

‘They flattered me like a dog’

Lear— he is saying that his subjects flattered him excessively, demonstrating his realisation of his mistakes

‘and told me I had the white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there’

Lear— his subjects told him he was wise before he was old enough to be. Idea of bad service— they said he was wise when he wasn’t and didn’t speak truth to power.

‘What was thy cause? Adultery? Thou shalt not die— die for adultery?’

Lear— he is zooming in on Gloucester’s sin, explicitly questioning punishment and suffering and whether or not justice has been carried out.

‘Let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality’

Lear— he is no longer deluded about his power as king

‘O ruined piece of nature’

Gloucester— he recognises that Lear is not what he used to be, symbolising the world in decline

‘robes and furred gowns hide all’ ‘plate sin with gold’

Lear— saying sight is conditional, which was a revolutionary thing to say. It links to his blindness

‘Get thee glass eyes’

Lear— blindness, magnifies, more insight

‘When we are born we cry that we have come to this great stage of fools’

Lear— saying life is like a play and we are just puppets with no agency, and that everything is meaningless.

‘Your most dear daughter’

Gentleman to Lear— talking about Cordelia, but he rejects this— ‘a sovereign shame so elbows him’— he is ashamed of himself and scared to talk to Cordelia because he fears she won’t forgive him.

‘a man of salt, to use his eyes for garden water pots’

Lear— saying he is composed of tears, suffering

‘A proclaimed prize’

Oswald— he is going to kill Gloucester and do exactly what his master tells him. He uses dehumanising language and says that Gloucester exists to raise his fortunes.

‘Out, dunghill’

Oswald— this language is reminiscent of Regan in Act 3 Scene 7, and there is a parallel between the good servant who speaks truth to power and the bad servant (Oswald)

‘Oswald falls’

Stage direction— this is a key plot device as he is carrying the letters from Goneril to Edmund, and now Edgar finds out about the affair.

‘Leave, gentle wax’

Edgar— there is a shift to him using manners— Shakespeare wants the audience to still see Edgar as a gentleman even though he is reading someone else’s letters.

‘There is nothing done if he return the conqueror; then I am the prisoner, and his bed my gaol’

Goneril (in the letter)— saying that she wants Albany to lose the battle because then she can be with Edmund, which is treacherous and shows she wants him dead.

‘strike the sight’

Edgar— the idea of something being so terrible that it blinds you.

‘drum afar off’

Stage direction— approaching the climax of the play and the battle