king lear quote bank

"Sir, this young fellow’s mother could,
 whereupon she grew round-wombed and had indeed,
 sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband
 for her bed. Do you smell a fault?”

Act 1, Scene 1 - Gloucester, talking about Edmund, ideas of illegitimacy, ideas of familial unit as microcosm of society

“But I have a son, sir, by order of law,
 some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account”

Act 1, Scene 1 - Gloucester, loves both sons equally, importance of title, contrasting to Lear who had favourites 

“though this knave came something
 saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was
 his mother fair, there was good sport at his making,  and the whoreson must be acknowledged.”

Act 1, Scene 1 - Gloucester, derogative language of women, illegitimacy

"Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom, and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths while we
Unburdened crawl toward death."

Act 1, Scene 1 - KL, speaks in royal ‘we’, ideas of trinity, irony of his rash actions, ideas of fate

“Tell me, my
 daughters
 [Since now we will divest us both of rule”

Act 1, Scene 1 - KL, motif of clothes, take off is contradicting the weight of what he is doing

"That future strife
May be prevented now."

Act 1, Scene 1 - KL, dramatic irony, original intentions were good

"Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
That we our largest bounty may extend
Where nature doth with merit challenge."

Act 1, Scene 1 - KL, catalyst of the kings downfall, Lears hubris is his pride, asking his daughters to quantify their love, encouraging rivalry

"Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare...
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable"

Act 1, Scene 1 - Goneril, semantic field of value, emphasises worth that lear puts on love, eyesight imagery

"What shall Cordelia do?
Love, and be silent."

Act 1, Scene 1 - KL, juxtaposition of sisters, her silence is with more, mocking sisters

"I am made of the self-same metal that my sister is,
And prize me at her worth...
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys...
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness' love”

Act 1, Scene 1 - Regan, attempting to outshine her sister, suggests only her father’s love brings happiness, sycophantic phrases

"I am sure, my love's
More ponderous/ richer than my tongue."

Act 1, Scene 1 - Cordelia, iambic pentameter, gravely misjudged her father, believe actions speaks louder than words 

“Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
 With shadowy forests [and with champains riched,
 With plenteous rivers] and wide-skirted meads,
 We make thee lady.”

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, Sf of opulence of lear, interlinked daughters and land, lear presented as godlike, omnipresent, land is not natural but power

“Nothing my lord”

Act 1, scene 1 - Cordelia's reply, "Nothing," is a word that will reappear throughout the play — with disastrous connotations

“although our last and least”

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, referring to daughters in terms of doctrines, links to Jacobean society, ideas of inheritance

“nothing will come of nothing”

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, foreshadows the nihilism of the play

“"Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less."

Act 1, scene 1 - Cordelia, truthful evaluation of her love for her father, ideas of duty to love her father and king

“so young my lord and true”

Act 1, scene 1 - Cordelia, goodness sitting in contrast with her father

“"Here I disclaim all my paternal care...
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever."

Act 1, scene 1 - King Lear, irrationally responds by denying Cordelia all affection and paternal care

“this coronet part between you”

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, stagecraft, power, natural foreshadowing

“the bow is bent and drawn”

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, start of tragedy, fate, can’t be reversed

“let it fall rather, though the fork invade”

Act 1, Scene 1 - Kent, stop now before tragedy starts, speaking out voice of reason, territorial language

“thy safety being motive”

Act 1, scene 1 - Kent, motivated by his own selfishness

“see better lear, and let me still remain. the tour blank of thine eye"”

Act 1, scene 1 - Kent, semantic field of eyesight, lost all perception, hubriscious behaviour 

“"Your large speeches may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love."

Act 1, scene 1 - Kent, sceptical of Goneril and Regan, he hopes that their actions will be able to match their "large" expressions of love

"When she was dear to us, we did hold her so;
But now her price is fall'n."

Act 1, scene 1 - KL, marxist ideas, measures love in terms of material wealth

""If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not"

Act 1, scene 1 - Cordelia, sisters speech as meaningless and contaminating, actions over words, cordelia’s own fault

"She is herself a dowry."

Act 1, scene 1 - France, love is sincere, he is not blinded by falsehoods or political concerns, his true love shines through the hypocrisy

"Fairest Cordelia, that art more rich, being poor"

Act 1, scene 1 - France, juxtaposition, loves Cordelia more for her honestly and refusal to bow to her father's demands

"Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides."

Act 1, scene 1 - Cordelia, Hides (animal imagery), wise foreshadowing stand point, truthfulness

"We must do something, and i' the heat"

Act 1, scene 1 - Gonerill, they are aware of their father's increasingly unpredictable nature, want to use it to their advantage and know they must move quickly, both are cold, calculating and totally rational.

“thou nature art my goddess; to thy law my services are bound”

Act 1, scene 2 - Edmund, separating himself from his behaviour, primogeniture, blames badness on natural society 

“"with base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?”

Act 1, scene 2 - Edmund, interrogatives, plosives, he was made with passion, emphasises anger

“and my intervention thrive Edmund the base shall top the legitimate”

act 1, scene 2 - reclaiming the meaning of ‘base’, crude animalistic nature

“now gods stand up for bastards!”

act 1 scene 2 - Edmund, anticipation, call on the gods

“nothing I shall not need spectacles”

act 1, scene 2 - Gloucester, foreshadows blindness 

“nothing my lord”

act 1 scene 2 - Edmund, parallel to Cordelia, inciting incident, repetition of nothing

“idle, old man”

act 1, scene 2 - General, stark contrast between love test and now how she speaks about her father

“"Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool?"

act 1 scene 3 - Goneril, physical violence portrayed, less sympathy for Lear

“Old fools are babes again and must be used with checks as flatteries when they are seen abused"

act 1, scene 2 - General, degrading lear, aware he is senile 

“after I cut the egg in the middle and eat up the meat, the two crown of the egg”

act 1, scene 4 - the fool, stagecraft, metaphor, everything is liminal, the two crowns are fragile and hollow

“for when thou gavest them the rod and puttest down thine own breeches”

act 1, scene 4 - fool, unnatural inversion, doesn’t want to put his power, infantilised

“I had rather be any o thing than a fool. and yet I would not be thee, nuncle”

act 1, scene 4 - the fool, role he has to play is to tell the truth, reversal of power as the fool holds the power

“so out went the candle we were left darkling”

act 1 scene 4 - fool, body politic, ominous idea pop darkness, biblical

“Lears shadow”

act 1, scene 4 - fool, an image of identity, links to Jacobean concepts of shadows

“that this our court, infected with their manners, shows like a righteous inn, epicurism and lust makes it more like a tavern or a brothel than a graced palace.”

act 1, scene 4 - gonerill, devotion to pleasure, juxtaposition, madness spreading, body politic

“which like an engine, wrenched my frame of nature from the fixed place, drew from my heart all love and added to the gall”

act 1,scene 4 - lear, image of metamorphosis, inner and body transformation, blaming them for doing what he’s done

“hear nature hear! dear goddess hear!”

act 1, scene 4 - lear, calling the gods, nature is life so therefore contrasting his words, taking the ability to give life from General

“into her womb convert sterility, dry up in her the organs of increase”

act 1 scene 4 - lear, taking her role in society, kinesics, self destructive as taking his heir

“that thou hast p[ower to shake my manhood thus, that these hot tears which break rom me perforce”

act 1 scene 4 - lear, toxic masculinity

'“this milky gentleness and course of yours”

act 1 scene 4 - lear, derogative, idea of weakness links to less masculinity

“I did her wrong:”

act 1 scene 5 - lear, reflection g on act, who is her

“I will forget my nature. so kind a father!”

act 1, scene 5- lear, reflecting on role,

“thou should not have been old till thou hadst been wise”

act 1, scene 5 - fool, associated age with wisdom, lear is not wise

“o let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! keep me in temper; I would not be mad!”

act 1, scene 4 - lear, exposing vulnerability, frightened of losing his mind, pleading to whoever, poignant because it doesn’t happen

“loyal and natural boy I’ll work the means to make thee capable”

Act 2 scene 1 - Gloucester, Edmund achieving his desire to inheritance, ideas of social status, nature motif, familiar relations

“whoreson glass-glazing super serviceable finical rogue, one trunk inheriting slave..”

act 2 scene 2 - Kent, disturbed violent state of mind, insulting Oswald, ansydeltic multi clausal lists, almost comedic

“mongrel bitch”

act 2 scene 2 - Kent, to oswald, animalistic imagery, underlying snobbish attitude

“fortune good night; smile once more; turn thy wheel”

act 2 scene 2 - Kent, optimistic image, literal prophecy, glimpse of hope, eventually bring him to better times

“I will preserve myself and am bethought to take the basest and most poorest shape”

act 2 scene 3 - Edgar, superlatives emphasises suffering, ironic he ends with the most,

“presented nakedness”

act 2 scene 3 - Edgar, form of protection, contrast to clothing motif, performative, antithesis of lear

“there’s something yet; Edgar I nothing am”

act 2 scene 3 - Edgar, motif of hollowness, rural accent, alienating himself from identity

“o me my heart my rising heart ! but down!”

act 2 scene 4 - Lear, trying to command his heart, body natural vs body politic, patriarchal authority as a father over his duties

“I pray you father being weak seem so”

act 2 scene 4 - Regan, patronising language, reversal off role, lear is afraid of going mad, Regan pushing conflict back to General

“thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter or rather a disease that’s in my flesh”

act 2 scene 4 - Lear, disease imagery, misogynistic, critic Knox view that all women are disease ridden.

“I and my hundred knight”

act 2 scene 4 - Lear, symbolism of power, adores his sycophants, values loyalty

“I gave you all”

act 2 scene 4 - Lear, statement of delusion, sees love as value, links to love tests, dual role of king and father

“o fool I shall go mad”

act 2 scene 4 - lear, understanding the consequences of his actions, certainty of his mentality

“contending with the fretful elements”

act 3 scene 1 - gentlemen, battle between lear and storm, conflicting relationship with nature,

“little world of man”

act 3 scene 1 - gentlemen , Lears world as a micros of all society emphasising vulnerability of human condition

“unbonneted he runs and bids what will take all”

act 3 scene 1 - gentlemen, lear no longer wears the crown, “take all” associated with gambling when he stakes everything on the last throw, loss of self respect

“blow ends and crack your cheeks! rage, blow!”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, link to division, personification of storm, plosives show desperation

“crack natures moulds all germens spill at once that make ungrateful man”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, image of fertility, suggesting overthrowing gods creation, criticising society

“two pernicious daughters”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, monstrous imagery of sisters, paranoid obsession with his daughters, he feels like everything is against him

“your high endangered battles against a head so old and white as this”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, ideas of age, dementia, distress as a team against him

“undivulged crimes…unwhipped of justice…man of virtue”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, semantic field of law and justice, pretending to be good, crimes going unpunished

“I am a man more sinned against than sinning”

act 3 scene 2 - lear, stripped back to human condition, taking his role as man not god, self victimising himself, body politic means he is also king and man

“the tempest in my mind”

act 3 scene 4 - lear, madness taking his physical and mental state, can’t focus on anything

“I will weep no more”

act 3, scene 4 - lear, motif of weep, key to Lears toxic masculinity, doesn’t want to appear feminine,

“that way madness lies. let me shun that; no more of that!”

act 3 scene 4 - lear, needs to stop thinking like he is suffering, evokes sympathy for him, he can’t control himself

“o I have taken too little care of this”

act 3 scene 4 - lear, madness has gotten out of hand, angnorisis, evoke pity, vulnerability, dementia lens

“shake the super flux to them and show the heavens more just”

act 3 scene 4 - lear, punished by divine justice, pastoral escape

“he tears his clothes of”

act 3 scene 4 - lear, he’d rather be and animal than look after a court, clothes motif

“here’s another whose warped looks proclaim what store her heart is made on…corruption in the place!”

act 3 scene 6 - lear, judging Regan, duality of lear, now he is mad he can see more clearly, exclamative highlights corruption of court and of theatre goers

“anatomize Regan”

act 3 scene 6 - lear, so hateful towards Regan, desire to get rid of her, sinister nature,

“one side will mock the other”

act 3 scene 7 - Regan, talking about Glloucester’s eyes, highlights her monstrous nature

“go thrust him out the gates and let him smell his way to dover”

act 3 scene 7 - Regan, extent of cruelty, suffering shows loss of hope for Gloucester

“tigers not daughters what have you performed”

act 4 scene 1 - Albany, monstrous imagery, gender reversal

“most barbarous most degenerate..tame these vile offences”

act 4 scene 1 - Albany, superlatives, predatory imagery, violent nature

“in nothing I am changed but in my garments”

act 4 scene 6 - Edgar, deception, role of clothing in the hierarchy

“and dizzy tis to cast ones eyes so low!”

act 4 scene 5 - Edgar, dramatic irony, we are aligned with Gloucester, creating an image of hight

“thy lifes a mircale. speak yet again”

act 4 scene 6 - Edgar, christ like, mock suicde contrast to mock trial, creating hope

“think that the clearest gods, who make them honours”

act 4 scene 6 - Edgar, gods have saved Gloucester, poetic allusion

“I am the king myself”

act 4 scene 6 - lear, mad man contrast to king

“a dogs obeyed in office”

act 4 scene 6 - lear, picking apart societal structures

“great stage of fools”

act 4 scene 6 - lear, meta theatre, meaningless world, moment of wisdom as he see the world for what it is

“fresh garments”

act 4 scene 7 - doctor, ideas of restoration

“thy medicine on thine lips” “repair these violent harms”

act 4 scene 7 - Cordelia, semantic field of healing, restoration of king, Cordelia becoming more parent like, natural order, heightening tragedy

“me out the grave thou art a soul in bliss”

act 4 scene 7 - lear, image of resurrection, thinks he’s going to hell, Cordelia is in heaven

“I know not what to say”

act 4 scene 7 - lear, echoes “nothing” inciting incident, love in different form, creates emotion and sympathy, he is mad

“you have some they do not”

act 4 scene 7 - lear, second anagnorisis, recognising his wrongs,