King Lear Act 4 Quotes

‘Enter Gloucester, led by an old man’

Stage direction— Edgar hasn’t realised what has happened to Gloucester, and thinks he is being led by someone inappropriate. It is ironic however, because Gloucester was poorly led before (by Edmund) and was metaphorically blind, and now he is literally blind.

‘I stumbled when I saw’

Gloucester— this is similar to a moral awakening, as he has gained insight through suffering

‘Our means secure us and our mere defects Prove our commodities’

Gloucester— he is saying being wealthy secures us but sheer and pure defects help us change. A ‘commodity’ is something that benefits you.

‘O dear son Edgar, the food of thy abused father’s wrath’

Gloucester— he has recognised his error and the true reality of the situation— moral awakening and anagnorisis

‘The worst I may be yet; the worst is not So long as we can say ‘This is the worst’

Edgar— he recognises how humans can suffer

‘I’the last night’s storm I such a fellow saw, Which made me think man a worm’

Gloucester— links to how you could define humanity, and to ‘reason not the need’ (Act 2 Scene 2)

‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods', They kill us for their sport’

Gloucester— this is the beginning of the loss of faith in the ordered universe and the collapse of his previous outlook. He is saying it is fun for the gods to kill them, indicating a lack of divine justice present in this bleak moral universe. It is a big shift in Gloucester’s thinking

‘And bring some covering for this naked soul’

Gloucester— he has learned from his suffering and is trying to care for somebody else— moral journey

‘heaven’s plagues’

Gloucester— he is saying the heavens send down suffering

‘Heavens deal so still! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man’

Gloucester— he is saying that he should be punished as he is ‘superfluous’ and ‘lust-dieted’, implying that he has recognised this in himself (anagnorisis)

‘feel, feel’

Gloucester— ‘feel’ is repeated, as this is something that Gloucester relies on now more than ever because he is physically blinded

‘From that place I shall no leading need’

Gloucester— implication that he is planning to commit suicide, shock to the audience who will be engaged and waiting for the next scene. It is a significant thing because it leaves an ambiguous, unresolved and sinister ending to the Gloucester sub-plot.

‘my lord’

Goneril— referring to Edmund. She refers to him affectionately, almost like he is her husband, suggesting to the audience that she has committed adultery.

‘our mild husband’

Goneril— referring to Albany, shows that their marriage has broken down. This places Albany on the side of Lear et al, as he opposes Goneril.

‘I told him of the army that was landed; He smiled at it’

Oswald— this reinforces the audience’s support for Albany and the sense that he is a good character. Albany’s perception of things is entirely different from Oswald, R + G’s

‘A fool usurps my bed’

Goneril— possessive, tells us a lot about her attitude and the power dynamic in the relationship between her and Albany.

‘O Goneril, You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face’

Albany— saying how little he values Goneril, and that she has reached the limit of moral boundary

‘Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile’

Albany— he is saying she is vile, which reinforces the idea that she is a tragic villain

‘Could my good brother suffer you to do it’

Albany— he still thinks that Cornwall is a good person, creating dramatic irony as the audience has just seen him blind Gloucester.

‘If that the heavens do not their visible spirits send quickly down to tame these vile offences’

Albany— he still believes in divine justice, and that Regan and Goneril will be punished (even though Gloucester has just lost faith in it)

‘Milk-livered man’

Goneril— feminine, weak, pure— she is basically calling him a coward.

‘Where’s thy drum? France spreads his banners in our noiseless land’

Goneril— saying Albany is weak and a coward, and is not preparing his troops for war

‘Thou changed and self-covered thing’

Albany—he is saying that Goneril has made herself evil, again linking to the idea of her and Regan as villains and of Cordelia as innocent and good. At this point any pity the audience has felt for Goneril has disappeared.

‘the Duke of Cornwall’s dead’

Messenger— they have a dramatic entrance and ironically focus on Cornwall rather than the blinding of Gloucester.

‘But, being a widow, and my Gloucester with her’

Goneril— she is worried about Edmund and Regan being together, which starts to show the divide growing between the sisters

‘Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back’

Kent— this scene is essentially a plot update, as it informs of major developments. The fact that France is not there is significant because Cordelia is leading an army against her sisters, making it much more confrontational and personal.

‘Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?’

Kent— there is a large implied comparison between Regan and Goneril, who don’t show any grief about anything.

‘an ample tear trickled down her delicate cheek’

Gentleman— Cordelia is described using explicitly Christian language, and also in a very feminine way.

‘she was queen over her passion’, ‘not to a rage’

Gentleman— Cordelia is described as having mastered her grief, and not being rageful (unlike Regan and Goneril)

‘patience and sorrow’

Gentleman— describing Cordelia as having very Chrisitan attributes

‘pearls from diamonds dropped’

Gentleman— this phrase describes Cordelia’s beauty and her emotional control

‘There she shook the holy water from her heavenly eyes’

Gentleman— explicit comparison of Cordelia to the Virgin Mary

‘A sovereign shame so elbows him’

Kent— Lear is in Dover but won’t see Cordelia because he is ashamed of what he has done— we have reached the end of the tragic arc because Lear realises what he has done wrong.

‘Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds’

Cordelia— there is a parallel between this and 1.1, as Lear sees himself as beneath his past self because of the mistakes he has made. The weeds may suggest the rejection of civilisation and the disorder, and also links to the idea of the ‘superflux’ and having lots of excess things (which the crown and being king symbolise)

‘A century send forth’

Cordelia— these are healing plants, associating her with hospitality and warmth.

‘Be aidant and remediate’

Cordelia— again the idea that she is healing, and is a good character.

‘The British powers are marching hitherward’

Messenger— plot update and gives a sense of the impending conflict and the climax of the tragedy.

‘your sister is the better soldier’

Oswald— he means Goneril is the better soldier than Albany, but also reminds the audience of Cordelia

‘What might import my sister’s letter to him?’

Regan— she is suspicious of Goneril and the letter Oswald is carrying, further emphasising the new divide between them and foreshadowing the future conflict.

‘It was great ignorance, Gloucester’s eyes being out, to let him live’

Regan— saying they should have killed Gloucester, as now he ‘moves all hearts against us’— saying that it is not good for their public image because of what they did to him. This demonstrates Regan’s sadism.

‘My lady charged my duty in this business’

Oswald— he is following orders, which links to the idea of service and Oswald’s obedience, no matter what Goneril asks him to do

‘If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, preferment falls on him that cuts him off’

Regan— Oswald wants to kill Gloucester now, because he believes he will be rewarded (Edgar will defend Gloucester however)

‘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

‘Be better suited’

Cordelia— she is saying to Kent that he should put on some better clothes and restore his identity, but Kent wants to remain in disguise— ‘Yet to be known shortens my made intent’

‘cure this great breach in his abused nature’

Cordelia— using healing language still, idea of her being there to restore Lear to his rightful position (‘cure’ him)

‘child-changed father’

Cordelia— there is pity for Lear, as he has suffered at the hands of his daughters

‘restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips’ ‘repair those violent harms my two sisters in this reverence made’

Cordelia— more healing language, idea of the cruelty of Regan and Goneril in contrast to the kindness of Cordelia

‘how fares your majesty?’

Cordelia— restoration of kingly identity and natural order. However, Lear is not interested in being king, and only cares that Cordelia forgives him

‘Thou art a soul of bliss’

Lear— Christian imagery. Lear sees himself as being punished in a classical hell— ‘I am bound Upon a wheel of fire’, ‘scold like molten lead’

‘Cordelia kneels’

Stage direction— parent child bond is restored, as well as natural order. Lear attempts to kneel to Cordelia, and this echoes him sarcastically kneeling to Regan in 2.2.343, however the fact that it is now genuine demonstrates Lear’s anagnorisis.

‘I am a very foolish fond old man’

Lear— self knowledge and acceptance— he has clear sight and his perception of reality has been restored from being previously blinded by rage and suffering

‘I am a man, and I believe this lady to be my daughter Cordelia’

Lear— this is a recognition, and clear sight

‘the great rage you see in him is killed’

Gentleman— describing Lear’s madness and tragic rage as almost like an affliction, which has now been cured