King Lear Quotes Study Set - All Acts

"Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again." (1.1)

Lear

See better, Lear; and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye." (1.1)

Kent

"the base / Shall top the legitimate...gods, stand up for bastards!" (1.2)

Edmund

His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us On every trifle (1.3)

Goneril

The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, / That it's had it head bit off by it young. (1.4)

Fool

May not an ass know when the car draw the horse? (1.4)

Fool

"O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!" (1.5)

Lear

Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion./Of my more fierce endeavor. (2.1)

Edmund

O strange and fastened villain!/Would he deny his letter, said he?/I never got him. (2.1)

Gloucester

Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter! (2.2)

Kent

Fetch forth the stocks, ho!--/You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,/We'll teach you. (2.2)

Cornwall

Whiles I may 'scape,/I will preserve myself, and am bethought/To take the basest and most poorest shape/That ever penury in contempt of man/brought near to beast. (2.3)

Edgar

All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among twenty but can smell him that's stinking. (2.4)

Fool

What need you five and twenty, ten or five/To follow in a house where twice so many/Have a command to tend you? (2.4)

Gonereil

If it be you that stir these daughters hearts/Against their father, fool me not so much/ To bear it tamely. Touch me with noble anger./And let not women's weapons, water drops,/Stain my man's cheeks. (2.4)

Lear

If you shall see Cordelia,--...--show her this ring;/ And she will tell you who your fellow is/That yet you do not know. (3.1)

Kent

Marry, here's grave and a codpiece—that's a wise man and a fool. (3.2)

Fool

Close pent-up guilts,/Rive your concealing continents, and cry/These dreadful summoners grace. (3.2)

Lear

The younger rises when the old doth fall. (3.3)

Edmund

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?/ Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give them all? (3.4)

Lear

I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence./ Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;/ And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,/ Bench by his side: You are o' the commission,/Sit you too. (3.6)

Lear

When we our betters see bearing our woes,/ We scarcely think our miseries our foes./ who alone suffers suffers most i' the mind,/ Leaving free things and happy shows behind: (3.6)

Edgar

See't shalt thou never.—Fellows, hold the chair.—/Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot. (3.7)

Cornwall

There is a cliff, whose high and bending head/Looks fearfully in the confined deep: /Bring me but to the very brim of it,/And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear/ With something rich about me: from that place/I shall no leading need. (4.1)

Gloucester

You are not worth the dust which the rude wind/Blows in your face. I fear your disposition:/ That nature, which contemns its origin, Cannot be border'd certain in itself;/She that herself with sliver and disbranch/ From her material sap, perforce must wither/ And come to deadly use. (4.2)

Albany

It is thy business that I go about;/ Therefore great France/ My mourning and important tears hath pitied./ No blown ambition doth our arms incite,/But love, dear love, and our aged father's right: (4.4)

Cordelia

My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd;/ And more convenient is he for my hand/ Than for your lady's (4.5)

Regan

Give me your hand: you are now within a foot/ If the extreme verge: For all beneath the moon/Would I not leap upright. (4.6)

Edgar

When we are born, we cry that we are come/To this great stage of fools (4.6)

Lear

O my dear father! Restoration hang/ Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss/ Repair those violent harms that my two sisters/ Have in thy reverence made! (4.7)

Cordelia

Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:/ If you have poison for me, I will drink it./ I know you do not love me; for your sisters/ Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:/ You have some cause, they have not. (4.7)

Lear

Before you fight the battle, ope this letter./ If you have victory, let the trumpet sound/ For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem,/ I can produce a champion that will prove/ What is avouched there. (5.1)

Edgar

To both these sisters have I sworn my love;/ Each jealous of the other as the stung/ Are of the adder./ Which of them shall I take?/ Both? One? Or neither? Neither can be enjoyed/ If both remain alive. (5.1)

Edmund

For your claim, fair sister,/ I bar it in the interest of my wife./ 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord,/ And I her husband contradict your banns./ If you will marry, make your loves to me;/ My lady is bespoke. (5.3)

Albany

I asked his blessing, and from first to last/ Told him my pilgrimage. But his flawed heart—/ Alack, too weak the conflict to support—/'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,/ [his heart] Burst smilingly. (5.3)

Edgar

Howl, howl, howl, howl! Oh, you are men of stones./

Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so/

That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone forever. (5.3)

Lear

Never Never Never Never Never

Pray you, undo this button. Thank you, sir./ Do you see this? Look on her. Look, her lips./ Look there, look there. O, O, O, O. (5.3)

Lear

The weight of this sad time we must obey./ Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say./ The oldest hath borne most. We that are young / Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (5.3)

Edgar