Key Quotes
Lear
family/women
‘there’s hell, there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous pit’ 4.6
‘her voice was ever soft, gentle and low - an excellent thing in a women’ 5.3
‘how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!’
‘our son of Cornwall and our no less loving son of Albany’ 1.1 41-42
‘no, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenge’ 2.4 272-273
‘into her womb convey sterility’ (to Gonerill) 1.4 275
‘let not women’s weapons, water drops, stain my man’s cheeks’ 2.4 305
‘O, how this mother swells up towards my heart! Hysterica passio’ 2.4 54-55
‘I loved her most, and thought to set my rest on her kind nursery’ 1.1
power, kingship and authority
‘know that we have divided in three our kingdom’ 1.1
‘thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away’ 1.4
‘I am even the natural fool of fortune’ 4.6 191-192
‘No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the king himself’ 4.6 84
‘O ruined piece of nature!’ (said by Gloucester) 4.6 135
‘old fools are babes again’ 1.3 20
‘off, off you lendings! he tears off his clothes’ 3.4 105
‘let me wipe it first; it smells of morality’ 4.6 134
‘crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds’ (Cordelia explains to doctor) 4.4 2
‘come not between the dragon and his wrath’ 1.1
tragedy features and suffering
‘never, never, never, never, never’ 5.3 106
‘expose thyself to feel what wretches feel’ 3.4 34
‘no, no, no, life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, and thou no breath at all?’ (about the value of Cordelia’s life) 5.3
‘here I stand your slave, a poor, infirm, weak and despised old man’ 3.2 20-21
‘a plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!’ (because of Cordelia’s death) 5.3 267
‘the tempest in my mind’ 3.4
‘I fear I am not in my perfect mind’ 4.7 63
‘O, how this mother wells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow!’ - Lear 2.4 54
‘Howl, howl, howl!’ 5.3 255
‘but this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws or ere I’ll weep. O Fool, I shall go mad!’ 2.4 279-281
‘when we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools’ 4.6 183-184
‘I did her wrong’ 5.3
‘I am a man more sinned against than sinning’ 3.2 59-60
nature and order
‘the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage catch in their fury and make nothing of strives in his little world of man to out storm’ 3.1 7-10
‘man’s nature cannot carry th’ affliction nor the fear’ 3.2 48-49
‘blow! winds! and crack your cheeks!’ 3.2
‘I am even the natural fool of fortune’ 4.6 191-192
‘strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world, crack Nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once’ 3.2 7-9
‘poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm’ 3.4
‘contending with the fretful elements: bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, or swell the curlèd waters ‘bove the main’ 3.1 4-6
justice and society
‘O heavens, if you do love old men… send down and take my part’ 2.4
‘let them anatomise Regan, see what breeds about her heart’ 3.6 75-76
‘make it your cause. Send down, and take my part’ 2.4
‘I will arraign them straight’ (about Regan and Gonerill) 3.6 20
‘expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, that thou mayst shake the superflux to them and show the heavens more just’ 3.4 34-36
‘is man no more than this?’ 3.4 99-100
sight and blindness
‘Old fond eyes, Between this cause again, I’l pluck thee out, And cats you with the waters that you lose to temper clay’- 1.4 297
‘This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his eyes?’ 1.4 222-223
clothing and disguise
‘let me wipe it first, it smells of mortality’ 4.6
‘off, off you lendings! he tears off his clothes’ 3.4 105
‘robes and furred gowns hide all’ (Lear to Gloucester) 4.6 165
nothing
‘nothing will come of nothing’ (to Cordelia) 1.1
‘O, thou’lt come no more, never, never, never, never, never’ (about Cordelia’s death) 5.3
‘unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art’ 3.4 104
‘no, no, no life!’ 5.3 303
‘no, I will be the pattern of all patience. I will say nothing’ 3.2 37-38
‘nothing can be made out of nothing’ 1.4 131
‘does any here know me? This is not Lear’ 1.4
the gods
‘you see me here, you gods, a poor old man, as full of grief as age; wretched in both’ 2.4
‘is there any cause in nature that make these hard hearts?’ 3.6
‘when we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools’ 4.6 177
disease and sickness
‘thou art a boil, a plague-sore, or embossed carbuncle, in my corrupted blood’ (about Gonerill) 2.4 218-220
‘Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow!’ 2.4 54
‘into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase’ (to Gonerill) 1.4 75-76
‘from her derogate body never spring a babe to honour her; 1.4
‘O, let me not be made, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!’ 1.5
‘I fear I am not in my perfect mind’ 4.7 63
‘A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! 5.3 267
‘this tempest in my mind doth from my senses take all feeling else’ 3.4
‘infirmity doth still neglect all office whereto our health is bound’ 2.4 101-102
language
‘which of you shall we say doth love us most?’ 1.1 51
‘I will do such things - what they are yet I know not; but they shall be the terrors of the earth’ 2.4
‘then let them anatomize Regan, see what breeds about her heart’ 3.6 75-76
‘Ay, every inch a king’ 4.6
‘what is ‘t thou sayst? - Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman’ (about Cordelia) 5.3
imagery of animals and monsters
‘why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life?’ (about Cordelia’s death)
‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!’ (about Gonerill) 1.4 285-286
‘detested kite!’ (about Gonerill) 1.4
‘come not between the dragon and his wrath’ 1.1 121
‘mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim hound or spaniel, brach or lym, or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail Tom will make him weep and wail’ 3.6 67-70
‘judicious punishment! ‘Twas this flesh begot those pelican daughters’ 3.4 71
‘a dog’s obeyed in office’ 4.6 159-160
‘thou marble-hearted fiend’ 1.4
‘unaccmommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art’ 3.4 103-104
Cordelia
family/women
‘Our preparations stands in expectations of them. O dear father, it is thy business I go about’ 4.4 23-26
‘let this kiss repair those violent harms’ 4.7
‘I am sure my love’s more ponderous than my tongue’ 1.1 77-78
‘unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth’ 1.1
‘an ample tear trilled down her delicate cheek'‘ 5.3 12
justice and society
‘no blown ambition doth our arms incite’ 4.4 28
nothing
‘nothing, my lord’ 1.1
disease and sickness
‘(kissing his hand) O my dear father! Restoration hang thy medicine on my lips’ 4.7 26
language
‘if for i want that glib and oily art to speak and purpose not’ (about her sister’s superficial words) 1.1 224-225
‘i cannot heave my heart into my mouth’
‘what shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent’ 1.1 62
Gonerill
family/women
‘I must change arms at home and give the distaff into my husband’s hands’ (about Albany) 4.2
‘how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!’
‘what have you done, tigers not daughers, what have you performed?’ (from Albany) 4.2 40
power, kingship and authority
‘old fools are babes again’ 1.3 20
nature and order
‘thou changed and self-covered thing, for shame be-monster not thy feature’ (from Albany) 4.2 62-63
justice and society
‘the laws are mine, not thine. Who can arraign me for’t?’ 5.3 157-158
language
‘sir, i love you more than word can wield the matter dearer than eyesight, space and liberty’ 1.1 55-56
Regan
family/women
‘what have you done, tigers not daughers, what have you performed?’ (from Albany) 4.2 40
‘the most precious of sense possesses’ 1.1 74
power, kingship and authority
‘our power shall do a curtsey to our wrath’ 3.7 25-6
nature and order
‘O sir! You are old; nature in you stands on the very verge of her confine’ (about Lear) 2.4
sight and blindness
‘yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself’ (about Lear) 1.1
Edgar
power, kingship and authority
‘the weight of this sad time we must obey’
tragedy features and suffering
‘the worst is not so long as we can say ‘this is the worst’’ 4.1
‘my tears begin to take his part so much they mar my counterfeiting’ (about Lear) 3.6 59-60
‘how light and portable my pain seems now, when that which makes me bend makes the King bow’ 3.6 106-107
nature and order
‘the wind and persecutions of the sky’ 2.3 12
‘and by the happy hollow of a tree, escaped the hunt’ (about the bounty Gloucester put on him) 2.3 2-3
justice and society
‘He’s dead. I am only sorry he had no other death man.’ (about Oswald)
‘most learned justice’ (said by Lear) 3.6 21
clothing and disguise
‘The country gives me proof and precedent of Bedlam beggars, who with roaring voices strike in their numbed and mortified bare arms’ 2.3
‘I will preserve myself; and am bethought to take the basest and most poorest shape’ 2.3 6-7
‘my face I’ll grim with filth, blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots and with presented nakedness’ 2.3 9
‘I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund… My name is Edgar’ 5.3 165-167
nothing
‘Edgar I nothing am’ 2.3 20
‘take the basest and most poorest shape’ 1.3 7
the gods
‘the gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us’ 5.3 168-169
disease and sickness
‘who gives anything to Poor Tom, whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlipool e’er bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow', and halters in his pew’ 3.4
language
‘come on sir; here’s the place. Stand still! How fearful and dizzy’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!’ (to Gloucester) 4.6 11-12
‘Tom’s a-cold. Odo de do de do de’ 3.4 55
imagery of animals and monsters
‘I will preserve myself, … that ever penury in contempt of man brought near to beast’ 2.3
‘the prince of darkness is a gentleman’ 3.4
Edmund
family/women
‘the dark and vicious place where thee he got’ (about his mother) 5.3 170
power, kingship and authority
‘the wheel is come full circle; I am’ 5.3
nature and order
‘Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land’ 1.2
‘Nature art my goddess’ 1.2 1
‘in the lusty stealth of nature… a dull, stale tired bed’ 1.2 11
‘I may be censure that nature thus gives way to loyalty’ (to Cornwall about his betrayal of Gloucester and Edgar) 3.5 2-3
justice and society
‘why brand they us with base? with baseness? bastardy? base? base?’ 1.2 15
‘when my dimensions are as well-compact, my mind as generous and my shape as true’ 1.2 7
the gods
‘thou Nature art my goddess’ 1.2 12
‘we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, the stars, as if we were villains on necessity’
‘now gods stand up for bastards!’ 1.2 22
disease and sickness
‘wherefore should I stand in the plague of custom?’ 1.2 2-3
‘my sickness grows upon me’ 5.3
language
‘it is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents’ (to Gloucester about Edgar) 1.2 68-69
Kent
power, kingship and authority
‘all’s cheerless, dark and deadly’ 5.3
sight and blindness
‘See better, Lear, and let me still remain the true blank of thine eye’ 1.1 158-159
clothing and disguise
‘my good intent may carry through itself to that full issue for which I razed my likeness’ 1.4 2-4
‘be better suited. These weeds are memories of those worser hours’ 4.7 5-6
‘off, off you lendings!’ 3.4 105
‘plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justic hurtless breaks’
‘No, my good lord; I am the very man’ 5.3 284
‘If but as well I other accents borrow that can my speech diffuse my good intent may carry through itself to that full issues’ 1.4 1-3
nothing
‘All’s cheerless, dark and deadly’ 5.3 288
‘nothing almost sees miracles but misery’ 2.2
the gods
‘the gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid’ 1.1 183
Gloucester
power, kingship and authority
‘O ruined piece of nature!’ (about Lear) 4.6 135
nature and order
‘O ruined piece of nature!’ (about Lear) 4.6 135
justice and society
‘as flies to wanton boys we are to the gods; they kill us for their sport’ 4.1 36-37
‘I have so often blushed than to acknowledge him’ (about Edmund) 1.1 9
sight and blindness
‘all dark and comfortless’ 3.7 84
‘tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind’ 4.1 48
‘thou hast no eyes; I stumbled when I saw’ 4.1
‘Come! If it be nothing I shall not need spectacles’ 1.2 35-36
‘these late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us’ 1.2 103
‘I see it feelingly’ (to Lear) 4.6 150
‘I have no way and therefore want no eyes’ 4.1
the gods
‘as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport’ 4.1 36-37
‘these late eclipses of the sun and moon portend no good’ 1.2
‘you ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me’ 4.6 216
‘give some helpd! - O cruel! O you gods!’ 3.7 69
‘kind gods, forgive me that and prosper him’ 3.7 90-91
‘O you mighty gods!’ 4.6 36
disease and sickness
‘tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind’ 4.1 48
imagery of animals and monsters
‘as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport’ 4.1 36-37
Albany
family/women
‘what have you done, tigers not daughers, what have you performed?’ (to Goneril and Regan) 4.2 40
‘I must change arms at home and give the distaff into my husband’s hands’ (about Albany from Gonerill) 4.2
nature and order
‘thou changed and self-covered thing, for shame be-monster not thy feature’ (about Gonerill) 4.2 62-63
justice and society
‘all friends shall taste the wages of their virtues, and all foes the cup of their deservings’ 5.3 300-302
sight and blindness
‘he knows not what he sees and vain is it that we present us to him’ (about Lear) 5.3 192
clothing and disguise
‘thou changed you and self-sovered thing, for shame be-monster not thy feature’ 4.2 63-64
the gods
‘the gods defend her!’ 5.3
imagery of animals and monsters
‘tigers not daughters’ (about Gonerill and Regan)
Cornwall
family/women
‘yet our power, shall do a curtsy to our wrath which men may blame but not control’ 3.7 26-28
Fool
power, kingship and authority
‘thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou gavest thy golden one away’ 1.4
‘let me hire him too. Here’s my coxcomb’ (criticising Kent)
‘so out went the candle and we were left darkling’ 1.4 213
nothing
‘can you make no use of nothing nuncle’ (to Lear) 1.4
‘now thou art an 0 without a figure. I am better than thou art now; I am a fool; thou art nothing’ 1.4 188-189
imagery of animals and monsters
‘truth’s a dog must to kennel’ 1.4 110