King Lear

GENTLEMAN    Who is conductor of his people²³⁸?

KENT    As ’tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.

GENTLEMAN    They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of

Kent in Germany.

KENT    Report²⁴² is changeable. ’Tis time to look about: the

powers of the kingdom approach apace²⁴³.

GENTLEMAN    The arbitrament²⁴⁴ is like to be bloody. Fare you well,

sir.

KENT    My point and period will be throughly wrought²⁴⁶,

Or²⁴⁷ well or ill, as this day’s battle’s fought.

Exit

Following 5.1.13:

EDMUND    That thought abuses²⁴⁸ you.

REGAN    I am doubtful that you have been conjunct²⁴⁹

And bosomed with her, as far as we call hers²⁵⁰

Following 5.1.17:

GONERIL    I had rather lose the battle than that sister

Should loosen him and me.

Following 5.1.21:

Where I could not be honest²⁵³,

I never yet was valiant. For²⁵⁴ this business,

It touches us as²⁵⁵ France invades our land,

Not bolds the king, with²⁵⁶ others whom I fear,

Most just and heavy causes make oppose²⁵⁷.

EDMUND    Sir, you speak nobly.

Following 5.3.55:

At this time

We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;

And the best quarrels, in the heat, are cursed²⁶¹

By those that feel their sharpness:

The question of Cordelia and her father

Requires a fitter place.

Following 5.3.220:

EDGAR    This would have seemed a period²⁶⁵

To such as love not sorrow, but another,²⁶⁶

To amplify too much, would make much more,

And top extremity.

Whilst I was big in clamour²⁶⁹, came there in a man,

Who, having seen me in my worst estate²⁷⁰,

Shunned my abhorred society, but then finding

Who ’twas that so endured, with his strong arms

He fastened on my neck²⁷³ and bellowed out

As²⁷⁴ he’d burst heaven, threw me on my father,

Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him

That ever ear received, which in recounting

His grief grew puissant and the strings of life²⁷⁷

Began to crack: twice then the trumpets sounded,

And there I left him ’tranced²⁷⁹.

ALBANY    But who was this?

EDGAR    Kent, sir, the banished Kent, who in disguise

Followed his enemy king²⁸² and did him service

Improper for²⁸³ a slave.

TEXTUAL NOTES

Q = First Quarto text of 1608

Q2 = a correction introduced in the Second Quarto text of 1619

Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor

SH = Speech heading (i.e. speaker’s name)

1 SH EDMUND = Ed. Q = Bast. (throughout) 25 on’t = Q. Q2 = an’t ladies = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = lodes 34 basest and ’temnest = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = belest and contaned 67 Want’st = Q2. Q = wanst 69 bourn = Ed. Q = broome 91 she kicked = Ed. Q = kickt 95 joint-stool = Q2. Q = ioyne stoole 97 on = Ed. Q = an 125 madness = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = rogish madnes 131 Flibbertigibbet spelled Stiberdigebit in Q 131–32 mopping and mowing = Ed. Q = Mobing, & Mohing 151 Humanity = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = Humanly 157 threat spelled thereat in Q (corrected) state begins threat = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = slayer begin threats 166 mew = Q (corrected). Q (uncorrected) = now 178 Ay, sir, = Ed. Q = I say 184 strove = Ed. Q = streme

SCENE-BY-SCENE ANALYSIS

ACT 1 SCENE 1

Relationships between key characters are established. Several themes are introduced: power/authority, deception, nature, kinship, sanity, and sight.

Lines 1–33: Kent and Gloucester discuss Lear. Edmund is introduced. Gloucester insists that Edmund is as dear to him as his older, legitimate, son, Edgar, and claims that “the whoreson must be acknowledged.” The bawdy language used to describe Edmund’s conception undermines the good intentions behind this.

Lines 34–193: A trumpet flourish emphasizes the ceremonial, public nature of events from this point. Instructing Gloucester to fetch France and Burgundy, Lear reveals his “darker purpose”—to allocate a piece of kingdom to each of his three daughters, intending the “largest bounty” to whoever “doth love [him] most.” This reveals Lear’s inability to separate public and domestic and highlights his perception of emotions as subject to pecuniary measurement. Tensions exist between his love of power and his portrayal of himself as an old man who wishes to “Unburdened crawl toward death.”