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Title: King Lear Revision Notes
Description: Colour coded, includes quotations selected from each act and scene. All quotes have in depth analysis (including contextual analysis). Each scene has an in depth summary- with even the minor details!
Description: Colour coded, includes quotations selected from each act and scene. All quotes have in depth analysis (including contextual analysis). Each scene has an in depth summary- with even the minor details!
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Scene Summary
Quotes
Analysis
Act 1 Scene 1:
Gloucester:
“I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I/
am brazed to’t
...
”
Edmund= disgrace he has to make people aware ofhence he is introducing him to Kent
Lear:
“To shake all cares and businesses from our age,/
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we/
Unburdened crawl toward death
...
”
Cordelia:
“What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent
...
”
Lear:
“…what can you say to draw/ A third more opulent than
your sisters?”
Cordelia is designated to a more richer portion of
land- obvious favouritism
Cordelia:
“Nothing, my lord
...
Speak again
...
I love your
majesty/ According to my bond, no more nor less
...
Opposite of biblical notion that God created the world
out of nothing
...
”
“Sure I shall never marry like my sisters/ To love my father
all
...
”
Lear:
“…Thy truth then be thy dower”
“Here I disclaim all my paternal care”
“And as a stranger to my heart and me/ Hold thee from
this for ever
...
”
“this”> is Lear pointing to the map, coronet or his
heart?
wrath> Cordelia is the object of his anger
Plainness> simple expression of love, sees it as pride
Kent:
“Whom I have ever honoured as my king,/ Loved as my
father, as my master followed”
Act 5 Scene 3: “My master calls me”- emphasis on
Kent’s loyalty
Lear:
“The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft
...
”
“kill thy physician/ Or whilst I can vent clamour from my
throat/ I’ll tell thee thou dost evil
...
”
“He’ll shape his old course in a country new
...
”
“…with those infirmities she owes,/ Unfriended, new
adopted to our hate,/ Dowered with our curse and
strangers with our oath”
• Lear initiates a love test, whoever loves him most gets
the largest portion of the kingdom
• Goneril and Regan get equal portions of the kingdom
• Cordelia fails to express her love to Lear’s standards
and so gets nothing
• Kent gets banished
• Burgundy rejects Cordelia due to no dowry
• France takes Cordelia, Lear exits
• Cordelia leaves with France
• Goneril claims Lear is going senile, Regan agrees
Analysis
France:
“The best, the dearest…/Commit a thing so monstrous, to
dismantle/ So many folds of favour
...
”
France:
“Is it no more but this?- a tardiness in nature”
“She is herself a dowry
...
”
Cordelia:
“I know you what you are,/ And like a sister am most loath
to call/ Your faults as they are named
...
”
“better place” i
...
better position (she is the one who
restores him to the throne)
Goneril:
“Be to content your lord, who hath received you/ At
fortune’s alms”
“well are worth the want that you have wanted
...
”
Page 3 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Analysis
Act 1 Scene 1:
Goneril:
“He always loved our sister most, and with what poor/
judgement he hath now cast her off appears too grossly
...
”
Goneril:
“Pray you let us hit/ together
...
”
Page 4 of 35
Nosce teipsum “know thyself”- poem on the human
condition by Sir John Davies- can people with
qualities an angel and beast conduct their life well?
Leave together- dramatic effect
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 1 Scene 2:
Edmund:
“Why brand they us/ With base? With baseness, bastardy? Soliloquy: thoughts feelings aloud, for audience to
Base, base?”
hear
“Edmund the base/ Shall top the legitimate
...
”
“I shall not need spectacles
...
”
“To his father, that so tenderly and entirely/ loves him
...
”
“Love cools, friendship/ falls off, brothers divide”
“The King falls from bias of nature”
“Machinations, hollowness, treachery and all ruinous/
disorders follow us disquietly to our graves
...
/ My
cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom
o’Bedlam
...
”
Edmund:
“Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit”
Page 5 of 35
If the letter says nothing, it can be seen
...
excessive amount
Tom o’Bedlam: beggar from Bethelehem insane
hospital, walked bare legged and bare armed, callng
themselves Poor Tom
...
”
“If he distaste it, let him to my sister,/ Whose mind and
mine I know in that are one”
“Old fools are babes again and must be used/ With checks
as flatteries, when they are seen abused
...
”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kent enters disguised
Lear enters with 4 knights
Lear sends knights to get him dinner
Kent gains Lear’s trust
Knight returns to inform Lear of the negligence he is
receiving and that his daughter is unwell
Lear tells knight to call fool
Oswald enters
Oswald is ignorant and Kent beats Oswald
Lear gives Kent money
Fool enters and explains Lear’s foolishness
(comedically)
Goneril enters and shouts at Lear for the commotion
caused by him and his knights
Goneril asks Lear to get rid of some knights
Lear is offended and remembers he has Regan to go to
Albany enters
Albany tries to understand the situation but is silenced
Lear leaves with the fool to Regan’s house
Goneril orders Oswald to tell Regan of what happened
and exaggerate it
Analysis
Lear:
“I have perceived a most faint neglect of/ late, which I have
rather blamed as mine own jealous/ curiosity than as a
very pretence and purpose of/ unkindness
...
”
Fool:
“You were best take my coxcomb
...
”
“Have more than thou showest,/ Speak less than thou
knowest… And thou shalt have more
...
”
Fool:
“For wise men are grown foppish
...
”
“I had rather be any kind o’thing/ than a fool, and yet I
would not be thee”
“I am better than thou art now
...
”
“Lear’s shadow”
Goneril:
“As you are old and reverend, should be wise
...
”
Albany:
“I am guiltless as I am ignorant/ Of what hath moved you”
Page 7 of 35
[to Kent] Take my fools hat
...
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 1 Scene 4:
Lear:
“Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend/ To make this
creature fruitful
...
”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kent enters disguised
Lear enters with 4 knights
Lear sends knights to get him dinner
Kent gains Lear’s trust
Knight returns to inform Lear of the negligence he is
receiving and that his daughter is unwell
Lear tells knight to call fool
Oswald enters
Oswald is ignorant and Kent beats Oswald
Lear gives Kent money
Fool enters and explains Lear’s foolishness
(comedically)
Goneril enters and shouts at Lear for the commotion
caused by him and his knights
Goneril asks Lear to get rid of some knights
Lear is offended and remembers he has Regan to go to
Albany enters
Albany tries to understand the situation but is silenced
Lear leaves with the fool to Regan’s house
Goneril orders Oswald to tell Regan of what happened
and exaggerate it
Analysis
Albany:
“I cannot be so partial, Goneril
...
”
“milky gentleness”
Page 8 of 35
Partial i
...
biased
to Albany
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 1 Scene 5:
Lear:
“I will forget my nature: So kind a father!”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lear, Kent and the Fool enter
Lear gives letters to Kent to be delivered to Gloucester
Lear asks Kent to answer any of Regan’s questions
Kent leaves
Fool makes banter and foreboads what Regan will do
Gentleman enters with the horses ready
Characters leave
Analysis
Fool:
“Thou wouldst make a good fool”
“If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten/ for
being old before thy time
...
/ Keep me in temper, I would not be mad
...
”
Persuading the moon to be in his favour
Gloucester:
“O strange and fastened villain”
“Loyal and natural boy, I’ll work the means/ To make thee
capable
...
”
Kent:
“A good man’s fortune may grow out at heel’s”
“Nothing almost sees miracles/ but misery”
“Fortune, good night: smile once more; turn thy wheel
...
”
• Edgar has a soliloquy showing the formation of his new
identity: Poor Tom
Analysis
Page 12 of 35
Saves himself as he is a target everywhere
Closest thing to a beast
Scene Summary
Quotes
Analysis
Act 2 Scene 4:
Lear:
“They could not, would not do’t- ’tis worse than/ murder”
Denial Cornwall and Regan put Kent in stocks
Lear, Fool and a knight enter
Kent wakes up and greets Lear
Kent tells Lear Cornwall and Regan put him in the stocks
Lear denies this (in denial)
Lear gets emotional
The fool reveals some knights have left Lear
Gloucester enters and explains Cornwall’s temper
Lear feels his authority begin to be challenged
Lear assumes perhaps Cornwall is unwell
Lear seeing Kent reminds him this is intentional
Lear is intent on seeing Cornwall and Regan
Gloucester exits with Lear’s wishes
Lear grieves
Gloucester returns with Cornwall, Regan and servants
Lear tells Regan of Goneril’s unkindness
Regan requests Lear to return to Goneril
Oswald enters followed by Goneril
Regan takes Goneril by the hand
Regan asks Lear to dismiss half of his army and return
to Goneril
• Lear declines this offer but compromises to stay with
Regan
• Regan declines this offer and insists Lear to listen
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kent:
“Whose poison I perceived had poisoned mine”
Fool:
“Fathers that wear rags/ Do make their children blind,/ But
fathers that bear bags/ Shall see their children kind”
Lear:
“O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!/ Hysterica
passio, down, thou climbing sorrow”
“Vengeance, plague, death, confusion!”
“We are not ourselves/ When nature, being oppressed,
commands the mind/ To suffer with the body
...
”
“O me, my heart! My rising heart! But down!”
“If thou shouldst not be glad,/ I would divorce me from thy
mother’s tomb,/ Sepulchring an adulteress
...
/ [Lays his
hand on his heart]”
Regan:
“O, sir, you are old:/ Nature in you stands on the very
verge/ Of her confine
...
”
“Thy tender-hafted nature shall not give/ Thee o’er to
harshness
...
”
“Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?”
“Rather I abjure all roofs and choose/ To wage against the
enmity o’th’ air-/ To be comrade with the wolf and owl-“
“daughter, do not make me mad”
“thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter,/ Or rather a
disease that’s in my flesh”
Page 13 of 35
Ironic, Oswald (sent by Goneril) soured Kent’s
welcome
Dramatic device: often delivered as a song
Passio hysterica- womanly disease, suffocating of
mother (to do with womb)- Mother part of Lear
State as an old man and as a king
Would suppose if Regan was not glad, she was not his
daughter and so his wife an adulteress
About Goneril
Verge of her limit, nature is no longer containedescaping
To Goneril, sign of wiseness
I would rather not have a roof, wonder in open poverty
and friend a wolf and owl
...
”
Goneril:
“’Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest/ And must
needs taste his folly
...
Gloucester:
“The King is in high rage
...
”
Regan:
“wisdom bids fear”
Lear’s attendants may wrongly influence Lear
Page 14 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 3 Scene 1:
Gentleman:
“Tears his white hair”
“unbonneted he runs”
“fool, who labors to outjest/ His heart-struck injuries”
• Storm continuing with Kent and Gentleman entering from
different directions
• Kent talks to a Gentleman who has information on Lear
• Gentleman informs Lear is with Fool in storm
• First insight into Lear’s madness via his actions
• Kent reveals the feud between Albany and Cornwall
• Servants who are actually French spies are present
• French troops ready to declare war
• Kent reveals his identity- nobleman
• Kent gives Gentleman money and a ring to give to
Cordelia at Dover
• Kent tells Gentleman to give a shout when Lear is seen
• They leave in different directions
Analysis
Kent:
“unnatural and bemadding sorrow”
Page 15 of 35
Maddening: making insane, the whole situation
Scene Summary
Quotes
Analysis
Act 3 Scene 2:
Lear:
“Singe my white head!”
“Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once/ That
make ungrateful man!”
Singe= burn
Mold= reproductive systems, spill all seeds that make
ungrateful men
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Storm still ongoing, Lear and Fool enter
Fool asks Lear to apologise to his daughters
Lear continues to chant in insanity
Kent enters and warns Lear about the storm
Lear acts in control of the storm
Lear claims the storm is a punishment for sinner, then
says he is more sinned against than he has sinned
Lear claims he is cold and thus wants to go to the hut
Lear and Kent leave
Fool sings about an unnatural world
Fool exits
Fool:
“Here’s a night pities neither wise man nor fool
...
”
combination of elements- cancel out to restore peace
Surrendering to nature
Kent:
“Things that love night/ Love not such nights as these
...
”
The night is too terrifying for man to bear
Lear:
“I am a man/ More sinned against than sinning
...
”
“vile things precious”
Beginning to lose sense
Strange how human nature can make
Fool:
“This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before/ his
time”
King Lear set before Merlin at the court of King Arthur
so Fool before his time
Page 16 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 3 Scene 3:
Gloucester:
“I like not this unnatural dealing”
• Gloucester and Edmund enter with lights
• Gloucester expresses his dislike with Cornwall and
Regan taking his house away from him for taking pity on
Lear
• Edmund agrees
• Gloucester talks of a letter locked up
• Letter contains details about French troops
• Gloucester tells Edmund to talk to Cornwall so he won’t
notice Gloucester has gone to help Lear
• Gloucester exits
• Edmund reveals he will tell Cornwall Gloucester is going
to help Lear and about the letter
• Edmund exits
Analysis
Edmund:
“Most savage and unnatural
...
”
Edmund:
“The younger rises when the old doth fall
...
”
Lear:
“where the greater malady is fixed,/ The lesser is scarce
felt”
“O, that way madness lies”
“O, I have ta’en/ Too little care of this
...
”
Edgar’s company is of a high rank
Gloucester:
“Our flesh and blood is grown so vile/ That it doth hate
what gets it
...
”
Page 18 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 3 Scene 4:
Gloucester:
“I am almost mad myself
...
”
• Kent and Gloucester enter
• Gloucester says it is better here (probably his house)
than outside, Kent thanks him
• Gloucester leaves temporarily
• Lear sets up a mock trial
• Fool is a judge
• Kent is a judge
• They talk abstractly
• Kent and Edgar are deeply depressed by what they see
• Lear falls asleep
• Gloucester returns with the plan to take Lear to Dover
• Reveals people are planning to kill Lear
• Everyone exits (Gloucester, Fool, Kent carrying Lear)
• Edgar remains on stage to give a soliloquy
• Edgar exits
Analysis
Lear:
“To have a thousand with red burning spits/ Come hissing
in upon ‘em!”
“I will arraign them straight
...
”
I feel so sorry for him that my tears are ruining my
disguise
Lear:
“let them anatomise Regan: see what breeds about/ her
heart
...
e
...
This
punishment given to men who rape
Cornwall:
“Leave him to my displeasure”
“Bind fast his corky arms”
[Regan plucks his beard]
“cunning”
Corky= withered, dry
Gloucester:
“I would not see thy cruel nails/ Pluck out his poor old
eyes”
“I shall see/ The winged vengeance overtake such
children”
“O cruel! O you gods!”
I’ll see god punish you bad children
Regan:
“One side will mock another”
[She takes a sword and runs at him behind
...
]
Cornwall:
“Out, vile jelly”
Gloucester:
“Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature/ To quit this
horrid act”
“O my follies!”
enkindle: set alight
Regan:
“let him smell/ His way to Dover”
Servant:
“Women will all turn monsters”
Page 22 of 35
If she lives happily, then all women will turn to
monsters
Scene Summary
Quotes
Analysis
Act 4 Scene 1:
Edgar:
“Life would not yield to age”
Life does not supply age- thus bad treatment
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Edgar enters (as Tom
His disguise is better than being Edgar
He notices Gloucester led by a peasant
Gloucester dismisses the old man
Gloucester repents the mistakes he made in regards to
Edgar
The old man tells Gloucester crazy Tom is here
Gloucester tells the old man to get clothes for the naked
crazy beggar
Gloucester states Crazy Tom shall be his guide
The old man exits
Edgar is deeply upset but must carry on the role
Gloucester asks Edgar if he knows the way to Dover
Gloucester gives Edgar a purse for money and asks him
to guide him to a cliff near Dover and states he won’t
need guidance once he gets there
Edgar takes Gloucester’s arm and guides him
They exit
Gloucester:
“I have no way, and therefore want no eyes:/ I stumbled
when I saw
...
”
Edgar:
aside “I am worse than e’er I was”
“And worse I may be yet; the worst is not/ So long as we
can say ‘This is the worst’”
Gloucester:
“As flies to wonton boys are we to the gods,/ They kill us
for their sport
...
”
“From that place/ I shall no leading need
...
Ironic, given his wish
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 4 Scene 2:
Goneril:
“mild husband”
• Goneril, Edmund followed by Oswald enter
• Oswald informs Goneril that Albany simply smiled when
told the French army landed and delighted by the bad
news, disgusted by the good news
• Goneril dismisses Albany and tells Edmund she will take
charge in her household
• She tells Edmund he can exchange messages to her via
Oswald
• Goneril tells Edmund to return to Cornwall to order the
troops
• She kisses Edmund
• Edmund declares he is Goneril’s
• Edmund leaves and Goneril is floored
• Oswald exits
• Albany enters
• Goneril questions if Albany finally sees her, he refuses to
commend her claiming she is not worthy as she
deceived her own blood
• Albany targets Regan and Goneril, then all the corrupted
characters
• Goneril challenges Albany’s manhood and claims he is
supporting criminals
• Albany wishes he could kill her
• Messenger enters with news that Cornwall is dead (by
servant who wounded him)
• Albany finds out about Gloucester and is thankful
Cornwall died
• Messenger gives Goneril a letter
• Goneril in aside realises Edmund and Regan are
travelling together- with her now a widow, she could get
Edmund
• Goneril exits
• Albany asks where Edmund was when Gloucester was
attacked
• Messenger tells Albany of the incidents he missed
(Edmund snitching on his father), they exit
Analysis
Oswald:
“What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him”
Goneril:
“cowish terror of his spirit”
“A mistress’s command
...
[She places a chain
about his neck]”
Edmund:
“Yours in the ranks of death”
Goneril:
“A fool usurps my bed
...
”
“A woman’s shape doth shield thee
...
”
Page 24 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 4 Scene 3:
Gentleman:
“she was a queen/ Over her passion”
“The holy water from her heavenly eyes”
• Kent enters with a Gentleman
• Kent reveals the King of France returned home
• Gentleman reveals when Cordelia read the letters, she
cried
• Discussion about her purity and virtues
• Kent reveals Lear does not want to see Cordelia as he is
ashamed by his actions
• Kent reveals he must stay in disguise for longer and
leads the Gentleman to Lear
Analysis
Kent:
“burning shame/ Detains him from Cordelia
...
”
“Edmund, I think, is gone/ In pity of his misery to dispatch/
His nighted life”
Page 27 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 4 Scene 6:
Edgar:
“your other senses grow imperfect/ By your eyes’ anguish”
“You’re much deceived; in nothing am I changed/ But in
my garments
...
If Edgar lives, O, bless him!”
Edgar:
“Thy life’s a miracle
...
”
Enter Lear mad [crowned with wild flowers]
Lear:
“I am the/ King himself
...
Plate sin with gold”
• Gloucester enters with Edgar, clothed as a peasant
• Gloucester asks if they are at the cliff yet, Edgar acts like
they are (actually aren’t) and Gloucester’s shock into
blindness has impacted his other senses
• Gloucester notices a change in Edgar’s tone and
structure of speech (more elegant)
• Edgar describes the “cliff” in vivid detail
• Edgar guides Gloucester to the “edge of the cliff”
• Gloucester hands Edgar a purse and tells him to say
goodbye
• Gloucester kneels and talks to the Gods before falling
• Edgar speaks acting like someone else
• Gloucester asks to be left alone to die
• Edgar claims it is a miracle Gloucester is still alive and
confirms Gloucester fell from a terrible height
• Edgar informs Gloucester the man he was with at the
cliff was the devil (via description of his appearance)
• Gloucester accepts his prolonged fate
• Lear enters, insane
• Lear talks abstractly whilst Edgar grieves and Gloucester
recognises his voice
• Lear recalls Goneril and Regan’s deception
• Gloucester recognises it is the King
• Lear essentially shows how minute sins such as adultery
are in regards to women in general
• Lear asks Gloucester to read a letter, who informs him
he is blind
• Lear is talking abstractly (logic+madness) but knows it is
Gloucester
• Gentlemen enter to Lear away, Lear runs around and
they chase him
• Edgar asks how near the English army is, news is that
they are near
• Gentleman exits and Edgar guides Gloucester to shelter
• Oswald sees Gloucester and tells him he will kill him
• Edgar intervenes and fights Oswald, killing him
• Edgar read’s Goneril’s letter of affair and reveals he will
give it to Albany
• Gloucester wishes he could forget his suffering and
Edgar offers to drop him to a friends house
Analysis
Edgar:
“Reason in madness”
Lear:
“We came crying hither”
“When we are born we cry that we are come/ To this great
stage of fools
...
”
“I am cut to the brains”
Gloucester:
“Let not my worser spirit tempt me again/ To die before you
please
...
”
“These weeds are memories of those worser hours
...
”
[Kneels]
[She restrains him as he tries to kneel
...
”
Lear:
“I am a very foolish, fond old man
...
”
“You have some cause, they have not
...
”
“In your own kingdom, sir
...
”
Page 30 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 5 Scene 1:
Edmund:
“In honoured love
...
”
Edmund:
“Each jealous of the other as the stung/ Are of the adder
...
”
“Men must endure/ Their going hence even as their
coming hither
...
”
• Sounds of battle occur offstage
...
They cross the stage and exit
• Edgar enters (disguised) with Gloucester, leaves him at
a tree and exits
• Sounds of battle offstage grow fainter
• Edgar returns with news Lear and Cordelia are defeated
and captured
• Gloucester begs not to travel
• Edgar claims he has no say in time of death
• They exit
Analysis
Page 32 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 5 Scene 3:
Cordelia:
“We are not the first/ Who with best meaning have incurred
the worst
...
Lear and
Cordelia (as prisoners) led by captain and soldiers
...
Cordelia (due to Lear)
calls out her sisters but Lear hushes Cordelia and claims they will
be happy in prison (as long as they’re together)
...
Edmund gives the captain
a paper with instructions he must follow, Captain exits
...
Albany congratulates Edmund but claims he needs
custody of the prisoners so he can do whats best for the honour
and safety of the Kingdom
...
Albany tells Edmund
in this case, he is in a lower rank, not an equal but Regan claims
that Edmund’s status is for her to decide as he is in close
connection to her
...
A talk of Regan and Edmund’s
marriage is brought up and Regan makes Edmund her lord
...
Albany arrests Edmund and Goneri due to
their affair
...
Regan begins to sicken and it becomes
clear Goneril has poisoned Regan
...
A herald is called as Regan is exited
...
Edgar defeats Edmund, Albany
begs Edgar to keep Edmund alive for questioning
...
Goneril rushes off in desperation
...
Gentleman enters with a bloody knife announcing Goneril
committed suicide and that Regan was poisoned
...
Kent asks where Lear is and Albany
recalls they are in prison
...
Lear enters carrying dead Cordelia in his arms as the messenger
arrived too late
...
Lear does not recognise Kent
...
Lear asks Edgar to loosen Cordelia’s button and thinks he sees
her breathe, then dies
...
Edgar becomes King
...
When thou
dost ask me blessing I’ll kneel down/ And ask of thee
forgiveness
...
”
“He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven,/ And fire
us hence like foxes
...
”
No human has power to separate them, anyone who
wants to will have to smoke us out of our cage like
foxes
Valiant= courageous and determined
Edmund:
“old and miserable King”
Goneril:
“In his own grace he doth exalt himself/ More than in your
addition
...
[Points to Goneril]”
Goneril:
[aside] “If not, I’ll ne’er trust medicine
...
”
Edgar:
“my name is lost”
“thou art a traitor:/ False to thy gods, thy brother and thy
father”
Page 33 of 35
exalt =think/ speak highly of
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 5 Scene 3:
Edmund:
“But what art thou/ That hast this fortune on me? If thou’rt
noble,/ I do forgive thee
...
Lear and
Cordelia (as prisoners) led by captain and soldiers
...
Cordelia (due to Lear)
calls out her sisters but Lear hushes Cordelia and claims they will
be happy in prison (as long as they’re together)
...
Edmund gives the captain
a paper with instructions he must follow, Captain exits
...
Albany congratulates Edmund but claims he needs
custody of the prisoners so he can do whats best for the honour
and safety of the Kingdom
...
Albany tells Edmund
in this case, he is in a lower rank, not an equal but Regan claims
that Edmund’s status is for her to decide as he is in close
connection to her
...
A talk of Regan and Edmund’s
marriage is brought up and Regan makes Edmund her lord
...
Albany arrests Edmund and Goneri due to
their affair
...
Regan begins to sicken and it becomes
clear Goneril has poisoned Regan
...
A herald is called as Regan is exited
...
Edgar defeats Edmund, Albany
begs Edgar to keep Edmund alive for questioning
...
Goneril rushes off in desperation
...
Gentleman enters with a bloody knife announcing Goneril
committed suicide and that Regan was poisoned
...
Kent asks where Lear is and Albany
recalls they are in prison
...
Lear enters carrying dead Cordelia in his arms as the messenger
arrived too late
...
Lear does not recognise Kent
...
Lear asks Edgar to loosen Cordelia’s button and thinks he sees
her breathe, then dies
...
Edgar becomes King
...
”
Albany:
“Let sorrow split my heart”
Edgar:
“But his flawed heart,/ Alack, too weak the conflict to
support/ ‘Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,/
Burst smilingly
...
]
“This judgement of the heavens that makes us tremble/
Touches us not with pity
...
”
Lear:
“Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones!”
“She’s dead as earth
...
No, no, no life!/ Why should
a dog, a horse, a rat have life/ And thou no breath at all?”
“Do you see this? Look on her: look, her lips,/ Look there,
look there! [He dies]”
Page 34 of 35
Scene Summary
Quotes
Act 5 Scene 3:
Kent:
“Vex not his ghost; O, let him pass
...
”
“The wonder is he hath endured so long;/ He but usurped
his life
...
”
Edmund enters (victorious) with drums and banners
...
Edmund
orders Lear and Cordelia be taken away
...
Lear hugs
Cordelia and then exit, led by soldiers
...
Trumpets
play, Albany enters with Goneril and Regan, another captain and
more soldiers
...
Edmund explains he sent the two to
jail as (with a battle) everyone is still in pain
...
Goneril claims he is a great soldier in his own
right, not by Regan’s claim
...
Goneril asks Regan about her intentions Albany boils and calls
Edmund a half blood
...
Albany tells Edmund to blow the trumpet to find
challengers, if no-one comes forward he will challenge him
(throws down glove)
...
Edmund throws his glove and
accepts the challenge
...
Herald reads the claim against Edmund, at third trumpet sound
Edgar emerges wearing armour
...
Goneril tries to
help the wounded Edmund but Albany brings the letters showing
the evidence of conspiracy
...
Edgar reveals his identity and tells that Gloucester died of joy and
grief
...
The two bodies
are carried in and laid out
...
Edmund repents and tries to do some
good and intervene Cordelia’s hanging (by sending a messenger)
...
Lear slips in and out of sanity, grieving over
Cordelia
...
Edmund has also died
...
Albany gives Edgar and Kent their titles
back
...
Kent follows his master
Analysis
Edgar:
“The weight of this sad time we must obey,/ Speak what
we feel, not what we ought to say
...
”
Exeunt with a dead march
Page 35 of 35
usurped: takes up forcefully
Title: King Lear Revision Notes
Description: Colour coded, includes quotations selected from each act and scene. All quotes have in depth analysis (including contextual analysis). Each scene has an in depth summary- with even the minor details!
Description: Colour coded, includes quotations selected from each act and scene. All quotes have in depth analysis (including contextual analysis). Each scene has an in depth summary- with even the minor details!