A-Level King Lear key quotations and analysis

Gloucester: His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to ‘t. 1) blushed2) brazedEdmund (the illegitimate) birth and upbringing has been at Gloucester’s expense. He states he use to feel so often ashamed and as a result, is no longer ashamed of having an illegitimate child.AO2 = A legally accurate answer -implies Gloucester has done the right thing by Edmund. Suggests he has provided for Edmund at the very least financially and perhaps provided an education. AO4 = during 17th Century, illegitimate sons were expected to be provided for financially by the father otherwise they would be provided for and a burden for the parish to carry.
Gloucester: Though this knave came something saucily to the world…there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged. 1) saucily2) good sportHere Edmund hears his father’s coarse joking and boasting about his conceivement. AO2 = ‘Knave’ and ‘whoreson’ – on the one hand playful terms meaning ‘boy’ and ‘fellow’ respectively however both terms also contemptuously evoke Edmund’s condition as inferior and a bastard. Here, Gloucester appears to be an insensitive father as well as a morally questionable man. He jokes openly about Edmund’s precarious situation as an illegitimate child (and we remember – a result of Gloucester’s own moral failings) and also appears to feel contempt for his illegitimate son. This is illustrated in Shakespeare’s choice of language – ‘knave’ and ‘whoreson’; but also in Gloucester’s repetition of the idea that fathers are responsibility for all children, including the illegitimate: ‘the whoreson must be acknowledged’. Staging = we must remember Edmund is present throughout this scene and therefore hears Gloucester’s insensitive joking – does this give Edmund a motive and help to account for his behaviour later on in the play?
I must love you, and sue to know you better Kent to Edmund A1S1AO2 – Kent appears to be a respectable and noble man. The ideas of ‘knowing’ or gaining knowledge or truth is a central theme in ‘King Lear’.Kent and indeed the audience do in fact come to understand Edmund ‘better’ as his true nature is revealed or ‘known’, across the play.
Know that we have divided/In three our kingdom. divided