| I never shall endure her | Regan about Goneril – shows that whereas in the beginning they were working together, Edmund has caused a rift in their relationship, she no longer can stand Goneril |
| In honoured love | Edmund – how he tells Regan he loves Goneril, again telling his version of the truth, adopts the language of nobility as he does when convincing people he’s respectable |
| Most just and heavy causes make oppose | Albany – the king and Cordelia have justifiable reasons to oppose us, shows firmly which side he’s on and that he is a good character |
| Which of them shall I take? Both? One? Or neither? | Edmund about Goneril and Regan, shows everything is on his terms, he does not have genuine love but lust for them, he is cocky and self assured |
| Let’s away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage…and laugh at gilded butterflies | Lear – he wants to stay and live a quiet life in prison with Cordelia, and laugh at the same fancy courtiers he used to surround himself with – shows how much he’s changed, he just wants rest and now he has private ambition with his daughter rather than the public, proud ambitions he had at the start |
| Men must endure | Edgar – tells his father that people must go through bad things and it makes them better – links to context, willingness to suffer was a christian virtue in Jacobean times |
| We are not the first who, with best meaning, have incurr’d the worst | Cordelia – she sees the dangerous position she and Lear are in but echoes Edgar and Gloucester in being stoical about it, must endure suffering etc |
| False to thy gods, thy brother and thy father…A most toad-spotted traitor | Edgar to Edmund, revealing Edmund’s true nature, uses animal imagery |
| The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us | Edgar to Edmund – says that through the sin of begetting Edmund the gods created him evil as a revenge on Gloucester, seems a bit harsh, through our weaknesses the gods create our punishments |
| You look as you had something more to say | Edmund to Edgar – asks him to speak on, suggests that he hasn’t actually turned good at the end, as he has an opportunity to save Lear and Cordelia in time and doesn’t |
| Some good I mean to do in spite of mine own nature | Edmund – seems to repent, says he will go against his nature and do what’s right |
| Run, run, O, run! | Albany tells the servant to run and get Lear and Cordelia, but clearly doesn’t think it through, is rash – shows that he’s perhaps not cut out to be king |
| Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all? | Lear – asks why base animals should live whilst Cordelia is dead, injustice of nature |
| 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. | Edgar – last four lines of the play |
| The gods defend her! | Albany – prays that the heavens protect Cordelia seconds before she is brought in dead. Idea of divine justice is effed. |
King Lear Act V Quotes
July 7, 2019