| “Here I disclaim all my paternal care, / Propinquity, and property of blood, / And as a stranger to my heart and me / Hold thee from this forever” | LEAR – Act 1, Scene 1, banishment of Cordelia |
| “If on the next day following / Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions, / The moment is thy death” | LEAR – Act 1, Scene 1, banishment of Kent |
| “Call my train together – / Degenerate bastard, I’ll not trouble thee. / Yet have I left a daughter” | LEAR – Act 1, Scene 4, leaving Goneril’s |
| “Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend to make this creature fruitful” | LEAR – Act 1, Scene 4, misogynistic language, talking to the goddess of nature |
| “Thou shalt find / That I’ll resume the shape which thou dost think / I have cast off forever” | LEAR – Act 1, Scene 4, saying he will gain his power back |
| “‘Tis worse than murder / To do upon such respect such violent outrage” | LEAR – Act 2, Scene 4, found out that his daughter and son-in-law have put Kent in the stocks |
| “And thou art twice her love” | LEAR – Act 2, Scene 4, Regan is double Goneril’s love because she allows him to have more knights – material value shows love |
| “Nothing could have subdued nature / To such a lowness but his unkind daughters” | LEAR – Act 3, Scene 4, to Kent about Edgar, assume that Edgar’s daughters have made him poor – misogynistic language |
| “No eyes in your head, nor no money in your purse?” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 6, to Gloucester, loss of sight and money, mirroring of Lear and Gloucester |
| “Upon a wheel of fire, / that mine own tears do scald like molten lead” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 7, destructive, moment of anagnorisis, wheel of fire links to wheel of fortune |
| “You must bear with me. / Pray you now, forget and forgive / I am old and foolish” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 7, to Cordelia, been healed of his insanity, anagnorisis |
| “Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia. / The gods themselves throw incense” | LEAR – Act 5, Scene 3, moment of realisation of how much she has sacrificed for him |
| “And my poor fool is hanged” | LEAR – Act 5, Scene 3, double meaning: Cordelia or the Fool? – some performance hang the Fool too |
| “Down from the waist they are centaurs, though women all above” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 6, depicting his daughters as animalistic, suggest a fear of female sexuality |
| “A man may see how this wold goes with no eyes” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 6, ironic because Lear blinded himself by his obsession with wealth, power and control |
| “When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of Fools” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 6, admitting his vulnerability without his kingdom he is more vulnerable to embarrassment |
| “I am even / The natural Fool of fortune” | LEAR – Act 4, Scene 6, thinks his luck has always been bad but he brought it on himself |
| “Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle and low, an excellent thing in a woman” | LEAR – Act 5, Scene 3, very poetic and romantic description of Cordelia |
| “Never, never, never, never. -/ Pray you, undo this button. Thank you, sir” | LEAR – Act 5, Scene 3, repetition of never foreshadows his death as it connotes an end, one of the few times Lear accepts and appreciates help |
| “I find she names my very deed of love -/ Only she comes too short” | REGAN – Act 1, Scene 1 |
| “‘Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly / known himself” | REGAN – Act 1, Scene 1 |
| “Till noon? Till night my lord, and all night too” | REGAN – Act 2, Scene 2 |
| “I pray you, father, being weak, seem so” | REGAN – Act 2, Scene 4 |
| “What need one?” | REGAN – Act 2, Scene 4, reducing the number of knights down to nothing |
| “Hang him instantly” | REGAN – Act 3, Scene 7 |
| “Shut up your doors” | REGAN – Act 2, Scene 4, to Gloucester |
| “One side will mock another – th’ other too” | REGAN – Act 3, Scene 7, the blinding of Gloucester |
| “Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell / His way to Dover” | REGAN – Act 3, Scene 7, throwing Gloucester out of his own house |
| “I shall never endure her” | REGAN – Act 5, Scene 1 |
| “It was great ignorance, Gloucester’s eyes being out, / To let him live” | REGAN – Act 4, Scene 5 |
| “My sickness grows upon me” | REGAN – Act 5, Scene 3 |
| “What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent” | CORDELIA – Act 1, Scene 1, love test |
| “Nothing, my Lord” | CORDELIA – Act 1, Scene 1 |
| “I love your majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less” | CORDELIA – Act 1, Scene 1 |
| “Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides” | CORDELIA – Act1, Scene 1, to her sisters |
| “We are not the first / Who with best meaning have incurred the worst” | CORDELIA – Act 5, Scene 3, last words in the play – rhyming couplet – foreshadows her death |
| “Sir please you – “ | OSWALD – Act 1, Scene 4, sparks off the argument – no respect shown for Lear |
| “My lady’s father “ | OSWALD – Act 1, Scene 4, Lear’s lack of importance is emphasised |
| “Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee” | OSWALD – Act 2, Scene 2, heated language – argument with Kent |
| “Help, ho! Murder, murder” | OSWALD – Act 2, Scene 2 |
| “Yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, / and the whoreson must be acknowledged” | GLOUCESTER – Act 1, Scene 1, talking about Edmund infront of him which sparks off the tension between them |
| “Unnatural, detested, brutish villain – worse than / brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I’ll apprehend him” | GLOUCESTER – Act 1, Scene 2, putting trust in Edmund |
| “Not in this land shall he remain uncaught. / And found – dispatch” | GLOUCESTER – Act 2, Scene 1, mirrors what Lear says in his banishment of Kent |
| “O madam, my old heart is cracked, it’s cracked” | GLOUCESTER – Act 2, Scene 1, foreshadows death of the broken heart – broken fathers repeat their words |
| “What mean your graces? Good my friends, consider / You are my guests. Do me no foul play friends” | GLOUCESTER – Act 3, Scene 2 |
| “By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done / To pluck me by the beard” | GLOUCESTER – Act 3, Scene 2 |
| “Because I would not see thy cruel nails / Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor they fierce sister / In his anointed flesh stick bearish fangs” | GLOUCESTER – Act 3, Scene 2, could be said that Gloucester gives them the eye plucking idea |
| “O my follies! Then Edgar was abused. / Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him” | GLOUCESTER – Act 3, Scene 2, anagnorisis, looking for a god to help him |
| “I have no way, and therefore want no eyes” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1, also doesn’t need eyes – more about understanding |
| “I stumbled when I saw” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1 |
| “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods. / They kill us for their sport” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1, we are just toys for the gods to play with |
| “Do it for ancient love” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1, restoring natural order – duty/loyalty |
| “Madmen lead the blind” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1, one has no physical sight and the other has no insight |
| “Dost thou know Dover” | GLOUCESTER – Act 4, Scene 1, Dover is seen as a place of hope for many characters |
KING LEAR QUOTES
July 9, 2019