| Justice: ‘Though well we may not pass upon.. | …his life without the form of justice’ (Cornwall) |
| Justice: ‘I bid you.. | …hold’ (Servant) |
| Justice: ‘Which is the justice,.. | …which is the theif?’ (Lear) |
| Justice: ‘The Gods.. | …are justice’ (Edgar) |
| Justice: ‘Plate sin with gold.. | …and the strong lance of justice hurtle breaks’ (Lear) |
| Family Relationships: ‘I am made of that same.. | …self-mettle as my sister’ (Gonerill) |
| Family Relationships: ‘my sister, whose mind and mine.. | …I know are in one’ (Gonerill) |
| Family Relationships: ‘Why bastard?.. | …Wherefore base?’ (Edmund) |
| Family Relationships: ‘Ever since thou mad’st.. | …thy daughters thy mothers’ (Fool) |
| Family Relationships: ‘You are not worth the dust.. | …which the rude wind blows in your face’ (Albany to Gonerill) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘I have so often blushed.. | …to acknowledge him’ (Gloucester) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘The woreson.. | …must be acknowledged’ (Goucester) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘The bond cracked.. | …twixt son and father’ (Gloucester) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘Which of you shall say.. | …doth love us most?’ (Lear) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘I love your majesty.. | …according to my bond, no more, no less’ (Cordelia) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘Better thou hadst not.. | …been born’ (Lear to Cordelia) |
| Paternal Relationships: ‘Into thy womb.. | …convey sterility) (Lear to Gonerill) |
| Deception: ‘I love you more than.. | ..word can wield the matter’ (Gonerill) |
| Deception: ‘Edgar I.. | …nothing am’ (Edgar/Poor Tom) |
| Deception: ‘Robes and furred gowns.. | …hide all’ (Lear) |
| Truth/Hidden Truth: ‘I cannot heave.. | …my heart into my mouth’ (Cordelia) |
| Truth/Hidden Truth: ‘For truth then be.. | …your dower’ (Lear) |
| Truth/Hidden Truth: ‘Time shall unfold.. | …what plighted cunning hides’ (Cordelia) |
| Truth/Hidden Truth: ‘Jesters do oft.. | …prove profits’ (Regan) |
| Betrayal: ‘Glib.. | …and oily art’ (Cordelia) |
| Betrayal: ‘They drust not do’t:.. | …They do not, would not do’t’ (Lear in reaction to his daughters betrayal) |
| Betrayal: ‘Well then, legitimate Edgar,.. | …I must have your land’ (Edmond) |
| Betrayal: ‘You are my guests. Do me.. | …no foul play’ (Gloucester) |
| Loyalty: ‘Whom I have honoured.. | …as my king, loved as my father’ (Kent) |
| Loyalty: ‘Gloucester I live to thank thee.. | …for the love showed’st the king’ (Albany) |
| Loyalty: ‘But better service have I never done you.. | …than now to bind you hold’ (Servant) |
| Nature: ‘Unnatural, detested.. | …brutish villain’ (Gloucester) |
| Nature: ‘Loyal and natural.. | ..boy’ (Gloucester) |
| Nature: ‘Crack.. | …nature’s mould’ (Lear) |
| Nature: ‘Allow not nature more.. | ..than nature needs’ (Lear) |
| Nature: ‘Thou, Nature, are my.. | …goddess; to thy law my services are bound’ (Edmond) |
| Vision/Perspective: ‘Dearer than eyesight,.. | …space and liberty’ (Gonerill) |
| Vision/Perspective: ‘I stumbled.. | …when I saw’ (Gloucester) |
| Vision/Perspective: ‘A man can see how this world goes.. | …with no eyes; look with thine ears’ (Lear) |
| Vision/Perspective: ‘The eye that told you so.. | …looked but asquint’ (Gonerill) |
| Madness: ‘O fool.. | …I shall go mad’ (Lear) |
| Madness: ‘Oh matter and impertinency.. | mixed, reason in madness’ (Edgar) |
| Madness: ‘O let me not be mad.. | …not mad, sweet heaven!’ (Lear) |
| Nothing: ‘Nothing, my.. | …lord’ (Cordelia) |
| Nothing: ‘Nothing will.. | ..come of nothing, speak again’ (Lear) |
| Nothing: ‘Can you make no use.. | …of nothing nuncle?’ (Fool) |
| Nothing: ‘The quality of nothing.. | ..hath not such need to hide itself’ (Gloucester) |
| Nothing: ‘I am a fool,.. | …thou art nothing’ (Fool) |
| Paradox/Irony: ‘To shake all cares.. | …and business from our age’ (Lear) |
| Paradox/Irony: ‘That future strife.. | …may be prevented now’ (Lear) |
| Paradox/Irony: ‘Thou art most rich.. | …being poor’ (France) |
| Paradox/Irony: ‘Why have my sisters husbands.. | …if they say they love you all?’ (Cordelia) |
| Fate/Astrology/Superstition: ‘These late eclipses.. | …in the sun and moon portened no good to us’ (Gloucester) |
| Fate/Astrology/Superstition: ‘To lay his goatish.. | …disposition on the charge of a star’ (Edmond) |
| Fate/Astrology/Superstition: ‘Fortune.. | …turn thy wheel!’ (Kent) |
| Fate/Astrology/Superstition: ‘By all the operation of the orbs.. | …whom we do exist and cease to be’ (Lear) |
| Greed: ‘To shake all.. | …cares and business from our age’ (Lear) |
| Greed: ‘Only we shall retain the name.. | …and th’addition to a king’ (Lear) |
| Greed: ‘Well then, legitimate Edgar,.. | …I must have your land’ (Edmond) |
| Materialism: ‘Prize me.. | …at her worth’ (Regan) |
| Materialism: ‘Property of.. | …blood’ (Lear) |
| Materialism: ‘But now her.. | …price has fallen’ (Lear) |
| Materialism: ‘She who even now.. | …was your best object’ (France) |
| Materialism: ‘Thy fifty yet doth double.. | …five and twenty, and thou art twice her love’ (Lear) |
| Poverty: ‘Thou art rich.. | …being poor’ (France) |
| Poverty: ‘The lowest and most dejected thing of.. | …fortune..lives not in fear’ (Edgar/Poor Tom) |
| Poverty: ‘That I am wretched.. | …makes me happier’ (Gloucester) |
| Poverty: ‘A most poor man,.. | …made tame to fortunes blow’ (Edgar) |
King Lear Theme quotes
July 31, 2019