King Lear

• what happened in Act 1 scene 1?

  Starts with Gloucester and Kent talking, this is where Gloucester talks badly of Edmond

  Then, the love contest begins and Gonerill and Regan speak falsely whilst Cordelia says nothing

  Cordelia is banished

  Kent is banished for defending Cordelia

  Burgandy doesn’t want to marry Cordelia anymore but France loves her

  The sisters talk and Gonerill and Regan begin planning to stop their father
• What happened in Act 1 scene 2?

  starts with Edmund speaking of the unfair nature of primogeniture

  Edmund starts to take his revenge by showing his father a letter which he says Edgar wrote

  Edmond then talks to Edgar and tells him that their father is mad at him
• Quotes and notes from Act 1 scene 2:

  • ”My dimensions are as well compact, my mind as generous and my shape as true” Edmond
  • “Base? With baseness? bastardy? base, base? Edmond
  • “upon the gad” Gloucester
  • “Abhorred villain, unnatural, detested, brutish villain” Gloucester
  • “the bond cracked twixt son and father“ Gloucester
  • ”Make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars” Edmund
  • ”lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star” Edmund
  • ”A credulous father and a brother noble” Edmund
  • ”Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit” Edmund
• What happens in Act 1 scene 3?

  Gonerill speaks of how her father is disrespecting her and tells her servant Oswald to purposely be rude to her father so that he would go stay with Regan
• Quotes and notes Act 1 scene 3:

  • ”Put in what weary negligence you please” Gonerill
• Quotes and notes Act 1 scene 1- Part 1

  • '"good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged"' Gloucester
  • '"which of you shall we say doth love us most"' Lear
  • '"As much as child e'er loved, or father found"' Gonerill
  • '"I am made of that self-mettle as my sister….only she comes too short"' Regan
  • '"Our Joy"' Lear
  • '"I cannot heave my heart into my mouth"' Cordelia
  • '"so young, my lord, and true"' Cordelia
• Quotes and notes Act 1 scene 1- Part 2

  • '"Come not between the dragon and his wrath"' Lear
  • "Be Kent unmannerly when Lear is mad" xref "power to flattery bows… majesty falls to folly" Kent
  • '"Better thou hadst not been born than not t"have pleased me better"' Lear
  • "He always loved our sister most" Gonerill
  • "We must do something" Gonerill
• What happens in Act 1 scene 4?

  Starts with Kent disguising himself as Cane to serve Lear without him knowing

  Lear gets ignored by Oswald and then starts talking to the fool

  The fool says hidden messages

  Gonerill comes to talk to Lear and tells him that his army is too big etc

  Lear is angry so starts insulting Gonerill

  When Lear has left Gonerill and Albany talk and they switch traditional gender roles
• Quotes and Notes Act 1 scene 4:

  • "My lady's father" Oswald to Lear
  • "Can you make no use of nothing nuncle?" "Nothing can be made out of nothing" Fool and Lear
  • "thou mad'st thy daughters thy mothers" Fool
  • "Whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying" Fool
  • "It's had it head bit off by it young" Fool
  • "Lear's shadow" Fool
  • "Into her womb convey sterility" Lear about Gonerill
  • "shake my manhood thus" Lear
• What happens in act 1 scene 5?

  Lear and the fool talk, the fool criticises him and warns audience of impending disaster
• Quotes and notes for Act 1 scene 5:

  • "She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab" Fool
  • "Leave his horns without a case" Fool
  • "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise" Fool
• What happens in Act 2 scene 1?

  Edmund pretends to have fought Edgar, he stabs himself to make it look like Edgar did it.

  Gloucester in shock says that he will give Edmund his land and power

  Regan and Cornwall are not at their palace as they are trying to get away from Lear so they stay at Gloucester's palace
• Quotes and notes Act 2 scene 1:

  • "Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion... (wounds his arm)" Edmund
  • "The revenging Gods gainst parricides did all the thunder bend" Edmund
  • "Murderous coward" Gloucester about Edgar
• What happens in act 2 scene 2?

  Starts with Oswald and Kent arguing

  Regan Cornwall and Gloucester come out and Cornwall and Regan decide that Kent should be put in the stocks

  Kent asks Gloucester to read the letter he has from Cordelia
• Quotes and notes Act 2 scene 2:

  • "take vanity the puppet's part" Kent
  • "show too bold malice against the grace and person of my master" Kent
  • "seeking to give losses their remedies" Kent about Cordelia's intentions
• What happens in Act 2 scene 3?

  Edgar says that he is going to disguise himself as Poor Tom, a beggar
• What happens in Act 2 scene 4?

  Starts with Lear arriving at Gloucester's castle

  Lear gets mad because Kent is in the stocks

  Gloucester tries to excuse Regan and Cornwall's behaviour but Lear demands to talk to them

  Lear talks to Regan and she dismisses him, Gonerill arrives and the sisters unite together to get Lear to get rid of his army.

  This ends with Lear being left out in the storm without any protection
• Quotes and notes Act 2 scene 4:

  • "Winters not gone yet if the wild geese fly that way" Fool
  • "(kneels)....on my knees i beg" "Good sir no more" Lear and Regan
  • "Serpent-like upon the very heart" Lear about Gonerill
  • "The offices of nature, bond of childhood" Lear
  • "A disease that's in my flesh" Lear xref "Pelican daughters"
  • "What need you five and twenty? ten? or five?" Gonerill
  • "You unnatural hags" Lear about his daughters
• What happens in Act 3 scene 1?

  Kent talks to a gentleman and tells him about the french spies and to show a ring to Cordelia
• What happens in Act 3 scene 2?

  Starts with King Lear confronting and talking to the Gods and the storm

  Kent finds Lear and tries to get hi to rest in a nearby hovel, Kent plans to go back to the castle and ask for shelter
• Quotes and notes Act 3 scene 2:

  • "Strike flat the thick roundity o'th'world, crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once" Lear talking to the storm
  • "Here i stand your slave, a poor, infirm, weak and despised old man" Lear to the storm
  • "I am a man more sinned against than sinning" Lear
  • "My wits begin to turn" Lear
• What happens in Act 3 scene 3?

  Gloucester talks to Edmund and tells him of his plans to help Lear

  When Gloucester leaves, Edmund says he will tell the Duke of Cornwall about this so he can rise to power
• Quotes and notes Act 3 scene 3:

  • "shall the duke instantly know.... the younger rises when the old doth fall" Edmund
• What happens in Act 3 scene 4?

  Lear talks of his pain due to his daughters

  They go to take shelter in a hovel but Poor Tom is there

  Lear and Poor Tom talk

  Gloucester find Lear and tells him he wont go along with his daughters and to come back to his castle

  Gloucester speaks of his own trouble and his love for edgar
• Quotes and notes Act 3 scene 4:

  • "I had rather break my own" Kent being loyal
  • "filial ingratitude" Lear
  • "How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides" Lear recognising the poor
  • "Didst thou give all to thy daughters? and art thou come to this" Lear alligning himself with poor tom
  • "pelican daughters" Lear about Gonerill and Regan
  • "that good Kent...poor banished man" Gloucester about Kent
  • "No father his son dearer" Gloucester talking about Edgar
• What happens in Act 3 scene 5?

  Edmund tells Cornwall that Gloucester is helping France to prepare for war.

  Cornwall says that he will give Edmund the title of the Earl of Gloucester if helps with Gloucester's arrest
• Quotes and notes Act 3 scene 5:

  • "the conflict be sore between that and my blood" Edmund
• What happens in Act 3 scene 6?

  Lear and Poor Tom continue talking crazy

  Poor Tom feels sympathy for Lear

  Lear falls asleep

  Gloucester tells Kent of a plan to assassinate the king
• What happens in Act 3 scene 7?

  Gloucester comes back to his castle and is questioned by Regan and Cornwall

  Regan plucks his beard and then Cornwall takes out both his eyes

  When Gloucester is blind they tell him that Edmund was the one who turned him in to them and Gloucester realises that Edgar was wronged

  Gloucester is left in the storm blind and by himelf
• Quotes and notes Act 3 scene 7:

  • "Hang him instantly" Regan
  • "Pluck his eyes out" Gonerill
  • "(Regan plucks Gloucester's beard)"
  • "Out, vile jelly (He puts out Gloucester's other eye)" Cornwall
  • ""he that made the overture of thy treason to us" Regan talking about Edmund
  • "Then Edgar was abused" Gloucester
• What happens in Act 4 scene 1?

  Edgar talks about the good and bad things of being poor

  Edgar sees his blind father and is shocked

  Gloucester wishes to see Edgar but Poor Tom does not reveal himself as Edgar

  Gloucester tells Poor Tom to lead him to the cliff in Dover so he can kill himself
• Quotes and notes for Act 4 scene 1:

  • "better thus and known to be condemned than still condemn and flattered" Edgar talks of court flattery
  • "Oh dear son Edgar... might i but live to see thee in my touch I'd say i have eyes again" Gloucester
  • "As flies to wanton boys are we to th'gods" Gloucester- Kastan
  • "High and bending head.... and ill repair the misery thou dost bear" Gloucester
• What happens in Act 4 scene 2?

  Oswald tells Gonerill that Albany smiled at the french army coming and that he criticised Gonerill's actions

  Gonerill says hes husband is a coward and kisses Edmund;))

  After Edmund leaves Albany comes in and him and Gonerill insult each other

  We get the news that Cornwall is dead

  Gonerill fears her sister will steal Edmund from her and a servant tells Albany of Gonerills affair
• Quotes and notes in Act 4 scene 2:

  • "the cowish terror of his spirit" Gonerill about Albany
  • "This kiss" Gonerill and Edmund
  • "so horrid a woman" Albany about Gonerill- disruption of expectations of women
• What happens in Act 4 scene 3?

  Cordelia is back, she worries for Lear and sends soldiers to search for him
• Quotes and notes Act 4 scene 3:

  • "crowned with rank fumitor and furrow-weeds" Cordelia about Lear- he is crowned with nature symbolising his journey through nature to his rebirthing
• What happens in Act 4 scene 4?

  Oswald is bringing a letter form Gonerill to Edmund

  Regan tries to convince him to let her read the letter but isnt succesful

  Regan says that she would be a better partner for Edmund

  Regan says she will reward anyone who kills Gloucester
• Quotes and notes Act 4 scene 4:

  • "more convenient is he for my hand than for your lady's" Regan about Gonerill
• What happens in Act 4 scene 5?

  Edgar convinces Gloucester he is leading him to a cliff

  Gloucester jumps and falls forward

  Edgar pretends to be someone who witnessed the fall and tells him that he is safe and alive and that he did fall

  Lear enters mad

  Gloucester recognises it is Lear and vice versa

  The search party find Lear and he runs off and they chase after him

  Oswald sees Gloucester and is excited to kill him

  Edgar and Oswald battle and Oswald dies

  Edgar reads Gonerill's letter which plans to kill Albany and marry Edmund- Edgar wants to tell Albany
• Quotes and notes Act 4 scene 5:

  • "If Edgar live, O bless him" Gloucester
  • "They flattered me like a dog" Lear about his daughters
  • "This great world shall so wear out to naught" Lear
  • "Reason in madness" Edgar talking about King Lear and Gloucester