King Lear

Edmund, Gloucester’s illegitimate son, delivers a soliloquy on the injustices of his position in life. He swears allegiance to Nature rather than the customs of a society that denies him rank and power because his father wasn’t married to his mother: “Why bastard? Wherefore base,/When my dimensions are as well compact,/my mind as generous, and my shape as true,/As honest madam’s issue?” (6-9). Embittered by his ill-treatment, he plots to turn Gloucester against his legitimate brother Edgar and take over the dukedom himself.

Gloucester appears in a flurry, shocked at recent events, including Kent’s banishment, hostilities between France and England, and Lear’s abdication of the throne. As he bustles in, Edmund makes an obvious show of hiding a letter, which Gloucester insists on seeing. It is a fake letter from Edgar, composed by Edmund. In it, Edgar supposedly asks Edmund to assassinate Gloucester with him. Appalled, Gloucester asks Edmund to investigate further. He reflects that the astrological signs bode ill; the stars predict war and discord within families and nations.

When Gloucester leaves, Edmund scoffs at his father’s superstition, maintaining that the stars have no effect on human character: “I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing” (131-133). Edgar interrupts his musings. Edmund tricks him into believing that Gloucester is enraged with him. Although Edmund says he will try to calm their father down, he warns his brother to carry a weapon. Frightened and overwhelmed, Edgar departs. Edmund rejoices. His father’s credulity and his brother’s innocence both serve his purposes.

Goneril storms onstage in a huff, asking her servant Oswald if Lear hit one of her men for provoking his Fool. She is fed up with her father’s behavior. He and his entourage of drunken knights party day and night in Goneril’s house. She tells Oswald she plans to avoid Lear for a while and that he should tell her father she’s sick if he asks for her. She also counsels Oswald and the rest of her staff to be as rude and lazy as they like around Lear and his men.

The banished Kent disguises himself as a rough servant named Caius so he can watch over Lear; his loyalty to his master outweighs all other concerns. As Caius, he presents himself to Lear’s crew of knights and quickly earns Lear’s trust when he upbraids Oswald—who, as Goneril instructed him, is blatantly rude to the former king.

The Fool, Lear’s much-beloved jester, is heartbroken since Lear sent Cordelia away. He now emerges to read his master a lesson in his mistakes. When he sings a mocking song, and Lear ominously asks, “Dost thou call me fool, boy?”, he replies, “All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with” (145-47).

As the Fool mocks Lear and his daughters, the furious Goneril enters. She tells her father she will no longer tolerate his chaotic knights, and he must send at least some of them away. Lear flies into a rage and curses his eldest child, calling on Nature to “Dry up in her the organs of increase” so that she’ll never have a child of her own (275). With that, he departs, intending to go to Regan’s house where he believes he can do what he wants. Goneril sends Oswald ahead to warn Regan and to tell her to hold firm with their father. Her husband Albany warns her that this may be a mistake.

Lear sends the disguised Kent to deliver a letter to Regan’s castle explaining what happened at Goneril’s house. Left alone with the Fool, Lear broods. The Fool gently teases him and tries to warn him that Regan isn’t likely to behave any differently than Goneril.

Lear is shaken by his recent fits of uncontrollable rage. He fears for his sanity, saying, “O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!/Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!” (43-44).

Edmund hears rumors about a war brewing between Albany and Cornwall, who both may have designs on the undivided throne. Regan and Cornwall will visit the Gloucester household that night, giving Edmund more opportunity to scheme.

He continues his plot against his own family, telling Edgar: “My father watches. O sir, fly this place” (20). The enraged Gloucester, Edmund claims, is on Edgar’s trail, and Edmund will need to pretend to attack his brother in order to keep him safe. Edmund draws his sword, and the bewildered, frightened Edgar flees into the night. Edmund wounds himself to give the impression that Edgar injured him.

When Gloucester appears, Edmund spins a tale in which Edgar mutters of patricide and chants magical charms. Crazed with rage and grief, Gloucester threatens to have his legitimate son killed and vows to grant Edmund his title and lands, just as Edmund plotted.

Cornwall and Regan arrive and commiserate with Gloucester. They also swear friendship with Edmund, whom they see as a potentially useful man.

Goneril’s steward Oswald meets Kent outside Gloucester’s house. Kent, remembering Oswald’s rudeness to Lear, is accordingly rude to Oswald, going on an exuberant tirade against him: Oswald, Kent says, is:

[a] knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superservicable, finical rogue (13-17).

At last, Kent draws his sword, and Oswald screams for help.

Edmund, Gloucester, Regan, and Cornwall overhear the ruckus and confront the two men. Kent won’t budge, and Cornwall commands him to be put in the stocks for his insolence. Regan adds that, in spite of his old age, Kent must sit in the stocks all day and all night.

With Kent imprisoned, everyone but Gloucester departs. Gloucester empathizes with Kent and says he will try to change Cornwall’s mind. Whatever happens, he and Kent both know that Lear won’t take this well; it is a serious insult for Cornwall to put Lear’s servant in the stocks.

Edgar, on the run, pauses to deliver a soliloquy. Confused and terrified, he considers his options, all of which are bad. Nowhere is safe, and no friendly face can be trusted. His best option is to disguise himself as someone no one looks at twice. He decides to dress up as a vagrant madman called Poor Tom, vowing, “[M]y face I’ll grime with filth,/Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,/And with presented nakedness outface/The winds and persecutions of the sky” (9-12). He will chant nonsense, beg for alms, and entirely unmake himself: “Edgar I nothing am” (21), he says.

Lear and the Fool arrive at Gloucester’s house and find Kent in the stocks outside. Lear is outraged and unbelieving, shocked that Cornwall would dare to disrespect his servant this way. Kent also tells Lear that Oswald delivered letters from Goneril ahead of his arrival. The Fool isn’t surprised; this is exactly what he predicted, and he sings cryptic little songs to that effect.

Lear rushes off and returns with Gloucester who tries to calm him down. Cornwall delayed his meeting with Lear, refusing to jump at the former king’s command. When Cornwall and Regan eventually arrive, Lear is furious with them, and they coolly condescend to him. When Goneril appears, the two sisters present a united face against their father, asking him why he needs even one servant, let alone his retinue of rowdy knights. As before, Lear flies into a rage, calling Regan “a boil,/A plague-sore, or embossèd carbuncle,/In my corrupted blood” (222-224).

As madness descends upon him, Lear flees from the house, pursued by the Fool and Kent. In spite of Gloucester’s appalled protests, his family lets him go. There is a violent storm brewing, and the family is reluctant to follow Lear into it.