Term
| "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, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into (clamorous) whining if thou deny'st the least syllable of thy addition." |
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Definition
Speaker: Kent
Situation: right before Kent is put in the stocks
Notes: Be able to paraphrase the quote- The usual vituperative comments are in your text, except "finical" which means to be picky or fussy.
-knave,rascal= lowly, criminal character.
-eater of broken meats=you don't even get your own meal, you instead get gross, broken leftovers.
-three-suited= servant
-hundred-pound=lowest wage you could give someone in a year
-filthy, worsted-stocking knave= gentlemen wore silk stockings, worsted=wool and that is what the lowest of the low wore
-lily-livered= you are chicken, your liver is white
-action-taking= "I'm going to take you to court", settling disputes in court rather than fighting
-glass-gazing=conceited, always looking at self in mirror
-superservicible= will do anything, provide any service asked to
-finical=nit-picky
-one-trunk-inheriting= possessing no more than will fit in a single trunk
-bawd=lewd, prostitute self or someone else, pimp/prostitute
-nothing but composition of= you are a mix of
-pander=pimp/prostitute
-mongrel bitch= you are a mongrel(not pure bred) like your mother. Brings dog image up again with beat and whining "I will beat into... whining." |
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Term
| "Nothing almost sees miracles/But misery." |
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Definition
Speaker: Kent
Situation: Kent has been put in stocks
Notes: Speaking from the discomfort and humiliation of the stocks into which he has been placed for defying the secular power, Kent recognizes that he may experience "miracles or gain spiritual wisdom. The deepest wisdom in the play comes from those who come to wisdom through the acceptance of suffering. Real wisdom comes from suffering. Kent hopes there's enough light to see Cordelia's letter. |
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Term
| "Poor Tom!/'Edgar'I nothing am." |
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Definition
Speaker: Edgar
Situation: As he adopts the disguise of a beggar
Notes: As a poor beggar, Edgar has some identity, although he is nothing in the eyes of society. As Edgar, he has noble status, but now that he has been disowned by his father and his life is in danger, he has fallen to the status of nothing. He now is also fit to see "miracles" or be the means by which others see them. Now that he's nothing, Edgar has the potential to attain something. Misery can see miracles. |
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Term
| "Fathers that wear rags do make their children blind, but fathers that bear bags shall see their children kind. Fortune, that arrant whore, Ne'er turns the key to th' poor." |
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Definition
Speaker: Fool
Situation: As he and Lear arrive at Gloucester's castle
Notes: Be able to paraphrase and discuss how the fool's secular wisdom is worldly, cynical wisdom connected with the pursuit of comfort and the elimination of suffering.
-If poor, kids will be blind to your needs. Fortune, that complete whore.
Poor fathers are not noticed or their children are blind to their needs, but wealthy fathers have loving children. Good luck is a completely fickle or whorish woman who never opens her door to poor people. |
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Term
| "Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill lest it break thy neck with following; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after." |
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Definition
Speaker: Fool
Situation: At Gloucester's Castle
Paraphrases: Don't hold on to a great person who is going downhill because you will be pulled down yourself. Instead, hold onto a great person who is rising in the world.
Notes: While the fool speaks the words of a secular, cynical person, he stays with Lear, who is certainly going downhill, out of love. |
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Term
| "O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rainwater out o' door. Good nuncle, in. Ask thy daughters' blessing. Here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools." |
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Definition
Speaker:Fool
Situation: To Lear in the storm
Notes: "court holy water"= flattering speeches
In advising Lear to avoid the storm, which Lear locates in his own mind, he suggests that Lear avoid it, symbolically to avoid self-confrontation, not to look inside himself at his failures, his pretensions, and his tragic hubris (pride). To do so would mean Lear would avoid the tragic experience completely which will lead to self-knowledge and wisdom. The storm reduces Lear, leads him to salvation. |
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Term
| "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,/ That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,/ How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,/ Your looped and windowned raggedness defend/ you/ From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en/ Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp./ Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,/ That thou may'st shake the superflux to them/ And show the heavens more just." |
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Definition
Speaker: Lear
Situation: During the storm
Notes: Lets fool enter hovel first, while Lear prays. he identifies with the poor. Lear wonders how poor, homeless people in rags can defend themselves from this horrible storm. He realizes that he has not been concerned enough about the problems of the poor. Now he wants to cure his pompous ways and share the suffering of the poor and share his excess with them so the world is more just. "Take physic"=need to cure pompousness. |
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Term
| "Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art." |
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Definition
Speaker: Lear to Edgar in disguise
Situation: During the Storm
Notes: Lear sees Edgar as "the thing itself," the heart of his own mystery, humanity stripped of pretenses, an alienated version of himself. Human beings without all the trappings of clothing,, equipment, jewels, etc. is stripped to this two-legged animal. This is a marked contrast to Lear at the beginning of the play with its order, magnificence, and all the equipment that is part of being a King. |
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Term
| "Child Rowland to the dark tower came. His word was still 'Fie, foh, fum, I smell the blood of a British man.'" |
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Definition
Speaker: Edgar
Situation: During the storm
Notes: "Child Rowland"=a famous french poem. Child= candidate for knighthood.
The words of child (candidate for knighthood) Rowland, hero of the Charlemagne legends, are mixed up with the words of teh giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk." His nonsense makes sense in a coded way. Roland was a nephew to Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, a symbol of Christian resistance to the infidels and a symbol of Christian martyrdom. "Jack and the Beanstalk" portrays the struggle of the underdog against unjust power. the blood of Englishmen were the dissidents, fighting against tyranny. Goneril, Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund all crave the blood of their powerless enemies. |
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