1. Act and Scene Summary.
Key moments.
Key quotes.

2. Scene 2- ‘bastard’ speech, Edmund tricks Gloucester.
Scene 1-Gloucester speaks crudely about Edmund’s mother, the ‘love-test’, banishment of Kent and Cordelia, France marries Cordelia, Goneril and Regan discuss their future strategy.
Scene 2- ‘bastard’ speech, Edmund tricks Gloucester.
Scene 3- Goneril instructs Oswald to antagonise Lear.
Scene 4- Kent returns in disguise, The Fool abuses Lear, Kent attacks Oswald, Lear fights with Goneril.
Scene 5- Lear sends Kent to Gloucester with letters, Lear sets off to Regan.
‘we shall express our darker purpose’
‘that future strife may be prevented now’
‘Which of you shall we say does love us most’
Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest,
KING LEAR: Dost thou call me fool, boy? Fool: All thy other titles thou hast given away
‘I cannot heave my heart into my mouth’
‘So young, my lord and true’
‘I loved her most and thought to set my rest on her kind nursery.’
‘See better, Lear’
Goneril 1:3 (to Oswald)
Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities That he hath given away!

3. Scene 1: Edmund tricks Edgar in to fighting him, Gloucester vows to find him. Edmund aligns himself with Cornwall and Regan.
Scene 2: Oswald is attached by Kent. Cornwall condemns this and puts Kent in the stocks, Kent reads a letter from Cordelia.
Edgar hides in a wood and decides to become Tom O’Bedlam in an effort to disguise himself.
Lear arrives and finds Regan will not speak to him. Regan defends Goneril. Goneril arrives and Lear is humiliated by them both. He runs off in to the storm.
Edmund to live by the law of ‘Nature’
Refuses to accept his position as the ‘base’
Gloucester, like Lear, is very easily fooled
Edmund is able to exploit ‘A credulous father and a brother noble’
Kent tells Cornwall, ‘I have seen better faces in my time/Than stands on any shoulder that I see’.
Edgar becomes the very epitome of ‘nothing’;
Like with Kent, a an honest and true character is forced to change to survive in this world.
Upon arriving Goneril takes Regan by the hand- a symbolic act of unification against Lear;
Lear is encouraged to ‘reduce’ his train of knights, something he vehemently opposes;
He again attacks Goneril likening her to a ‘disease that’s in my flesh’;
As Lear is literally reduced to ‘nothing’ as he desperately proclaims, ‘I gave you all’;
Lear’s anger builds as Cornwall and Regan refuse to speak with him, ‘Vengeance, plague, death, confusion!’;
Lear’s misery is further extenuated by Regan’s defence of Goneril;
Regan tells Lear he should be ‘ruled’ and ‘led’.
O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.

4. Edmund Lear reacts to Poor Tom
Scene 1: Kent is told about Lear. He tells a gentlemen that Cordelia is preparing an army.
Scene 2: Lear is out in the storm. Kent discovers him and takes him a shelter.
Scene 3: Gloucester tells Edmund about the impending wat with France. Edmund uses this information to betray Gloucester..
Scene 4: Lear is still in the storm. He meets Edgar (Poor Tom). Lear removes his clothes as he descends deeper in to madness.
Scene 5: Edmund shows Cornwall the letter from Gloucester,
Scene 6: Gloucester rescues Lear from the storm and takes him to a farmhouse.
Scene 7: Gloucester is captured and his eyes are plucked out by Cornwall and Regan. A servant injures Cornwall in a fight and he later dies. Gloucester is removed from his castle.
Lear rages against the world in the storm;
He commands the elements to destroy ‘ingrateful man’;
Lear appears aware of his own position, describing himself as a ‘poor, infirm, weak and despised old man’;
Kent appears to try and persuade Lear to come in out of the storm;
Lear sees to view the storm as a second ‘great flood’, a punishment for man’s ingratitude;
Lear describes himself as ‘a man more sinned against than sinning’.
Edmund
‘The younger rises when the old doth fall’
Lear reacts to Poor Tom
Lear is forced to consider, ‘Is man no more this?’;
Attributing his ‘lowness’ to the actions of ‘unkind daughters’;
Lear removes his clothing at this point in the play, ‘off you lendings’;
Gloucester arrives to try and get Lear to safety proclaiming that ‘His daughters seek his death’;
Lear takes his offer on shelter but insists that Poor Tom accompanies him.
The most barbaric scene in the play;
Regan- ‘Hang him instantly’
Goneril- ‘Pluck out his eyes’
Cornwall takes control of the situation ordering the sisters to, ‘leave him to my displeasure’;
Regan- ‘Hard, hard. O, filthy traitor!’
Gloucester is tortured by Cornwall and has his eyes removed.

5. Gloucester has now realised his errors, ‘I have no way, and therefore want no eyes: I stumbled when I saw’;
Gloucester feels than man is no more than a ‘worm’;
He believes that we suffer at the behest of the gods:
‘As flies to wanton schoolboys are we to the gods,/They kill us for their sport’;
Scene 1: Edgar sees Gloucester and agrees to help him. Gloucester wants to kill himself.
Scene 2: Goneril and Edmund scheme to be together. Albany is repulsed by his wife’s behaviour and is horrified to learn of Gloucester’s blinding. He also learns of Albany’s betrayal.
Scene 3: Kent suggests that Lear is too ashamed of himself to see Cordelia.
Scene 4: Cordelia is due to arrive and begin the war the English army.
Scene 5: Regan detains Oswald to prevent him delivering Goneril’s letter to Edmund.
Scene 6: Edgar leads Gloucester to Dover and manipulates a ‘fake’ suicide. Lear arrives dressed with a crown of weeds. Cordelia’s attendants arrive to bring Lear to her, but he runs away. Edgar kills Oswald. Edgar finds Goneril’s letter to Edmund.
Scene 7: Kent reveals his identity to Cordelia. Lear is brought in. He is filled with remorse. He begs Cordelia to forgive him. They are reconciled.
Albany attacks Goneril telling her that , ‘Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile’
He refers to the sisters as ‘Tigers, not daughters’;
Goneril is not intimidated by her husband calling him a , Milk-livered man’;
Again the attack on a female character seems brutal as Albany calls Goneril both a ‘devil’ and a ‘fiend’;
Albany bemoans the fact that he can not physically attack his wife, ‘A woman’s shape doth shield thee’,
When news arrives to Albany of Cornwall’s death and Gloucester’s blinding, Goneril’s first concern is that ‘my Gloucester’ is with Regan.
Lear’s next speech reveals even more of his new outlook on the world;
He argues that ‘robes and furred gowns hide all’;
He notes that to avoid punishment the rich and powerful are able to ‘plate sin with gold’
“When we are born we cry that we are come/To this great stage of fools”
Lear arrives on stage wearing a crown made of weeds- this could signify that this is a more natural Lear; conversely it could be said to represent a crown of thorns’.
Lear recognises himself as a ‘very fond, foolish old man’.

6. Scene 1: Regan begins to feel jealous over Goneril and Edmund
Scene 1: Regan begins to feel jealous over Goneril and Edmund. Albany arrives and vows to pardon Lear. Edgar gives the letter to Albany and promises to return. Edmund worries about Goneril and Regan. He plans to have Lear murdered.
Scene 2: The battle ensues.
Scene 3: Edmund has Lear and Cordelia taken prisoner. He is going to have them killed.
Albany, Goneril and Regan enter. Edmund refuses to obey Albany’s orders to release Lear. Albany has Edmund arrested on charges of treason.
Regan feels sick (poison).
Edgar arrives and challenges Edmund to a fight. He wins the fight, wounding Edmund. Edgar reveals his true self. Edmund admits his guilt.
Regan dies. Goneril kills herself.
Kent tries to stop Lear’s murder.
Lear arrives carrying Cordelia’s body.
Kent tells Lear who he is.
Edmund is reported to have died.
Lear dies.
Albany asks Kent and Edgar to rule with him, but Kent declines.
Edgar ends by offering some hope for the future.
Edmund is concerned by how to proceed now it is obvious that both sisters love him;
He admits, ‘Neither can be enjoyed if both remain alive’;
He speaks of how Albany will need to be removed after the battle;
He also plans to ignore Albany’s ‘mercy’ for Lear and Cordelia and places a death warrant on them.
Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned;
Cordelia suggests it is typical that those with ‘best meaning’ incur ‘the worst’
Lear seems to enjoy the prospect of being locked away with Cordelia;
He believes the gods will reward her ‘sacrifices’
Regan’s mistrust of Goneril grows.
Kent observes how all is ‘cheerless, dark and deadly’;
Lear dies ‘upon the rack of this tough world’
Lear’s body lies on stage with that of his three daughters- we have come ‘full circle’;
Kent exits saying that his ‘master calls’;
Edgar warns that we should ‘speak what we feel, not what we ought to say’
Edgar appears in disguise claiming his ‘name is lost;
He declares Edmund a ‘traitor’ who is ‘false to thy brother and thy father’;
Edmund falls and declares, ‘what you have charged me with, that have I done’.
‘Howl, howl, howl, howl’