Characters - Quotes + Critics

Quotes 

• 'Come, lets away to prison' and 'sing like birds 'i th' cage' 
• 'When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness' 
• 'How dost, by boy? Art cold?' 'In, boy, go first'
• 'You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!' 'Let fall your horrible pleasure' 
• 'unaccommodated man' 'Off, off, you lendings!' 
• 'We'll have supper i' th' morning' 
• 'the tempest in my mind' 
• 'I gave you all' 'I have ta'en too little care of this' 'I am old and foolish' 

Critics 

• Hal Holbrook: 'Boisterous, demanding, arrogant. He expects absolute obedience'.
• Stanley: 'the real fool here is Lear himself' 
• Tony Coult: 'Diaster starts with the political act of dividing up the state'
• Edward Dowden: 'Lear is the greatest sufferer in Shakespeare's plays' 
  
• LC Knights: 'Lear's final discovery is of his need for Cordelia's love'
  

Quotes 

• 'According to my bond, no more nor less'
• 'your majesty'
• 'singing aloud, crowded by a rank fumier and furrow-weeds' 'as mad as the vexed sea' (about Lear)
• 'I cannot heave my heart into my mouth'
• 'Time will unfold what plighted cunning hides'

Critics 

• Tolstoy: Argues that Cordelia refuses to quatify her love for Lear 'on purpose to irritate her father' 
• Martin Old: 'Cordelia establishes herself as a model of sensible virtue'
• John Knox: 'Women are commanded to be subject to men by the laws of nature' 

Quotes

• 'the laws are mine, not thine' (G)
• 'milky gentleness' (G)
• 'pluck out his...eyes' 'Put in his legs' (R) 
  
• 'old fools are babes again' (G)
• 'sweet lord' (R)
• 'i had rather lose the battle than that sister should loosen him and me' (G)

Critics 

• Tiffany C Baker: 'Regan's refusal to bow to her father's wishes upset the established hierachy of the patriarchal system' 
• Thorndike: 'Inhuman sisters'
• Rubio: 'Goneril and Regan are prseented as demons, monsters, anything but human' 

Quotes 

• 'Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit' 
• 'Fly, brother, fly'
• 'Which one of them shall I take? Both? One? Or neither?' 
• 'Edmund the base, shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper.'
• 'Why rand they us with base? With baseness? Bastardy? Base, base?'
• 'Some good I mean to do despite of mine own nature' 'This speech of yours hath moved me'
• 'The wheel is come full circle' 
• 'Yet Edmund was beloved' 

Critics 

• Race Capet: 'Edmund ranks among the most despised figures of Shakespearean drama' 
• A.C Bradley: 'His attitude is that of a professional criminal'
  'Edmund regards men and women as merely hindrances'
  'Edmund's illegitimacy...influences our feelings...it separates him from other men' 
• Joseph Carroll: 'Many readers feel sympathy for a disadvantaged young man who's determiend to make his own way in the world'. 

Quotes 

• 'Villain, villain!' 'Unnatural' 
• 'all dark and comfortless' 
• 'O my follies! Then Edgar was abused!' 
• 'Kind gods, forgive me that' 
• 'As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport' 
• 'Tis times' plague when madmen lead the blind' 
• 'I have a son... who is no dearer in my account' 

Critics 

• A.C. Bradley: 'The parallel between Lear and Gloucester... is so marked it cannot possibly be accidental' 
• Rob Worrall: 'Gloucester spends most of the play learning from his mistakes' 
• Lofgren: 'Gloucester is the symbol of blindness, both literally speaking and metaphorically speaking' 

Quotes

• 'Edgar I nothing am' 
• 'Draw thy sword' 
• 'Thou art a traitor' 'toad-spotted traitor' 
• 'bear free and patient thoughts' 
• 'I smell the blood of a British man' 

Critics 

• Tolstoy: 'Edgar's escape is utterly imcomprehensible'
• Rebecca Warren: 'Edgar becomes an agent of justice' 
• Mark Schwehn: 'Edgar's disguise both coneals him and reveals him' 

Quotes 

• 'good king'
• 'noble master'
• 'I have a journey, sir, shortly to go. My master calls me, I must not say no'
• 'Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain' 
• 'you rascal...beggarly...whoreson...'

Critics 

• Michael Billington: 'There is something epic about the fact that the loyal Kent is enchained under a heroic, Soviet-like statue of Lear' 
• Helen Gardner: 'The scene fo Kent's quarrel with Oswald... always arouses delighted laughter in the theatre and affords genuine relief to the audience's feelings' 

Quotes 

• 'untimely comes this hurt'
• 'Out, vile jelly!' 
• 'Fetch forth the stocks!'
• 'Bind fast his corky arms' 

Critics 

• McLeish: 'Cornwall's part is small, and in one mode only: cold hearted cruelty'
• Boyce: 'His death is proof that triumph of villainy will not be total'
• Kyle Broussard: 'Cornwall is a hyena' 
  'Master of manipulation'

Quotes 

• 'She that's a maid now and laughs at my departure/ shall not be a maid long unless things be cut shorter' 
• 'nuncle'
• 'be merry'
• 'Speak less than thou knowest'
• 'the egg i' th' middle'
• 'And I'll go to bed at noon' 

Critics 

• George Orwell: the Fool's 'jokes, riddles and scraps of rhyme... are like a trickle of sanity running though the play'
• Sean Lowe: 'the full purpose of the Fool is to stress Lear's poor judgement' 
• Tolstoy: The Fool is 'utterly unsuited to the position and serves no purpose'
• G.Wilson Knight: 'the Fool 'attempts to heal the gaping wound of the mind'