King Lear Quotes

1)Who says it?2)To whom?3)Meaning?”Old fond eyes/Beweep this cause again, I’ll pluck ye out/ And cast you, with the waters that you loose/ to temper clay” 1) Lear2) Goneril3) Lear is so angry he could cry. He sees his mistakes (symbolism of blindness)
“I did her wrong” 1) Lear 2) Fool3) says about banishing Cordelia
“Thou shouldst not have been old til thou hadst been wise” 1) Fool2) Lear 3) Lear should be wise because he is old but he is just a fool (referring to banishing Cordelia)
“Edgar, I am nothing” 1) Edgar 2) Edgar 3) He is not himself anymore. He is a reduced to a lowly crazy beggar which is basically nothing.
“I gave you all–“ 1) Lear 2) Reagan and Goneril 3) Lear is saying that he gave his daughter everything so they should let him have his knights.
“O, reason not the need!” 1) Lear 2) Reagan and Goneril 3) He’s saying people have wants and he wants his knights.
“Nothing will come of nothing” 1) Lear 2) Cordelia 3) If she says nothing (about how much she loves lear) she will get nothing
“So young and untender” 1) Lear 2) Cordelia 3)
“So young and true” 1) Cordelia 2) Lear3) Cordelia is saying that by not pouring out her love for her father she is being true, because she will give half her love to her husband.
“See better Lear” 1) Kent 2) Lear3) When Lear banishes Kent
“She is herself a dowry” 1) France2) Lear3) France doesn’t care that she isn’t getting the land becasue she is fab
“Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself” 1) Reagan 2) Goneril 3) He’s going senile. But then again he’s never really understood his own feelings very well.
“I am a man more sinned against than sinning” 1) Lear 2) Kent3) People do more wrong to him than he does to people
“The younger rises when the old dath fall” 1) Edmund 2) Edmund 3) When Glouc. dies Edmund will rise and take all the land and wealth.
“Is man no more than this” 1) Lear2) Fool/Edgar 3) S
“and I’ll go to bed at noon” 1) Fool 2) Lear and Kent3) last line of the fool in the play
“Know, my name is lost” 1) Edgar 2) Hearld/Albany/Edmund 3) Edgar has changed since the beginning of the play. Doesn’t know who he is anymore because he is no longer poor tom nor edgar.
“I have no way and therefore want no eyes/I stumbled when I saw” 1) Glouc.2) Old man3) I messed up when I had eyes so I don’t deserve them anymore. I’m so lost I don’t need eyes
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods/They kill is for their sport” 1) Glouc.2)3) human life is insignificant (flies symbolize death)
“You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face” 1) Albany 2) Goneril 3) you are the ultimate woat
“they told me I was everything, tis a lie. I am not ague-proof” 1) Lear 2) Glouc3) I am not a God, I am a mortal. I am no better than anyone else I am a normal person I can get sick too
“let me wipe it first- it smells of mortality” 1) Lear2) Cordelia 3) I’m no longer a king I am just a mortal
“which of you shall we say loves us most” 1) lear 2) daughters 3) which one of you loves us (lear and the country) most
“Fortune, good night. Smile once more; turn they wheel” 1) Kent2) Kent3) Hoping his life gets better
“See’t thou shalt never,” 1) Cornwall2) Glouc3) when he is plucking out his eyes
“The worst returns to laughter” 1) Edgar2) 3) things can only go up from here
“The oldest hath borne most; we that are young shall never see so much nor live so long.” 1) Edgar 2)3) young won’t understand the kind of pain Lear/Glouc went through until they are old