KING LEAR NOTES- ACT TWO · KING LEAR NOTES- ACT TWO These are intended as Leaving Certificate notes for the prescribed text “King Lear.” Notes for the rest of the

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KING LEAR NOTES- ACT TWO

These are intended as Leaving Certificate notes for the prescribed text “King Lear.”

Notes for the rest of the Acts will be added to the blog in the next few weeks.

These notes include analysis of each Scene in Act 2, as well as all of the essential notes for

Leaving Certificate English.

Hope you find them helpful!


ACT TWO SCENE ONE:

We are reintroduced to the scheming Edmund (Gloucester’s son who is vying for some inheritance).

Curan, a courier, informs Edmund that Regan and her husband Cornwall will be arriving to see

Gloucester later. Curan also mentions potential disagreements between Cornwall and Albany

(Goneril’s husband).

The opportunistic Edmund delights in the news, intending to somehow involve Cornwall in his

scheming against Edgar:

“The duke be here tonight? The better—best!

This weaves itself perforce into my business.

My father hath set guard to take my brother.

And I have one thing, of a queasy question,

Which I must act. Briefness and fortune, work!—

Brother, a word. Descend, brother, I say.”

Edgar enters the scene, oblivious to Edmund’s delight. The conniving Edmund duly informs Edgar

that their father’s people are plotting to murder Edgar. The news is obviously distressing for Edgar,

who flees the scene following Edmund’s advice.

Edmund takes immediate advantage of the situation, cutting himself with his own sword with the

intention of making it appear as if Edgar attacked him:

“Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion.

Of my more fierce endeavor.”


His father, Gloucester, then enters the scene accompanied by his servants looking for Edgar.

Edmund immediately informs his father about the fabricated attack by Edgar, telling him that Edgar

stabbed him as Edmund refused to partake in the murdering of Gloucester. Edmund extols the

importance of the father-son bond as he justifies his withdrawal from the murder attempt;

“Persuade me to the murder of your lordship,

But that I told him the revenging gods

'Gainst parricides did all the thunder bend,

Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond

The child was bound to th' father. Sir, in fine,”

Gloucester is disgusted by the events, vowing to bring Edgar to justice and disowns him completely-

“I never got him.” Gloucester, clearly blinded by Edmund’s persuasion, vows to employ Cornwall on

his search for Edgar. As well as this, Gloucester promises to somehow make Edmund his heir-

“And of my land,

Loyal and natural boy, I’ll work the means

To make thee capable.”

Cornwall and Regan then enter the scene. Sensing that Gloucester is upset, they probe him for

information. Gloucester is clearly deeply affected by the events-

“O madam, my old heart is cracked, it’s cracked.”

Regan somehow exacerbates Edgar’s plight by associating him with the apparent disorderly knights

of King Lear-

“Was he not companion with the riotous knights


That tend upon my father?”

Cornwall vows to join forces with Gloucester in the hunt for Edgar. We can see the extent of their

naivety when Cornwall affirms Edmund’s trustworthiness-

“Natures of such deep trust we shall much need.

You we first seize on.”

Regan and Cornwall then request advice from Gloucester on appropriate ways to reply to letters

from Lear and Goneril.

Act TWO SCENE TWO:

Kent arrives at Gloucester’s house in disguise, with the intention of delivering King Lear’s letter to

Regan. However, Oswald (Goneril’s steward) arrives at the same time to deliver Goneril’s letter to

Regan. Kent immediately criticises Oswald for his treatment of King Lear and challenges him to a

fight- “Draw, you rascal. You come with letters against the king.” This is yet another example of

Kent’s unfailing loyalty to Lear. Oswald, terrified, calls for help and attracts the attention of Cornwall,

Regan and Gloucester. Kent refuses to succumb to their questioning, admonishing Oswald’s

disloyalty when justifying his behaviour:

“That such a slave as this should wear a sword,

Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these,

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain

Which are too intrinse t' unloose, smooth every passion

That in the natures of their lords rebel,


Bring oil to fire, snow to the colder moods;

Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks

With every gale and vary of their masters,

Knowing naught, like dogs, but following.—

A plague upon your epileptic visage!

Smile you my speeches as I were a fool?

Goose, an I had you upon Sarum plain,

I’d drive ye cackling home to Camelot”

Kent refuses to apologise for his actions, repeatedly justifying his behaviour by noting the seeming

villains in front of him:

“I have seen better faces in my time

Than stands on any shoulder that I see

Before me at this instant.”

Having heard Oswald’s version of events, Cornwall orders that Kent be punished-

“Fetch forth the stocks, ho!—

You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,

We’ll teach you.”

Kent, again demonstrating his loyalty to the King, is of the opinion that Cornwall’s intended

punishment for him will insult the King:

“I serve the king,


On whose employment I was sent to you.

You shall do small respect, show too bold malice

Against the grace and person of my master,

Stocking his messenger.”

Regan echoes her husband’s orders of sending Kent to spend the night in the basement of the castle.

However, Gloucester, realising Kent’s good character and intentions, is reluctant to impose the

punishment. Gloucester pleads that the King will instead punish Kent-

“His fault is much, and the good king his master

Will check him for ’t. Your purposed low correction

Is such as basest and contemned’st wretches

For pilferings and most common trespasses

Are punished with.”

Given Regan’s power over Gloucester, Gloucester’s pleads are not taken in consideration and Kent is

duly sent to the basement.

Kent, demoted to the basement, resorts to reading a letter from Cordelia to sustain him-

“Good King, that must approve the common saw,

Thou out of heaven’s benediction comest

To the warm sun.

(takes out a letter)

Approach, thou beacon to this underglobe,


That by thy comfortable beams I may

Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles

But misery. I know ’tis from Cordelia,

Who hath most fortunately been informed

Of my obscurèd course and (reads the letter) “shall find time

From this enormous state, seeking to give

Losses their remedies.” All weary and o'erwatched,

Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold

This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night. Smile once more. Turn thy wheel.”

Act Two Scene Three:

The unfortunate Edgar has been forced to disguise himself as “poor Tom” in an attempt to flee those

that hunt for him. Edgar outlines his plan to physically resemble a begger-

“My 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.”

Unfortunately, Edgar is well aware that this is a necessity in order to evade persecution.

Act Two Scene Four:


Lear arrives at Gloucester’s castle with his people. He immediately requests information on Kent’s

imprisonment. He is outraged when Kent informs him that Regan and Cornwall imprisoned him,

demanding justification for the punishment:

“They durst not do ’t.

They could not, would not do ’t. 'Tis worse than murder

To do upon respect such violent outrage.

Resolve me with all modest haste which way

Thou mightst deserve or they impose this usage,

Coming from us.”

Kent informs him of the events that led to the imprisonment.

Fool immediately attributes the situation to King Lear’s riches- stating that parents of rich children

only gain attention from their children due to their desire for inheritance:

“Fathers that wear rags

Do make their children blind.

But fathers that bear bags

Shall see their children kind.”

Lear is hysterical, requesting to speak to his daughter immediately:

“O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!

Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow.

Thy element’s below.—Where is this daughter?”


However, Regan and Cornwall refuse to speak to Lear claiming that they are fatigued from their

journey. This incenses Lear, who finds this response incomprehensible:

“Deny to speak with me? They are sick? They are weary?

They have traveled all the night?—mere fetches, ay!

The images of revolt and flying off.

Fetch me a better answer.”

Gloucester informs that Cornwall is unlikely to change his mind. This does little to appease Lear, who

is still demanding their immediate presence:

“Vengeance, plague, death, confusion!

“Fiery”? What “quality”? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester,

I’d speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.”

Lear, now exasperated with the situation, vows to abandon his quest until tomorrow morning. He

still struggles to comprehend the extent of the deterioration of his father-daughter relationship:

“The king would speak with Cornwall. The dear father

Would with his daughter speak, commands, tends service.

Are they “informed” of this? My breath and blood!

“Fiery”? The “fiery” duke? Tell the hot duke that Lear—

No, but not yet. Maybe he is not well.

Infirmity doth still neglect all office

Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves


When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind

To suffer with the body. I’ll forbear,

And am fallen out with my more headier will

To take the indisposed and sickly fit

For the sound man.

(notices KENT again)

Death on my state! Wherefore

Should he sit here? This act persuades me

That this remotion of the duke and her

Is practice only. Give me my servant forth.

Go tell the duke and ’s wife I’d speak with them—

Now, presently. Bid them come forth and hear me,

Or at their chamber door I’ll beat the drum

Till it cry sleep to death.”

Regan eventually meets her father. Lear somewhat entertains her feigned affection for him, stating

that he would suspect that she wasn’t his daughter if she wasn’t happy to see him. He begins to

discuss his experiences with Goneril:

“Regan, I think you are. I know what reason

I have to think so: if thou shouldst not be glad,

I would divorce me from thy mother’s tomb,


Sepulchring an adultress.

(to KENT) Oh, are you free?

Some other time for that.

Belovèd Regan,

Thy sister’s naught. O Regan, she hath tied

Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture, here.

(indicates his heart)

I can scarce speak to thee. Thou'lt not believe

With how depraved a quality— O Regan!”

Regan immediately rejects any negativity towards her sister, urging him to consider it as a

misunderstanding:

“I pray you, sir, take patience. I have hope

You less know how to value her desert

Than she to scant her duty.”

“I cannot think my sister in the least

Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance

She have restrained the riots of your followers,

'Tis on such ground and to such wholesome end


As clears her from all blame.”

Regan remains completely detached from her father’s pleas. As well as insulting his age, she

requests that he return to Goneril and apologise:

“O sir, you are old.

Nature in you stands on the very verge

Of his confine. You should be ruled and led

By some discretion that discerns your state

Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you

That to our sister you do make return.

Say you have wronged her, sir.”

Lear resorts to begging Regan in an attempt to appease her:

“Dear daughter, I confess that I am old.

Age is unnecessary. On my knees I beg

That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.”

However, Regan is disinterested in his pleas and instead orders that he return to Goneril-

“Good sir, no more. These are unsightly tricks.

Return you to my sister.”

Lear is infuriated by Regan’s request, refusing to return to apologise to Goneril:


“Never, Regan.

She hath abated me of half my train,

Looked black upon me, struck me with her tongue,

Most serpentlike, upon the very heart.

All the stored vengeances of heaven fall

On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones,

You taking airs, with lameness!”

Despite wishing that Goneril be struck by lightning, Lear assures Regan that he does not wish the

same fate upon her-

“No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse.

Thy tender-hafted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce, but thine

Do comfort and not burn. 'Tis not in thee

To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train,

To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes,

And in conclusion to oppose the bolt

Against my coming in. Thou better know’st

The offices of nature, bond of childhood,

Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude.


Thy half o' th' kingdom hast thou not forgot,

Wherein I thee endowed.”

Oswald arrives with Goneril. Goneril acts oblivious to Lear’s outrage. Regan requests that Lear

dismiss half his staff, as well as urging him to stay with Goneril:

“I pray you, father, being weak, seem so.

If till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,

Dismissing half your train, come then to me.

I am now from home, and out of that provision

Which shall be needful for your entertainment.”

Lear is disgusted by both suggestions, stating that he would prefer to be homeless than stay with

Goneril:

“Return to her, and fifty men dismissed?

No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl—

To wage against the enmity o' th' air—

Necessity’s sharp pinch! Return with her?

Why, the hot-blooded France that dowerless took

Our youngest born—I could as well be brought

To knee his throne, and, squirelike, pension beg


To keep base life afoot. Return with her?

Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter

To this detested groom.”

Goneril is apathetic. Lear, rendered apoplectic, compares Goneril to a disease and vows to stay with

Regan:

“Now, I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad.

I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell.

We’ll no more meet, no more see one another.

But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter—

Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh,

Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil,

A plague-sore or embossèd carbuncle

In my corrupted blood. But I’ll not chide thee.

Let shame come when it will. I do not call it.

I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,

Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove.

Mend when thou canst. Be better at thy leisure.

I can be patient. I can stay with Regan,

I and my hundred knights.”


Regan is entirely disinterested in his outburst. Increasingly dismissive, she states that she will only

reluctantly have him to stay as a result of his old age:

“Not altogether so, sir.

I looked not for you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister.”

Regan and Goneril continue to urge Lear to dismiss half his entourage. Regan vows to refuse to host

Lear if he brings more than twenty-five knights to her abode:

“Why not, my lord? If then they chanced to slack you,

We could control them. If you will come to me—

For now I spy a danger—I entreat you

To bring but five and twenty. To no more

Will I give place or notice.”

Lear is exasperated with his daughters’ attitudes towards him. Goneril’s ultimatum of

accommodating fifty of his knights is more enticing that Regan’s offer of twenty-five knights and he

is forced to accept Goneril’s offer:

“Those wicked creatures yet do look well favored

When others are more wicked. Not being the worst

Stands in some rank of praise.

(to GONERIL) I’ll go with thee.

Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,


And thou art twice her love.”

Goneril challenges Lear to justify his need for more than twenty-five knights:

“What need you five and twenty, ten, or five

To follow in a house where twice so many

Have a command to tend you?”

This is echoed by Regan- “What need one?”

Lear is incandescent with rage. He is infuriated that his daughters would attempt to strip him of his

final possessions and compares himself to a beggar. He also compares the sisters to unnatural

creatures, vowing to punish them somehow:

“O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous.

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady.

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st,

Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need—

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need.

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,

As full of grief as age, wretched in both.

If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts


Against their father, fool me not so much

To bear it tamely. Touch me with noble anger.

And let not women’s weapons, water drops,

Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,

I will have such revenges on you both

That all the world shall—I will do such things—

What they are yet I know not, but they shall be

The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep?

No, I’ll not weep.”

Lear dramatically exits the scene. This is of little interest to Cornwall, Regan and Goneril who remain

unaffected by his deteriorating emotional state.

Documents

KING LEAR NOTES- ACT TWO · KING LEAR NOTES- ACT TWO These are intended as Leaving Certificate notes for the prescribed text “King Lear.” Notes for the rest of the