Explanation: King Lear

1. What would'st thou do, old man? Think'st thou that duty shall have
dread to speak? When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's
bound When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state; And, in thy
best consideration, check This hideous rashness. (Act I, Scene i,
Lines 145-150)
These lines are spoken by Kent to Lear in Shakespeare's play King Lear in the very
opening scene. Lear, feeling deeply annoyed with Cordelia, has divided her share of
his kingdom between his other two daughters. Kent tries to stop Lear from going
ahead with this division, but Lear tells him that his decision is final, whereupon Kent
makes the speech quoted here.
Kent speaks to Lear in a challenging tone and asks what the old man can do to stop
Kent from speaking. Kent says that, as a duty-minded man, he is not afraid of Lear
and will not refrain from speaking. He will not keep quiet when he finds that Lear, a
powerful King, is yielding to flattery. An honourable man is bound to speak bluntly
when his King behaves foolishly. Kent then urges Lear not to give away his power
and authority but to hold back his decision and reconsider it carefully. He extorts
Lear to put a check on the terrible speed with which he is giving away his kingdom
and his power.
These lines throw much light on Kent's character. Kent here shows himself to be a
plain, blunt man. He is not afraid of speaking his mind. He is not a flatterer or a
sycophant to concur with the King no matter what the King says. He realizes that
Lear is committing a blunder and he tries his utmost to prevent Lear from this
impetuous action. He appears here as a true counsellor, though his advice goes
unheeded. His intervention makes the opening scene even more dramatic.

Q. 2. This is most strange, That she, whom even but now was your best
object, The argument of your praise, balm of your age, The best, the
dearest, should in this trice of time Commit a thing so monstrous, to
dismantle So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence Must be of such
unnatural degree That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection Fall into
taint; which to believe of her, Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Should never plant in me. (Act I, Scene i, Lines 212-222)
These lines have been taken from Shakespeare's play King Lear. The speaker here is
the King of France. He is speaking to Lear who has informed him that, in case he
wants to marry his youngest daughter Cordelia, he will have to accept her without a
dowry because she has completely been disowned and disinherited by him. In fact,
Lear advises the French King to go and look for some other girl instead of marrying
Cordelia. In these lines, the French King expresses his surprise at the transformation
which has suddenly taken place in Lear's attitude towards Cordelia.

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The French King says that this development is most strange. Only a little while ago
Cordelia was the main object of Lear's love. Cordelia had been the subject of Lear's
praise and admiration. Lear had himself said that she was the comfort of his old
age, and his best and dearest daughter. And now, in one moment, Lear's opinion
has undergone a complete change. This means that she must surely have
committed some horrible deed as a result of which the protective clothing of his
favour towards her has completely been stripped away. Surely, says the French
King, either the offence she has committed is so unnatural as to make her appear
inhuman, or the affection which Lear had previously been claiming to feel for her
must now appear to have been utterly undeserved and unjustified. The French King
finds it difficult to believe that she has suddenly committed some monstrous act.
For him to believe such a thing requires blind faith, faith of a kind which he cannot
entertain on the basis of his reason unaccompanied by a miracle. In other words,
only a miracle can convince him that she has committed some horrible misdeed. He
cannot believe such a thing on the basis only of his reason and judgment.
These line show the French King's surprise at the sudden change in Lear's attitude
towards Cordelia. As such, these lines have a psychological value. Anybody would
be surprised by such a change on the part of a father towards one of his daughters,
especially because it had been known to everybody at the court and to the visitors
at the court that Cordelia was Lear's favourite daughter. The French King's speech
emphasizes the waywardness of Lear's temperament. This speech reinforces also
our feeling that Lear is himself mainly responsible for the misfortunes which will
soon overtake him.
Q.3. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound.
Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The
curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen
moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base? When my
dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as
true, As honest madam's issue?

(Act I, Scene ii, Lines 1-9)

These lines are taken from Shakespeare's play King Lear. The speaker here is
Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester. Edmund is here speaking to
himself. These lines are thus part of a soliloquy by Edmund.
Edmund says that Nature is the goddess whom he worships. He owes his duty and
service to this goddess. He is not a believer in the man-made conventions and
customs of society. According to social customs and conventions, a bastard son is
not entitled to a share in his father's property. Also, those customs and conventions
prevent a younger son from getting any part of that property. Edmund says that he
would not like to depend on a custom which is evil. Why should he allow the false

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delicacy of human society to keep him out of his rights just because he is about
twelve or fourteen months behind his brother Edgar in age? Why should Edmund be
called a bastard? Why should he be thought to be low and vile, when the
proportions of his body are as harmonious and his mind is as brave as those of a
legitimate son, and when his appearance and face resemble his father's. In all these
respects he is no different from the son of a virtuous mother. It may be true that he
was born of an adulterous relationship between his father and his mother who
certainly violated the moral law of society. But what does that matter? He looks as
handsome and proportionate in his appearance as any son out of a legitimate
sexual relationship. He should not therefore suffer from any disabilities and
handicaps.
As already indicated above, these lines are part of a soliloquy. In a soliloquy, a
character often expresses his secret and private thoughts. A soliloquy therefore
gives to a reader and to an audience a glimpse of the inner working of a character's
mind. These lines show how Edmund's mind is working. He rebels against the social
custom by which the eldest son alone is entitled to inherit the entire property of his
father. Edmund is younger than his brother Edgar, and therefore not entitled to a
share in Gloucester's estate. At the same time Edmund rebels against the social
stigma which attaches to an illegitimate or bastard son. A bastard son may have a
harmonious and proportionate body. Why should then he be regarded as an
undesirable person?
Q. 4. Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take More composition and fierce
quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to th'creating a whole
tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake? (Act I, Scene ii, Lines 9-15)
These lines are part of a soliloquy by Edmund in Shakespeare's play King Lear.
Edmund is reflecting upon his social position as the bastard son of his father. He
rebels against the social custom according to which only the eldest son of a man is
entitled to that man's property while the younger brother or brothers have no share
in it. At the same time Edmund refuses to believe that an illegitimate son is in any
way inferior to a legitimate son.
Edmund asks why people should look upon bastards as undesirable and hateful
persons. Why should people attach a stigma to a bastard son? Why should they
regard bastards as low, vile, and despicable? Edmund then proceeds to argue in
favour of illegitimate children. A child, he says, who is conceived during the stolen
hours of lust requires a more vigorous effort and a more energetic quality in the
making than does a child conceived by a woman in her lawful marriage-bed. A child
conceived in a lawful bed is often conceived when both the mother and the father
are half-awake and half- asleep. A child conceived by a woman in a sinful bed, on
the contrary, is the product of a vigorous and whole-hearted effort. A large number
of fools are born in this world as a result of the sexual intercourse performed by
lawfully wedded couples in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness. An illegitimate
child may therefore be actually superior to a legitimate one.

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In these lines, Edmund expresses his dissatisfaction with the customs and
conventions of society. He cannot understand why bastards are treated with disdain
and contempt. According to Edmund, bastards are the products of a sexual union
which is accompanied by a lot of zest and gusto on the part of both the male and
female partners. A man and a woman who have been married for a long time find
little pleasure in their sexual relationship. But a sexual union, which under social
laws is forbidden, provides great pleasure to the partners. The child who is the
product of a lawful union would therefore be somewhat deficient in intelligence,
while one who is born of a sinful union would be more intelligent and alert. In other
words, Edmund is trying to establish the superiority of a bastard over a legitimate
child. The argument is very amusing, and it shows Edmund's witty quality. One may
or may not agree with what Edmund here says, but one cannot help admiring
Edmund's ingenuity and his wit.

Q. 5. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us:
though the wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus, yet Nature finds
itself scourg'd by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off.
brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries discord; in palaces,
treason; and the bond crack'd 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine
comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the King falls from
bias of nature; there's father against child. (Act I, Scene ii, Lines 100-109)
These lines are spoken by the Earl of Gloucester to his bastard son Edmund in
Shakespeare's play King Lear. In pursuance of his plan to acquire all his father's
property, Edmund has devised a method by which he can prejudice his father
against his brother Edgar and by which he can create a complete rift between
Gloucester and Edgar. Accordingly, he has forged a letter by means of which he is
able to convince his father that Edgar is plotting against Gloucester's life. In these
lines, Gloucester tries to account for the unnatural behaviour of children towards
their parents and for the unnatural behaviour of all human beings under certain
conditions.
Gloucester attributes the wicked and unnatural behaviour of human beings to
certain planetary influences. According to him, the recent solar and lunar eclipses
indicated that things would go wrong with human beings. Science, says Gloucester,
can certainly explain natural events in rational terms. But the results of those
events do a good deal of damage to human beings. Although scientific knowledge
offers its own explanations of these eclipses, yet the natural world of man is greatly
afflicted by the disasters that follow. In other words, scientific explanations cannot
prevent the harmful effects of such phenomena as the eclipses. Gloucester then
goes on to describe the disasters which are foretold by these eclipses. Love cools
down; friendship declines; brothers begin to drift away from each other; revolts and
rebellions take place against the authorities in cities; civil war breaks out in
countries; traitors become active in royal palaces; and the relationship between
father and son suffers much damage. Referring to his son Edgar, Gloucester calls

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him a villain who is covered by the forecasts which have been conveyed to human
beings by the recent eclipses. A son turns against his father. The father who is a
king, goes against his natural instinets and turns against his children. These things
were but to be expected in view of the eclipses which had occurred recently, says
Gloucester.
eclipses foretell misfortunes and disasters for mankind. Having been tricked by
Edmund into believing that Edgar is seeking his life, the Earl of Gloucester tries to
explain the unnatural behaviour of Edgar with reference to the recent eclipses. He
does not realize that he himself is to blame for having believed the story which
Edmund has cooked up. He has put blind faith in Edmund's story, without having
tried to summon Edgar to his presence and without trying to meet him in order to
question him on the subject. He is foolish enough to explain the supposed perversity
of Edgar with reference to the eclipses. (Gloucester is not alone in taking up this
stand. There are millions of people even today in India who believe in planetary
influences upon human beings and who believe that the eclipses provide sure
indications of the events to come. Superstition has a great hold upon the minds of
people even today when science has made an enormous progress).

Q. 6. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in
fortune, often the surfeits of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on necessity,
fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical
predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience
of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on.
(Act 1, Scene ii, Lines 115-123)
These lines are spoken by Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, in
Shakespeare's play King Lear. Edmund has been able to convince Gloucester, by
means of a forged letter, that Edgar is seeking Gloucester's lift. Gloucester has
attributed the unnatural conduct of Edgar to planetary influences. When Gloucester
has gone away, Edmund speaks to himself in a soliloquy of which these lines form a
part.
Edmund says that this is an example of the extreme stupidity of human beings.
When human beings are reduced in fortune, often as a result of their own excesses,
they put the responsibility for their misfortunes on the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Human beings talk as if they had behaved in a wicked manner under some
unavoidable necessity, as if they had behaved foolishly on account of a heavenly
compulsion, as if they had acted like rogues, thieves, and traitors because a
particular planet was most powerful at the time of their birth. They talk as if they
have become drunkards, liars, and adulterers on account of the irresistible influence
of the particular stars under which they were born. Thus, they attribute all the evil
in themselves to some compelling divine force.

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Q. 7. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother
under the dragon's tail, and my nativity was under Ursa major; so that it
follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut! should have been that I am had the
maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. (Act I,
Scene ii, Lines 123-130)
These lines are part of a soliloquy by Edmund in Shakespeare's play King Lear.
Edmund has been able to convince his father (Gloucester), by means of a forged
letter, that Edgar is seeking Gloucester's life. Gloucester has attributed the
supposed unnatural behaviour of Edgar to certain planetary influences and has
spoken about the recent eclipses which, in his opinion, had foretold the misfortunes
that would overtake human beings. Edmund in his soliloquy mocks at such
astrological beliefs. He makes fun of people who think that their misfortunes and
their vices are due to planetary influences.
Edmund, continuing to make fun of astrological beliefs, says that it is strange that a
lecherous man should evade the responsibility for his lecherous nature by saying
that a star is responsible for his lecherous disposition. Edmund says that in his own
case, for example, people might argue that his father had slept with his mother
when a particular evil star was in a certain powerful position. It might be said that
he was born under the influence of a group of stars known as the "Great Bear". The
inference will be that he is a man of coarse nature and of a lustful disposition
because of the particular planets under which he was conceived and born. Edmund
rejects such a belief as complete nonsense. He says that he would have been a man
of this very nature and this very disposition even if the most virtuous star in the sky
had been in a most powerful position at the time when he was conceived in the
course of the illicit sexual union between his father and his mother. Stars have thus
nothing to do with his lustful and wicked nature.