The King must take it ill
That he, so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrained.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2. Gloucester warns Cornwall and wife Regan that King Lear will be insulted if his messanger Kent is restrained in the stocks. But his pleas are ignored and Kent is put in the stocks, showing how little power King Lear now has left, having once been the most powerful figure in Britain.