King Lear Edgar Quotes

The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1. Edgar is at his lowest point so far in the play. But he is not going to despair. He reasons that the lowliest and most dejected creatures live without fear of things getting worse and still have hope. The worst kind of change is when good fortune turns bad, he believes. But when you hit rock bottom, the only change can be to happier times. There’s a lot of motivational and self-help wisdom here from Edgar as Poor Tom. However, there is also a dark irony to his words. For just as Edgar begins to hope, his mutilated father makes an entrance.

So may it be indeed.
Methinks thy voice is altered and thou speak’st
In better phrase and matter than thou didst.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. A suspicious Gloucester notices a change in the way Edgar is speaking as he grows tired of his madman disguise. Gloucester believes that his voice is changed and he is speaking more eloquently. Edgar has to hastily re-adopt his peasant accent and vocabulary after that. The blind Gloucester is planning to commit suicide by jumping off the Dover cliffs, so Edgar is making a pretence of taking him up there.

How fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles; half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark
Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
That on th’ unnumbered idle pebble chafes
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more
Lest my brain turn and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. Edgar pretends to the blind Gloucester that they are hiking up the cliffs of Dover, when they’re actually walking over flat ground. He goes to great pains to convey to his father that the fake cliff is the real thing. He uses words like "fearful" and "dizzy," tells him that the crows and choughs flying below look smaller than beatles, and describes the fishermen walking on the beach below appearing as tiny as mice. Edgar refers to many things in nature in his account of the imaginary cliff. He completes the word picture with descriptions of a tall ship at anchor and the crashing of waves against the rocks too far away to hear. There is much irony in the passage with Edgar’s repeated references to sight – "cast one’s eyes so low," "too small for sight" and "deficient sight." It makes for a rather comical scene, performed on a flat stage. But it’s one in which Edgar is able to use his suffering father’s blindness to convince him that he has jumped off an enormous cliff to commit suicide and is saved by a miracle, thus finding redemption.

Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
So many fathom down precipitating,
Thou’dst shivered like an egg; but thou dost breathe,
Hast heavy substance, bleed’st not, speak’st, art sound.
Ten masts at each make not the altitude
Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.
Thy life’s a miracle. Speak yet again.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. Edgar, no longer playing the part of Poor Tom, pretends to be a new person who saw Gloucester leap from the nonexistent "cliff." Edgar pretends to the blind Gloucester that he fell and miraculously survived. Even if Gloucester were made of only thread, feathers and air, he should have shattered like an egg falling as he did, Edgar tells him. Gloucester’s life and survival is a miracle, his son.

As I stood here below, methought his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
Horns whelked and waved like the enragèd sea.
It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,
Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
Of men’s impossibilities, have preserved thee.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. Edgar tries to trick Gloucester into believing that the "beggar" who led him to the "cliffs" at Dover so that he could jump and commit suicide was a devil and that the gods saved his life. In reality Edgar brings Gloucester across level ground and not the cliffs, where he only falls a few feet and passes out. Thus Edgar helps his father regain his faith and also rid him of his suicidal thoughts. Edgar has disguised his voice and his blind father doesn’t recognize him.

Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
For your good host. Pray that the right may thrive.
If ever I return to you again,
I’ll bring you comfort.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 2. Edgar leads his father Gloucester to shelter under a tree, so that he can rest there during the battle between the forces loyal to Lear and Cordelia and the forces opposed. Then he leaves Gloucester, but assures him that if he ever returns again, he will bring him comfort. But things don’t turn out that way.

Draw thy sword,
That if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.
Behold, it is my privilege, the privilege of mine honours,
My oath, and my profession. I protest,
Maugre thy strength, place, youth, and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valor, and thy heart, thou art a traitor,
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
Conspirant ‘gainst this high illustrious prince,
And from th’ extremest upward of thy head
To the descent and dust below thy foot,
A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou "no,"
This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
Thou liest.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. A disguised Edgar draws his sword and accuses his half-brother Edmund of committing treason and being a liar before they duel. Edmund has been exposed as a traitor for plotting against the Duke of Albany with Albany’s wife Goneril, with both intending to murder him and marry each other. Edgar says that Edmund has betrayed the gods, his brother, his father and plotted against the noble Duke. The duel between the brothers in the last act is symbolic of the ongoing war between good and evil.

In wisdom I should ask thy name,
But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.
Back do I toss these treasons to thy head,
With the hell-hated lie o’erwhelm thy heart.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edmund says this to the mysterious knight who has come to prove Edmund’s treason in trial by combat. The challenger is his half-brother Edgar in disguise. Edmund says that since he does not know the challenger’s name, by the rules of knighthood he should refuse to fight him. But he agrees to the duel because his opponent "looks so fair and warlike." Putting on an act of injured innocence, Edmund throws the accusations of treason back in Edgar’s face and hopes that the "hell-hated lie" poisons his heart.

My name is Edgar, and thy father’s son.
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edgar reveals his true identity to Edmund after mortally wounding his half-brother in a duel. He says that the gods are just because they punish human beings for their wrongdoings. He believes that Edmund got what he deserved. But Edgar seems to suggest that Gloucester’s blinding is punishment from the gods for his illicit love which resulted in Edmund’s conception. Edgar claims that the woman Gloucester committed adultery with, Edmund’s mother, cost Gloucester his eyes and he calls her a "dark and vicious place." Not everyone would agree with Edgar’s belief that such divine retribution for Gloucester’s adultery is fair and proper justice. His blinding is the plays’s greatest act of cruelty and one of the most violent and shocking scenes in all of Shakespeare’s dramas. However, few would quibble with the justice of killing the evil Edmund.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edgar speaks of how the gods are just after he mortally wounds his evil brother Edmund. With Edmund deserving to die, most people would agree with Edgar’s belief here in the justice of divine retribution. But when it comes to Gloucester losing his eyes for the sin of adultery, Cordelia being hanged, and Lear losing his sanity and dying of a broken heart for his sins of pride and foolishness, many would question the fairness of divine justice.

But his flawed heart,
Alack, too weak the conflict to support
‘Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
Burst smilingly.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Edgar describes the death of his father Gloucester, who dies of shock when his estranged son finally takes off the mask and reveals himself to him. The conflicting emotions of happiness and sorrow prove too much for Gloucester and his heart bursts. He dies of heartbreak, as will Lear. But his last breaths are filled with the knowledge of his son Edgar’s love.

KENT: Is this the promised end?
EDGAR: Or image of that horror?
ALBANY: Fall and ease.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. After the distraught Lear, bearing the body of the executed Cordelia in his arms, dissolves into an animalistic howling because he didn’t save her, there are shocked reactions from Kent, Edgar and Albany. Kent asks if this is now the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Edgar believes that it is a foretaste of this. Albany see the world collapsing into ruin. After all the chaos and tragedy and death that has occurred, their comments reflect a certain nihilism that runs through the play. Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago essayist and poet, had this to say, writing on his website: "When Lear dies and they look back on all the chaos that has occurred, leaving bodies strewn and a kingdom wrought, eyes plucked out and the hangings of a fool and a queen, Albany, Kent and Edgar express what each theatergoer is probably already thinking. Is the end of chaos not redemption but more chaos? Is the end of the chaos of our individual lives nothing but more chaos? Do we live life only to ‘fall, and cease’? Live life, endure the chaos – and then we die?"

LEAR: This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
KENT: The same,
Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?
LEAR: He’s a good fellow, I can tell you that.
He’ll strike, and quickly too. He’s dead and rotten.
KENT: No, my good lord, I am the very man –
LEAR: I’ll see that straight.
KENT: That, from your first of difference and decay
Have followed your sad steps.
LEAR: You are welcome hither.
KENT: Nor no man else. All’s cheerless, dark, and deadly.
Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
And desperately are dead.
LEAR: Ay, so I think.
ALBANY: He knows not what he says, and vain it is
That we present us to him.
EDGAR: Very bootless.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. The ever loyal Kent who is disguised as the servant Caius finally reveals his true identity to Lear. But Lear who is slipping in and out of sanity hardly recognizes his most loyal subject. He doesn’t understand that Kent and Caius are the same person. Kent tells him that Regan and Goneril are dead, but Lear is not really taking it in. Albany’s comments sum up Lear’s deteriorating situation, that he doesn’t know what he is saying and it’s useless to try to explain it to him. Edgar confirms this. It’s a very poignant moment, because Kent has given so much in service and support to his master and in the end receives no appreciation or reward for it.

That’s but a trifle here. –
You lords and noble friends, know our intent:
What comfort to this great decay may come
Shall be applied. For us, we will resign,
During the life of this old Majesty,
To him our absolute power; you to your rights,
With boot and such addition as your Honours
Have more than merited.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Albany’s speech is sparked by a messenger entering and announcing that Edmund is dead. Albany treats his death as if it is of no consequence – "a trifle." As sole remaining ruler in the kingdom after the battle between Cordelia’s army and the combined armies of Albany and Edmund, Albany is more concerned with restoring power to the rightful people. He shows his loyalty to King Lear by giving the monarch "absolute power" – even though moments earlier Albany observed the old King’s deteriorated mental state, "He knows not what he says, and vain it is That we present us to him." And he restores Edgar’s and Kent’s positions and titles to them, along with extra rewards that he says they have more than earned – "With boot, and such addition as your honours Have more than merited."
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