King Lear Kent Quotes

This is some fellow
Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he.
An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
An they will take it, so; if not, he’s plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly-ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2. Cornwall calls into question Kent’s true nature and his real motivation behind the honest and plain speaking that he prides himself for. Accusing Kent of duplicity, he suggests that his bluntness is just a "garb" and strategy to conceal his real intentions. Kent is not able to flatter, says Cornwall, but his "garb" of honest speech hides more craftiness and dishonest purpose than is seen in twenty bootlicking servants who bow and flatter. Cornwall is not completely off the mark in calling Kent a deceiver. For the Earl of Kent is disguised here as the commoner Caius – Cornwall is not aware of this, but the audience is, making this a good example of dramatic irony.

Sir, I am too old to learn.
Call not your stocks for me. 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.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2. The loyal Kent is still standing up for King Lear, as he tells Cornwall that locking the Lear’s servant in the stocks is very disrespectful towards the King. This reflects the continuing power struggle that is going on between Lear and his supporters and the forces against him, among them Cornwall and his wife Regan.

We’ll set thee to school to an ant to teach thee there’s no labouring i’ th’ winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there’s not a nose among twenty but can smell him that’s stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill lest it break thy neck with following; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again. I would have none but knaves follow it, since a Fool gives it.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 4. The Fool uses metaphorical language to advise Kent that there is no use serving a man like Lear who has nothing to offer. Even the blind can smell his misery. When you see a great wheel rolling down a hill, you shouldn’t try to hold it or it will break your neck, the Fool warns. But the wheel that goes uphill, let it pull you up after it. When a wise man gives you better advice, give mine back, says the Fool.

Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night
Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark
And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never
Remember to have heard. Man’s nature cannot carry
Th’ affliction nor the fear.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2. Kent’s descriptions of the storm bring it vividly to life and spell out its dangers. He says that even nocturnal creatures would avoid this night that Lear and the Fool are standing around in. The angry skies frighten even the bats and confine them to their caves. Kent has never seen such a wrathful storm with its sheets of lightning and terrible wind and rain. It is too terrifying for human nature to bear, he adds.

Prithee, go in thyself. Seek thine own ease.
This tempest will not give me leave to ponder
On things would hurt me more. But I’ll go in. –
In, boy; go first. – You houseless poverty –
Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 4. When Kent suggests to Lear to take shelter in the hovel, Lear shows some compassion and consideration for others by his response. He tells Kent and the Fool to take shelter first, saying that he wishes to stay out in the storm to pray and then sleep. Lear’s courteous words to his loyal Fool "In, boy; go first," not only shows a more caring and faithful side, but marks a turning point in Lear’s attitude to the plight of others; the poor, the homeless and the marginalized.

A sovereign shame so elbows him – his own unkindness,
That stripped her from his benediction, turned her
To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights
To his dog-hearted daughters – these things sting
His mind so venomously that burning shame
Detains him from Cordelia.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 3. Kent speaks of Lear’s guilt and shame over his unkindness to Cordelia, disowning her and giving her rightful inheritance to her two cruel sisters Regan and Goneril. Kent uses an apt animal metaphor – "dog-hearted" – to describe the inhumanity of the two sisters. Lear is burning with so much shame that he refuses to see Cordelia in Dover, Kent says.

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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