Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus?

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 7. Regan assumes the traditional male role here as she grabs a sword from an attendant. Running at Cornwall’s servant with the sword she kills him because the servant had tried to stop Cornwall plucking out Gloucester’s second eye. Here Regan challenges gender roles, as women were not known to engage in acts of combat during this era.