GLOUCESTER: Is ‘t not the king?
LEAR: Ay, every inch a king.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6. When the blinded and rejected Gloucester reunites with the bedraggled and rejected Lear he recognizes the voice of Lear. But he cannot see that Lear is wearing a crown of weeds and flowers. The powerless and mad Lear’s declaration that he is "every inch a king" is highly ironic in view of his dramatic fall from grace and loss of dignity.