They told me I was everything. King Lear : Act 4, Scene 7 ... No cause, no cause. A king, a king!

Go to, they are not men o' their words.

KENT Nor no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life is cheap as beast’s. To be my child Cordelia.

The King hath cause to plain.

Fool.

KENT That, from your first of difference and decay, Have follow'd your sad steps.

KENT In your own kingdom, sir.

Are your tears wet? The hypocritical Goneril and Regan make grand pronouncements and are rewarded; Cordelia, the youngest daughter, who truly loves Lear, refuses to make an insincere speech to prove her love and is disinherited. but I’m not sure. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, And from some knowledge and assurance offer 1660 This office to you. KING LEAR Am I in France?

Please don’t cry. KENT In your own kingdom, sir. Thou art a lady: If only to go warm were gorgeous,

76. abuse: deceive; mock.

CORDELIA No cause, no cause. KING LEAR 75 Am I in France? Your eldest daughters have fordone them selves, And desperately are dead.

Doctor Be comforted, good madam: the great rage, You see, is kill'd in him: and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost. The Cause and Reasons Behind Lear’s Madness Madness manifests itself in a multitude of ways throughout Shakespeare’s King Lear.

The aging King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, allotting each a portion in proportion to the eloquence of her declaration of love. To say “Ay” and “No” to everything that I said “Ay” and “No” to was no good divinity. Desire him to go in; trouble him no more Till further settling. ... Lear. I don’t know where I am.

I can’t recall where I slept last night.

KING LEAR Ay, so I think. KING LEAR 76 Do not abuse me. ALBANY

Spoken by Lear, Act 2, Scene 4.

When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder would not peace at my bidding—there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em out. No, my good lord; I am the very man,--KING LEAR I'll see that straight. No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him.

Yes, indeed they are.

Many of the main characters experience madness in some form or another.

KING LEAR You are welcome hither. For most of the characters the cause of their madness is …

You have some cause, they have not.

Our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. O, reason not the need!

Text of KING LEAR, Act 4, Scene 6 with notes, line numbers, and search function. CORDELIA

KING LEAR Do not abuse me. Read King Lear‘s ‘O, reason not the need’ monologue below with a modern English translation and analysis.