King Lear: The exposition

The main plot

• The opening: quiet chat, information about both plots (1.1.1-33).
• The love-auction: Goneril, Regan -- and Cordelia (1.1.51ff).
• Kent as chorus figure: "banishment is here" (1.1.184).
• A second love-test: France and Burgundy (1.1.194-266).
• The remaining daughters resolve to "hit" ("sit?") together (1.1.306).

The sub-plot: Gloucester and his sons

• "Now, Gods, stand up for bastards": who and what is Nature (2.1.1-22)?
• Doing "what comes naturally" -- instinctive?
• Doing what is "natural," in the sense of ideal nature (it is natual for a child to love its parent).
• Blaming the stars, mocking the stars--Gloucester (1.2.106-20) and Edmund (121-37).
• What are our sympathies, both here and in the main plot?