King Lear: Notes (2)

The play gains momentum (the "rising action")

• The Fool: what is his function in the play? See Sir Philip Sidney on Fools.
  • "Thou bor'st thine ass on thy back o'er the dirt" (1.4.159)
• Lear is rejected by first Goneril (1.4.198ff), then Regan: Nature as avenger (1.4.274, 2.4.162-65).
• "Old fond eyes" (1.4.304).
• Kent in the stocks (2.2)
• Edgar becomes Poor Tom (2.3)
• The third love-test, a reverse auction (2.4.254ff).

The turning point

The storm, on the heath and in Lear's mind. Lear curses ingratitude (3.2) He thinks kindly of the Fool, and by extension of the world's "naked wretches" (3.4.26ff) Edgar enters, and Lear's mind turns (3.4.62) The grim trio of abnormality: Lear's madness, Edgar's feigned madness, and the Fool's fooling The mock trial (3.6.35) The sub-plot explodes into violence: the blinding (3.7) Gloucester as bear being baited (3.7.58-60) The compassionate servants (Quarto), omitted (Folio) "flies to wanton boys" (4.1.36)