LEAR – King of Britain
KING OF FRANCE
DUKE OF BURGANDY
DUKE OF CORNWALL
DUKE OF ALBANY
EARL OF KENT
EARL OF GLOSTER
EDGAR – son to GLOSTER
EDMUND – bastard son to GLOSTER
CURAN – a courtier
Old man – tenant to GLOSTER
Physician
Fool
OSWALD – steward to GONERIL
An officer – employed by EDMUND
Gentleman – attendant on CORDELIA
A herald
Servants – to CORNWALL
GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA – daughters to LEAR
Knights – attending on the KING
Officers, messengers, soldiers, and attendants
PLAY
Britain.
ACT I
Scene i: A room of state in King Lear’s palace.
Scene ii: A hall in the Earl of Gloster’s castle.
Scene iii: A room in the Duke of Albany’s palace.
Scene iv: A hall in Albany’s palace.
ACT II
Scene i: A court within the castle of the Earl of Gloster.
Scene ii: Before Gloster’s castle.
Scene iii: The open country.
Scene iv: Before Gloster’s castle. Kent in the stocks.
ACT III
Scene i: A heath.
Scene ii: Another part of the heath. Storm continues.
Scene iii: A room in Gloster’s castle.
Scene iv: A part of the heath with a hovel. Storm continues.
Scene v: A room in Gloster’s castle.
Scene vi: A chamber in a farm-house adjoining the castle.
Scene vii: A room in Gloster’s castle.
ACT IV
Scene i: The heath.
Scene ii: Before the Duke of Albany’s palace.
Scene iii: The French camp near Dover.
Scene iv: The French camp. A tent.
Scene v: A room in Gloster’s castle.
Scene vi: The country near Dover.
Scene vii: A tent in the French camp.
ACT V
Scene i: The camp of the British forces near Dover.
Scene ii: A field between the two camps.
Scene iii: The British camp near Dover.
Act II: Scene iii
EDGAR: I heard myself proclaim’d;
And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escap’d the hunt. No port is free; no place,
That guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking. While I may scape
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I’ll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numb’d and mortified bare arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes, and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. – Poor Turleygod! poor Tom!
That’s something yet: – Edgar I nothing am.
