Nick

King Lear: Act 2, Scene 3

Edgar:
I heard myself proclaimed;
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 hairs 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 Turlygod! Poor Tom!
That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am.
Nick Rosenthal
Voice and Speech
Gigi Buffington
28 January, 2019

1. Circumstance of the Play:

a. Two intricately woven storylines: one concerning King Lear and his three daughters; and
the sub-plot of Gloucester and his sons. The King plans to divide his land among his three
daughters, but when his youngest, Cordelia defies him, he casts her off and gives the land
to his eldest two: Goneril and Regan. The two daughters are greedy and selfish and turn
their father out into a raging storm. While this is happening, Gloucester’s younger son,
Edmund, lies to him and informs Gloucester that his eldest, Edgar, is plotting against his
life. Edgar runs away and disguises himself as a poor beggar when a search warrant is out
for his arrest.
2. Circumstance of the Scene:
a. Act 2, Scene 3
b. Edgar, in order to escape the search-party, is disguising himself as a mad beggar.
3. Moment Before the Scene:
a. Act 2, Scene 1
b. Edmund warns Edgar that he must flee under the cover of night to escape Gloucester’s
wrath (why?). When Edmund hear Gloucester coming, he draws his sword and pretends
to fight with Edgar while he runs away. Edmund cuts his own arm and lies to his father
by telling him Edgar tried to get him to join the plot to kill Gloucester, but when he
refused, tried to kill him. He praises Edmund and sends out a search party to arrest Edgar.
4. What Others Say About Me:
a. Act 1, Scene 1:
i. “But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no
dearer in my account….” -Gloucester
b. Act 1, Scene 2:
i. “Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land…” -Edmund
1. “Well, my legitimate…”
ii. “...it is a letter from my brother that I have not all o’erread, and for so much as I
have perus’d, I find it not fit for your o’erlooking.” -Edmund
iii. I hope for my brother’s justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my
virtue.” -Edmund
iv. “My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? A heart and brain to breed it in?”
-Gloucester
v. “If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; but, in respect of
that, I would fain think it were not.” -Edmund
vi. “It is his.” -Gloucester
vii. “It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the contents.” -Edmund
 viii. “But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit that, sons at a perfect age, and
fathers declin’d, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his
revenue.” -Edmund
ix. “O villain, villain!...Abhorred villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! Worse
than brutish!...Abominable villain!” -Gloucester
x. “He cannot be such a monster-” Gloucester
xi. “This villain of mine comes under the prediction…Find out this villain,
Edmund...” -Gloucester
xii. “...a brother noble, whose nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects
none; on who my foolish honesty my practices ride easy!” -Edmund
c. Act 2, Scene 1:
i. ...Where’s the villain?” -Gloucester
ii. “Here stood in the dark, his sharp sword out, mumbling of wicked charms,
conjuring the moon to stand auspicious mistress” -Edmund
iii. “Persuade me to murther of your lordship; but that I am told him, the revenging
gods ‘gainst parricides did all the thunder bend; spoke with how manifold and
strong a bond the child was bound to th’father; sir, in fine, seeing how loathly
opposite I stood to his unnatural purpose, in fell motion, with his prepared sword
he charges home my unprovided body, lanch’d mine arm: and when he saw my
best alarum’d spirits bold in the quarrel’s right, roused to th’encounter, or
whether gasted by the noise I made, fell suddenly he fled.” -Edmund
iv. “Bringing the murderous coward to the stake; he that conceals him, death.”
-Gloucester
v. “I threatened to discover him: he replied, ‘Thou unpossessing bastard! Dost thou
think if I would stand against thee, would the reposal of any trust, virtue, or
worth in thee make my words faith’d? No: what I should deny,- As this I would
say; ay, thou didst produce my very character- I’ld turn it all to thy suggestion,
plot, and damned practice: and thou must make a dullard of the world, if they not
thought the profits of my death were very pregnant and potential spirits to make
thee seek it.’” -Edmund
vi. “O strange and fast’ned villain! Would he deny his letter, said he? I never got
him.” -Gloucester
vii. “If it be true, all vengeance comes too short which can pursue the offender.”
-Regan
viii. “What, did my father’s godson seek your life? He whom my father nam’d your
Edgar?” -Regan
ix. “Was he not companion with the riotous knights that tended up my father?”
-Regan
x. “Yes, madam, he was of that consort.” -Edmund
xi. “No marvel then though he were ill affected; ‘tis they have put him on the old
man’s death, to have th’expense and waste of his revenues.” -Regan
xii. “He did bewray his practice; and receiv’d this hurt you see, striving to apprehend
him.” Gloucester
 xiii. “If he be taken he shall never more be feared of doing harm; make your own
purpose how in strength you please.” -Cornwall
d. Act 3, Scene 4:
i. “Come not in here, nuncle; here’s a spirit.” -Fool
ii. “A spirit, spirit: he says his name’s Poor Tom.” -Fool
iii. “What, has his daughters brought him to this pass! Couldst thou save nothing?
Wouldst thou ‘em all?” -Lear
iv. “Nay, he reserv’d a blanket, else we had been all sham’d.” -Fool
v. “Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air hang fated o’er men’s faults light
on thy daughters!” -Lear
vi. “He hath no daughters, sir.” -Kent
vii. “Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdu’d nature to such a lowness but his
unkind daughters.” -Lear
viii. “Ha! Here’s three on’s are sophisticated; thou art the thing itself;
unaccommodated man is no more but such a bare, forked animal as thou art.”
-Lear
ix. “Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile, that doth hate what gets it.”
-Gloucester
x. “First let me talk with this philosopher.” -Lear
xi. “I had a son, now outlaw’d from my blood; he sought my life, but lately, very
late; I lov’d fim, friend, no father his son dearer, true to tell thee, the grief hath
craz’d my wits.” -Gloucester
xii. “I will keep still with my philosopher.” -Lear
e. Act 3, Scene 5:
i. “Now I perceive it was not altogether your brother’s evil disposition made him
seek his death; but a provoking merit, set a-work by a reproveable badness in
himself.” -Cornwall
f. Act 3, Scene 7:
i. “Then Edgar was abus’d. Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him!”
-Gloucester
g. Act 4, Scene 1:
i. “Madman and beggar too.” -Old Man
ii. “He has some reason, else he could not beg. I’th’last night’s storm I such a fellow
saw, which made me think a man a worm. My son came then into my mind; and
yet my mind was then scarce friends with him.” -Gloucester
iii. “Alack, sir! He is mad.” -Old Man
h. Act 4, Scene 6:
i. “Methinks thy voice is alter’d, and thou speak’st in better phrase and matter than
thou didst.” -Gloucester
ii. “Methinks you’re better spoken.” -Gloucester
iii. “If Edgar live, O, bless him!” Gloucester
iv. “Let go slave, or thou die’st.” -Oswald
v. “Out, dunghill!” -Oswald
 vi. “Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse.” -Oswald
i. Act 5, Scene 3:
i. “But since thy outside looks so fair and war-like, and that thy tongue some say of
breeding breathes, what safe and nicely I might delay by rule of knighthood, I
disdain and spurn; back do I toss these treasons to thy head, with the hell-hated
lie o’erwhelm thy heart, which, for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise, this
sword of mine shall give them instant way, where they shall rest forever.”
-Edmund
ii. “But what art thou that has fortune on me? If thou art noble, I do forgive thee.”
-Edmund
iii. “Friends of my soul, you twain Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.”
-Albany
5. Class and Status:
a. Edgar is the son of the Earl of Gloucester. His father is a British nobleman, which makes
him a noble by blood. He is entitled to a courtesy title, but he is not considered equal to
Gloucester. Most likely a Viscount, but is never referred to as one.
i. Godson of the king. We know this because Regan says, “What, did my father’s
godson seek your life?” in Act 2, Scene 1.
ii. King Lear also named him Edgar.
b. Edgar becomes a poor, low class beggar in Act 2 when he is on the run and disguises
himself to hide from those looking to arrest him. He is no longer a member of the higher
class society.