Act I Scene iv King Lear

King Lear: Act I Scene iv
Study Questions

The good must hide their real identity.
For Kent – the good man must disguise his identity in order to survive in a mad world.

Blindness – Lear is blind when is confuses disloyal daughters for a loyal one, and friends for enemies.

One role of the fool in this play is to serve as a counterbalance to the divinity of the king and the fact that Lear is still very much a fallible human being. The fool is able to use his position and his wit to attack the king and help him see the truth. The fool also serves to clarify information for the audience. His chief function at this time is to point out that Lear’s distortion in perception has led to an unnatural order of things.
The father should punish the children, but here the children are punishing the father,
The king should teach the fool, but here the fool is teaching the king.

1. Summarize the exchange between Kent and Lear (I iv 1-44)

2. Summarize the exchange between Lear, the Knight and Oswald (I iv 45-88)

Here is the first of many lessons the Fool gives the king. Either explain what each line means or rewrite it in plain, modern language:

Mark it, nuncle.
Have more than thou showest,=____________________________________________________
Speak less than thou knowest, = _________________________________________________
Lend less than thou owest, = ____________________________________________________
Learn more than thou trowest, (Believe or know)__________________________________
Set less than thou throwset, (Don’t bet more than you can stand to lose)
Leave they drink and they whore, = _______________________________________________
And keep in-a-door,_______________________________________________________________
And thou shall have more__________________________________________________________
Than two tens to a score. (Your money will increase)

This little rhyme means…

Now, explain this riddle:
Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet one?

That lord that counseled thee
To give away thy land, Who is this lord?_________________________
Come place him here by me,
Do thou for him stand.
The sweet and bitter fool
Will presently appear; (* motley – a multicolored fabric worn by fools)The one in motley here,
The other found out there. Who is the Motely?_________________________

Who is the other?___________________________

Which has cause to be sweet?
Why?______________________
Which has cause to be bitter?
Why?______________________

Here’s another riddle:
Fool Nuncle, give me an egg, and I’ll give thee two crowns.
Lear What two crowns shall they be? What does the egg represent?
Fool Why, after I have cut the egg i’ th’ middle and
Eat up the meat, the two crowns of the egg… What does the meat represent?
Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown when thou
Gav’st they golden one away. What is the actual message the fool
Is giving to the king?

The fool says, “ The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it’s has it head bit off by it young. So out went the candle, and we were left darkling.” (I iv 216-220)
The audience would have understood the metaphor here. They knew that the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest of a smaller bird who then hatches the egg and cares for the cuckoo chick after the cuckoo would have pushed out the legitimate hedge-sparrow chicks, causing them to die.

6. In light of this information, what is the Fool saying about Lear, his two older daughter and the people who follow Lear?

7. Explain what is going on between the king and Goneril ( I iv 239-
She tells him that…

He insults here when…

She makes him feel…

Then Goneril tells Oswald to …