Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Literary Texts

King Lear, Part 1: Context, Shakespeare's Language and Act 1

1.1 1.2 3.2 3.3About 75 minutes

Learning goals

I can explain the historical and textual context of King Lear, including its sources and its two early texts.
I can follow the double plot and explain how Act 1 sets up the tragedy.
I can decode Shakespeare's language using pronouns, inverted syntax, context and glossaries.
I can add Shakespearean words and their modern meanings to my vocabulary log.

Words to know

tragedy
A drama in which a central figure, often of high status, falls into suffering and death through a combination of personal error and circumstance.

double plot
Two parallel storylines that mirror and comment on each other.

Quarto and Folio
The two early printed texts of King Lear: the Quarto (1608) and the First Folio (1623). They differ by hundreds of lines.

blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter, the main verse form of Shakespeare's plays.

dower (dowry)
Money or property a bride brings to her marriage.

bastard
In Shakespeare's time, a legal term for a child born to unmarried parents, who could not inherit; Edmund uses it to challenge that law.

nuncle
The Fool's word for Lear: mine uncle, an affectionate, cheeky form of address.

inversion
Changing normal English word order, often to fit the metre or to stress a word.

Hook: who loves you most?

Imagine a parent announcing: I am retiring and dividing everything I own among my children. Whoever tells me, in front of everyone, that they love me most will get the biggest share. Two children make glowing speeches. The third, the one who actually loves the parent most, refuses to perform. What happens next?

That is the first scene of William Shakespeare's King Lear, written around 1605 to 1606. Many critics consider it his greatest tragedy, and also his darkest. Over the next four lessons you will read it as Grade 12 readers: with attention to language, form, interpretation and how different ages and cultures have staged it.

Remember from Grades 10 and 11

You studied Macbeth in Grade 10 and Hamlet in Grade 11: blank verse and prose, soliloquies, five-act structure, paraphrasing speeches, and Shakespeare's vocabulary (thou, wherefore, anon). Lear is harder in two ways: its language is denser, and it has a double plot. Use everything you already know, and expect to read each scene twice.

Context

Sources: an old British legend of King Leir, told in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles and in an earlier anonymous play, King Leir (printed 1605), in which the king survives and is restored to his throne. Shakespeare took the Gloucester subplot from Sir Philip Sidney's prose romance Arcadia. Shakespeare's big change: he made the ending tragic.
A king and a divided kingdom: King James I had united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 and wanted the two kingdoms joined. A play about a king who divides his kingdom and brings chaos would have had political weight. The play was performed at court before King James on 26 December 1606.
Two texts: the play was printed in a Quarto in 1608 and in the First Folio in 1623. They differ by hundreds of lines, and some speeches belong to different characters. Many modern editions combine them; some print both. When editions disagree, that is why.

Act 1 in brief

Scene 1. Lear, over eighty, announces that he will divide Britain among his three daughters according to who loves him most. Goneril and Regan make extravagant speeches. Cordelia, his youngest and favourite, says privately that she will Love, and be silent. Asked what she can say to win the richest third, she answers Nothing, my lord. Lear warns her: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. She says she loves him According to my bond, no more nor less, as a daughter should. Furious, Lear disowns her. The Earl of Kent defends her and is banished. The King of France marries Cordelia without a dowry. Alone, Goneril and Regan agree that their father has always known himself only slenderly.

Scene 2. Edmund, the Earl of Gloucester's illegitimate son, declares in a soliloquy that he will take the land of his legitimate brother Edgar. He fools Gloucester with a forged letter that makes Edgar seem to be plotting against him.

Scenes 3 to 5. Lear stays with Goneril, keeping a hundred knights. Goneril tells her steward to treat him coldly. Kent returns in disguise to serve Lear. Lear's Fool mocks him for giving everything away. Goneril demands that Lear reduce his followers; Lear curses her and leaves for Regan's house, and begins to fear for his own sanity.

The double plot of King Lear. The main plot (Lear and his daughters) and the subplot (Gloucester and his sons) mirror each other, so the play shows the same mistake twice.

The love test in Act 1, scene 1 (a schematic, not a map). Lear meant to give Cordelia the richest third; when she refuses to flatter him, he splits her share between her sisters.

Worked example

Let's decode a key exchange

Paraphrase and analyse the nothing exchange in 1.1, where Cordelia answers Nothing, my lord and Lear replies Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.

Literal meaning: If you say nothing, you will get nothing. Try again.
Philosophical echo: nothing comes from nothing was an old saying from ancient philosophy: everything must have a cause. Lear turns it into a threat.
Structure: the word nothing is repeated in four short lines. The quick exchange interrupts the long, elaborate speeches of the sisters: plainness against performance.
Motif: nothing will return throughout the play: the Fool tells Lear he is now nothing, Edmund pretends his forged letter is nothing, and Edgar later says that as a beggar he is nothing. Track it in your log.
Irony: Lear gives everything to the daughters whose words are full, and gets nothing back from them; Cordelia, who says nothing, is the one who will return to save him.

Lear's line threatens Cordelia with an old philosophical saying, but the play turns it against him: the nothing he dismisses is honest love, and the everything he gives away will leave him with nothing.

Pronouns carry emotion in Shakespeare. Noticing a shift between you and thou is one of the fastest ways to read a relationship changing in a single line.

Reading Shakespeare's language: five tools

Pronouns: you (formal, plural) vs thou / thee / thy (intimate, to inferiors, or angry). Watch for shifts.
Inverted syntax: rearrange the sentence into normal order. Thy truth then be thy dower = Then let your truth be your dowry.
Missing words: Shakespeare often leaves out words the metre has no room for. Fill them in.
Context first, glossary second: guess from the situation, then check the edition's notes.
Old meanings of familiar words: fond = foolish; bond = duty, obligation; nice can mean fussy; plighted = folded, also pledged.

Add each new word to your vocabulary log with its line, its old meaning, and a modern sentence. By Act 5 you will have a personal glossary of about fifty words.

Worked example

Let's decode Edmund's soliloquy

Edmund's soliloquy in 1.2 begins Thou, Nature, art my goddess. He goes on to ask why he should accept the plague of custom and why he should be called base. It ends: Now, gods, stand up for bastards! Paraphrase and analyse it.

Pronoun: Thou, Nature: he addresses Nature directly and intimately, as his goddess, instead of the Christian God or the law.
Key words: custom = social tradition and law; base = low-born, worthless; bastard = legally illegitimate. In law, Edmund could not inherit; his brother Edgar would get everything.
Argument (paraphrase): I follow Nature, not human laws. Why should I lose everything just because my parents weren't married, or because I'm a year or so younger than my brother? I am as capable and as handsome as he is. I'll take his land.
Tone: bold, witty, even attractive. Audiences often enjoy him, which makes him more dangerous.
Theme: nature is one of the play's key words. Lear will call his daughters unnatural; Edmund uses nature to justify ruthless self-interest. The play asks what is natural in families and in societies.

Edmund rejects law and custom in the name of Nature and announces his plan to take Edgar's inheritance; his charm and his reasonable-sounding complaint make him a compelling and dangerous villain.

Just for fun

Funny-but-true: Cordelia and the Fool are never on stage at the same time, so scholars have wondered whether one actor played both parts, and some productions have tried it. That actor gets to be right about everything twice, and ignored by the king both times.

Hands-on activity

The love test at your table

You need: two or three people at home, three small slips of paper, and a timer.

One person plays a parent dividing a (pretend) family fortune. Each other person has one minute to say how much they love the parent, in the most flattering way possible.
Then one person gives Cordelia's answer, in their own modern words: honest, plain and limited (I love you as a child should: no more, no less).
Discuss: Which speech was most convincing? Which was most honest? Why might a proud parent react badly to the honest one?
Write a paragraph: Was Cordelia right to refuse to flatter her father? What did her honesty cost, and what did it protect?

What to look for: the activity should show how public performance can beat private truth, and the paragraph should weigh both sides (her integrity vs her inflexibility), using at least one quotation from Act 1.

Your turn

Summarize the love test and its consequences.

Paraphrase Cordelia's I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less.

What is the double plot, and how do the two plots mirror each other?

Why does Edmund resent his position?

Explain the shift from you to thy when Lear turns on Cordelia.

What were Shakespeare's main sources, and what did he change?

Why do editions of King Lear sometimes disagree?

More practice: warm-up

Name Lear's three daughters, oldest to youngest.

Who is banished for defending Cordelia?

Who marries Cordelia without a dowry?

What does fond mean in Shakespeare's English?

What does the Fool call Lear?

More practice: on your own

Why is the love test a bad way to divide a kingdom?

Is Cordelia partly to blame? Give a balanced answer.

What does Goneril and Regan's private conversation at the end of 1.1 reveal?

Rearrange into normal order and paraphrase: Thy truth then be thy dower.

How does Kent's disguise in Act 1 show his character?

Challenge

Explain how the political context of 1606 could shape an audience's response to Act 1.

Trace the word nothing through Act 1 and argue what the motif suggests.

Compare Edmund with a villain from a play you studied earlier (for example Claudius in Hamlet or Lady Macbeth in Macbeth). How is Edmund's appeal to the audience different?

Check your understanding

Quiz

What does Lear ask his daughters to do in 1.1?

Cordelia says she loves Lear According to my bond, meaning...

Edmund resents his position because he...

The double plot of King Lear parallels Lear's family with...

The two early printed texts of King Lear are...

A shift from you to thou/thy can show...

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: ENG4U Reading 1.1 (reading a challenging literary text from another period, in context), 1.2 (strategies for complex texts: paraphrase, glossaries, tracking motifs), 3.2 (working out unfamiliar and archaic words) and 3.3 (building vocabulary through a personal glossary).

How to help at home:

Watch the first scene in a filmed stage production (several are available through public libraries' streaming services) before your teen reads it; King Lear is much easier once you have seen it.
Try the love-test activity: it is a quick way into the play's central problem.
Ask for the nothing tracker after each act.

Common difficulties:

Mixing up the two plots and the two sets of children. The family diagram helps.
Over-relying on modern translations. Side-by-side texts are fine for a first read, but quotations in essays must come from Shakespeare's text.
Different line numbers between editions. This is normal because of the Quarto and Folio; quote act and scene, and the line number from the edition being used.

Facts used: the play was performed at court on 26 December 1606 (Quarto title page); Quarto 1608, Folio 1623. The anonymous King Leir was printed in 1605. Short quotations follow the Folger Shakespeare text for Act 1.