The King Lear Study Guide Quotes

“When we are born, we cry that we are come    170
To this great stage of fools”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play

“Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!   
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;   
Thou hotly lust’st to use her in that kind    150
For which thou whipp’st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. 
[Thou rascal . . . cozener: You supposed man of the church [beadle, line 148], stop lashing that whore. You yourself should be whipped for punishing her for the same offense that you commit. The greedy moneylender hangs the swindler—that is, one unprincipled man punishes another unprincipled man.]
Through tatter’d clothes small vices do appear;   
Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,   
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;   
[Through tatter'd . . . hurtless breaks: It's easy to see the vices of a poor man through the openings in his ragged clothes. What I'm saying is that a poor man lacks the wealth and power to hide his wrongdoing. On the other hand, those who wear robes and furred gowns have the wherewithal to hide their faults. If you cover sin with gold, justice thinks the sin is virtue.]”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play

“Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind.”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play

“I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;   
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft ’tis seen,   
Our means secure us, and our mere defects    25
Prove our commodities.”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play

“[five wits: G. B. Harrison identified the five wits as "common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play

“Thou shouldst not have been old before thou hadst been wise.”
― Michael J. Cummings, The King Lear Study Guide: With a Complete Annotated Text of the Shakespeare Play