Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s. Thou art a lady.
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need—
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need.
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age, wretched in both.
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely. Touch me with noble anger.
And let not women’s weapons, water drops,
Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall—I will do such things—
What they are yet I know not, but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep?
No, I’ll not weep.
2. King Lear ridicules his daughters for how they have treated him. Forcing him to choose between staying with them, or to give up a large number of his men he finds cruel and unjust. He compares them to heavenly entities, as they tower above an old decrepit man, a former shadow of the once proud king. He has decided not to toil under his daughters insubordination anymore and would rather to out into the storm with his followers.
4. Shakespeare uses allusions to compare Lear to a weakened old fool. Lear clearly will have his retribution, but how or when is unbeknownst even to the king himself. This no longer seems to be a simple feud, but a fight that may eventually embroil into war. Lear will not be denied, Shakespeare wants this fact to be very evident.
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