Monologue

Lear Monologue from King Lear

From King Lear by William Shakespeare

male · anguished · 1:44 min

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O, reason not the need: our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life is 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 stirs 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:— (Storm and tempest.) I have full cause of weeping; but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or ere I’ll weep.—O fool, I shall go mad! (Exeunt Lear, Gloucester, Kent and Fool.)

About this piece

King Lear confronts the betrayal of his daughters, expressing his profound grief and anger at their actions while grappling with his own sense of identity and sanity.

60 and up · anger · betrayal · madness · revenge · family

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