# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

King Lear
[I, 1]

Cordelia

98

Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me; I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.

2

King Lear
[I, 2]

Edmund

334

Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to th' legitimate. Fine word- 'legitimate'!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

3

King Lear
[I, 2]

Earl of Gloucester

363

Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?

4

King Lear
[I, 4]

Lear

584

Why came not the slave back to me when I call'd him?

5

King Lear
[I, 4]

Earl of Kent

629

Why, fool?

6

King Lear
[I, 4]

Fool

630

Why? For taking one's part that's out of favour. Nay, an thou
canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly.
There, take my coxcomb! Why, this fellow hath banish'd two on's
daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will. If
thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.- How now,
nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters!

7

King Lear
[I, 4]

Lear

636

Why, my boy?

8

King Lear
[I, 4]

Lear

659

Why, no, boy. Nothing can be made out of nothing.

9

King Lear
[I, 4]

Fool

684

Why, after I have cut the egg i' th' middle and eat up the
meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i'
th' middle and gav'st away both parts, thou bor'st thine ass on
thy back o'er the dirt. Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown
when thou gav'st thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in
this, let him be whipp'd that first finds it so.
[Sings] Fools had ne'er less grace in a year,
For wise men are grown foppish;
They know not how their wits to wear,
Their manners are so apish.

10

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

895

She'll taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou
canst tell why one's nose stands i' th' middle on's face?

11

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

898

Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose, that what a
man cannot smell out, 'a may spy into.

12

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

903

Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.

13

King Lear
[I, 5]

Lear

904

Why?

14

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

905

Why, to put's head in; not to give it away to his daughters,
and leave his horns without a case.

15

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

909

Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars
are no moe than seven is a pretty reason.

16

King Lear
[II, 1]

Earl of Gloucester

1012

Strong and fast'ned villain!
Would he deny his letter? I never got him.
[Tucket within.]
Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes.
All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not scape;
The Duke must grant me that. Besides, his picture
I will send far and near, that all the kingdom
May have due note of him, and of my land,
Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means
To make thee capable.

17

King Lear
[II, 1]

Duke of Cornwall

1060

You know not why we came to visit you-

18

King Lear
[II, 2]

Oswald

1081

Why then, I care not for thee.

19

King Lear
[II, 2]

Oswald

1084

Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not.

20

King Lear
[II, 2]

Oswald

1096

Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one
that's neither known of thee nor knows thee!