Chapter Synopsis of King Lear - Study Guide by William Shakespeare

Lear has wandered off and we meet Cordelia again. She is anxious since she fears her father may take his own life now he is "mad as the vexed sea". She asks the doctor present whether he is likely to be able to cure Lear’s madness and states that she will give anything if this is possible.

News comes that Goneril and Regan are marching towards them. Cordelia is not concerned, because her husband has allowed her to use the French forces out of pity and in recognition of her great love for her father.

Act IV, Scene V

Oswald arrives at Regan’s camp carrying a letter from her sister to Edmund. Regan is suspicious of the contents of the letter but Oswald asserts that he has no idea what it contains. Regan believes that it was wrong of them to allow Gloucester to live because he now exists as a symbol of how they have wronged him and he will turn others against them. For this reason Edmund has been sent to kill him and at the same time observe the strength of the French army. Regan attempts to prevent Oswald passing the letter on to Edmund. She informs him that her sister no longer loves her husband and has feelings for Edmund.
Regan requests that Oswald pass on the message to her sister that Cornwall has died and that arrangements have been made between her and Edmund and that it much more appropriate for them to be married than Goneril and him.

Act IV, Scene VI

To prevent his father from actual suicide, Edgar manages to persuade Gloucester that he is at the top of the tallest cliff in Dover when in reality it is simply flat ground. Gloucester is doubtful but his son points out that his blinding might well have dulled his other senses. When Edgar convinces his father that they have reached the very edge of the cliff Gloucester rewards him by giving him a jewel and asks his son to leave him to his fate.

Gloucester prays to the Gods that he may be rid of his pain and throws himself off what he believes to be the top of the cliff. To some extent it might be said that the effect of this scene is impossible to reproduce on the stage, but we must assume that much of the purpose is to create bathos after Gloucester calls grandly to the gods renouncing the world only to fall flat on his face. Once he is lying on the ground Edgar returns assuming another character. He asks his father if he is dead or alive. He describes watching Gloucester fall from the supposed cliff, escorted by a horned and grotesque animal that he supposed must be the devil. He believes that surely the Gods have spared Gloucester. His son’s ruse convinces the old man who decides that for as long as he lives he will bear his suffering.

Lear appears with a crown of weeds, declaring ludicrously, "I am the King himself". He raves about the cruelty of his daughters, his belief that Gloucester’s bastard son was kinder than his spawn and about the nature of adultery and lust. He sees even the "wren" and "the small gilded fly" copulate before his eyes, and the world spills over with (sexual) "appetite". This saddens Gloucester greatly who finally acknowledges that the King is indeed mad. The bedraggled characters of Gloucester, his son and Lear are a sad sight and evidence of the effect of lies and mistrust: a beggar, a blind man and a madman. They find themselves upon what Lear calls "this great stage of fools".

Lear wanders off the stage and Oswald comes upon Gloucester and Edgar and threatens to kill the old man. Edgar protects his father and slays Oswald whose dying words are that Edgar should deliver the letters in his purse to Edmund Earl of Gloucester if he wishes to be rewarded. Edgar swears that he will show the letter from Goneril persuading Edmund to murder Albany and become her husband to the duke at a later date.

Act IV, Scene VII

Cordelia thanks Kent profusely for taking care of her father. The King is brought back in and has been asleep long enough to be woken. Lear is awoken by Cordelia’s kiss, slightly disorientated he is not totally