The Fool Flashcards
“I can tell why a snail has a house… to put’s head in; not to give it away to his daughters,”
“If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time.”
“Thou should’st not have been old till thou hadst been wise.”
“For you know, nuncle, the hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, that it’s had it bit off by it young.”
“Lears shadow”
Proverbial wisdom about Lear
“If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time.”
“Thou should’st not have been old till thou hadst been wise.”
proverb about fathers being poor
(Act 2 scene 4)
“Fathers that wear rags do make their children blind, but fathers that bear bags shall see thier children kind.”
- when fathers are poor, children refuse to help, but when they keep control of the money bags, then children will show their affection. - points to Lears mistake of the ‘love test’; he never should have relinquished his power/kingship.
“Fortune, that arrogant whore, ne’er turns the key to th’ poor”.
- the goddess Fortune is likened to a prostitute who will not open her door to a poor man.
“Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after.”
“Fathers that (…) do make their children blind, but (…) their children kind.”
“Fathers that wear rags do make their children blind, but fathers that bear bags shall see their children kind.”
The fool- “This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.”
Fool- “can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?”
Lear- “Why no, boy; nothing can be made of nothing.”
