'King Lear' scene by scene

For 12 podcasts on the all the scenes of King Lear, and a downloadable pamphlet gathering all the transcripts, click here.

Should be of particular interest to Leaving Certificate teachers and pupils.

'King Lear' quotation retrieval grids

Here are some exercises on quotations in King Lear. They are designed for pair-work 10-minute sessions in class, but work perfectly well for individuals. You need to know the play well, so these are for revision at a late stage. 

The purpose is to make your mind work hard: retrieving factual details, certainly, about the sequence of the play, individual quotations and so on, but more importantly know making you think and create connections. You don’t need to write on the original sheet itself: just take a piece of paper and jot down your responses. [Line numbers are from the Everyman edition Tragedies, Volume 1].

'King Lear' quotations: Act 5

The fourth of a series to help learn and think about quotations, and to use as retrieval practice.

Try to remember the missing word in the definition flashcard, and then click to see the answer and some comments. Set the card to show definition first, and in flashcard mode. 

'King Lear' quotations, Act 4

The fourth of a series to help learn and think about quotations, and to use as retrieval practice.

Try to remember the missing word in the definition flashcard, and then click to see the answer and some comments. Set the card to show definition first, and in flashcard mode. 

'King Lear' quotations, Act 3

The third of a series to help learn and think about quotations, and to use as retrieval practice. Try to remember the missing word in the definition flashcard, and then click to see the answer and some comments.

Set the card to show definition first, and in flashcard mode. 

'King Lear' quotation Quizlets: Act 2

The second of a series to help learn and think about quotations, and to use as retrieval practice. Try to remember the missing word in the definition flashcard, and then click to see the answer and some comments.

 Set the card to show definition first, and in flashcard mode. 

'King Lear' quotation Quizlets: Act 1

The first of a series to help learn and think about quotations, and to use as retrieval practice. Try to remember the missing word in the definition flashcard, and then click to see the answer and some comments.

 Set the card to show definition first, and in flashcard mode.

'King Lear' revision resources

Six revision podcasts -
The opening scene
The play's bleak vision
The Good Guys - Kent and Albany
Quotation auto-test
Blindness and seeing
The End of the Play

Five ShowMe analyses (series not yet complete)
Act I scene i - Confusion and uncertainty.
Act I scene i - Love and be silent. 
Act I scene i - See better.
Act I scene i - Unruly waywardness.
Act i scene ii - Excellent foppery.

The Shakespeare Yippy search engine: look for key words, test yourself on quotations etc.

The entire play (copy to your device). 

The King Lear LitChart. 

National Theatre video talks:-
Kent and the Fool
Goneril, Regan and Cordelia
Gloucester, Edmund and Edgar
Lear - Simon Russell Beale 
   

Roger Allam as Lear below with 'Blow winds, and crack your cheeks...' below. And see Riz Ahmed here as Edmund with 'Now, gods, stand up for bastards.'   

King Lear 5: I ii - Excellent foppery

The fifth moment in a series on King Lear via ShowMe, looking at Edmund's response to his father's belief that people are behaving badly due to planetary movements:

King Lear 4: I i - Unruly waywardness

The fourth moment from analysed via ShowMe comes from the very end of the first scene.

King Lear 3: I i - See better

The third revision ShowMe from King Lear also looks at a moment in Act I scene i, one which introduces a key trope in the play.

King Lear 2: I i - Love, and be silent

The second key moment in a series from King Lear's opening scene.

King Lear 1: I i - confusion and uncertainty

Here is the first of a series of video/audio analyses of key moments in King Lear for sharpening up revision. First, the very first lines of the play. This is the fine new James Shapiro book referred to, 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear.

'King Lear'

This evening, all our Fifth Form go to the Ormonde Cinema in Stillorgan to watch the National Theatre Live production of King Lear, directed by Sam Mendes. An opportunity to see the great actor Simon Russell Beale, among others.

Wolfram/Alpha on Shakespeare

The Wolfram Alpha 'computational knowledge engine' has just taken on the complete works of Shakespeare, and here are some results from queries on the four great tragedies:

Hamlet: 

• 32 characters
• most words spoken: Hamlet (11,631 words, 39.1%), Claudius (4097, 13.8%), Polonius (2668, 9%)
• 20 scenes
• 29,700 words
• 15.32 words - average sentence length
• longest words: transformation, unproportion'd
• most frequent two-word phrase: my Lord

Macbeth:

• 29 characters
• most words spoken: Macbeth (5494 words, 31.8%), Lady Macbeth (1942, 11.3%), Malcolm (1530, 8.9%)
• 27 scenes
• 17,260 words
• 13.1 words - average sentence length
• longest word:voluptuousness
• most frequent two-word phrase: I have

Othello:

• 25 characters
• most words spoken: Iago (8445 words, 32.4%),  Othello (6256, 24%), Desdemona (2757, 10.6%)
• 15 scenes
• 26,078 words
• 13.18 words - average sentence length
• longest words: notwithstanding, disproportion'd, circumscription
• most frequent two-word phrase: I am

King Lear:

• 26 characters
• most words spoken:  King Lear (5625 words, 21.9%), Edgar (2875, 11.2%), Kent (2611, 10.2%) [the first woman to appear is Regan at 8th].
• 20 scenes
• 29,700 words
• 12.55 words - average sentence length
• longest word: superserviceable
• most frequent two-word phrase: my lord.

The 6 'King Lear' revision podcasts

Here are all 6 King Lear revision podcasts in a list (you can also access them via the diagonal banner on the top right):

Click on the titles to listen:-

1. The opening scene (April 23rd)
2. The play's bleak vision (April 30th)
3. The Good Guys - Kent and Albany (May 6th)
4. Quotation auto-test (May 17th)
5. Blindness and seeing (May 22nd)
6. The End of the Play (May 27th)

You can listen to these talks via the player on each post, or the 'widget' on the sidebar to the right, or by visiting our podcast page here (if you have iTunes on your computer you can also subscribe by clicking here, and so download our episodes to your MP3 player, or by searching for 'SCC English' in the iTunes Store).

King Lear revision podcast 6: the end of the play

Our 23rd podcast is the final one of 6 on King Lear. This looks at the end of the play, considering how the famously bleak ending is constructed by Shakespeare. Lear so nearly becomes a play with a comic ending (like its sources and Nahum Tate’s rewritten 1681 version). Instead, there is no mitigation: all is dark horror.

To read Tate’s version, click here (go to page 66 for the ending).

To see a summary of the previous 5 King Lear podcasts, click here.

Listen to the podcast via the player below:

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You can also listen to our podcasts via the 'widget' on the sidebar to the right, or by visiting our podcast page here (if you have iTunes on your computer you can also subscribe by clicking here, and so download our episodes to your MP3 player, or by searching for 'SCC English' in the iTunes Store).

King Lear revision podcast 5: blindness and seeing

SCC English podcast 22: Using the notorious scene in which Gloucester is blinded as a starting point, this talk looks at ideas of blindness and seeing throughout the play, particularly in the stories of the two old ‘blind’ men, Lear and Gloucester. Lear undergoes a humanising process of development, and starts to ’see’ real truths about himself and society; however, in the end this matters little, as he is exposed to devastating grief on the death of his daughter Cordelia.

Listen to the podcast via the player below:-

Powered by Podbean.com

You can also listen to our podcasts via the 'widget' on the sidebar to the right, or by visiting our podcast page here (if you have iTunes on your computer you can also subscribe by clicking here, and so download our episodes to your MP3 player, or by searching for 'SCC English' in the iTunes Store).

'King Lear' revision podcasts

A summary of the five revision podcasts on King Lear now available to Leaving Cert candidates. Click on the titles to listen:-

1. The opening scene (April 23rd)
2. The play's bleak vision (April 30th)
3. The Good Guys - Kent and Albany (May 6th)
4. Quotation auto-test (May 17th)
5. Blindness and seeing (May22nd)

You can listen to these talks via the player on each post, or the 'widget' on the sidebar to the right, or by visiting our podcast page here (if you have iTunes on your computer you can also subscribe by clicking here, and so download our episodes to your MP3 player, or by searching for 'SCC English' in the iTunes Store).

King Lear revision podcast 4: quotation auto-test

Our 21st podcast features ten quotations from King Lear; you can pause your computer or MP3 player after each, and test yourself on who spoke the words, and their context, and then listen to the answers and a commentary on the quotation. These commentaries examine the quotations as key moments in the play, linking them to the rest of the text, and again trying to prompt fresh reflection on the themes and characters.

The Shakespeare search engine recommended at the start of the talk is Clusty; click here and then experiment with key words and characters from the play.

Listen to the podcast via the player below:-

Powered by Podbean.com

You can also listen to our podcasts via the 'widget' on the sidebar to the right, or by visiting our podcast page here (if you have iTunes on your computer you can also subscribe by clicking here, and so download our episodes to your MP3 player, or by searching for 'SCC English' in the iTunes Store).