King Lear: Act 1

by William Shakespeare
In this tragedy, King Lear's plan to divide his kingdom between his three daughters leads to his downfall when he misjudges their true feelings. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. opulent
    rich and superior in quality
    Now, our joy,
    Although our last and least, to whose young love
    The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
    Strive to be interessed, what can you say to draw
    A third more opulent than your sisters’?
    The adjectives more (in example sentence) and superior (in definition) emphasize the public competition Lear is creating among his daughters.
  2. preeminence
    high status importance owing to marked superiority
    I do invest you jointly with my power,
    Preeminence, and all the large effects
    That troop with majesty.
  3. infirmity
    the state of being weak in health or body
    'Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself.
  4. portend
    indicate by signs
    These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us.
  5. machination
    a crafty and involved plot to achieve your ends
    Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves.
  6. dearth
    an acute insufficiency
    I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily, as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent, death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities, divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles, needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
  7. malediction
    the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil
    I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily, as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent, death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities, divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles, needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
    Although the example sentence was from Edmund repeating a general prediction of the state of the world, it can be seen as an overview of all the conflicts in the play. In this act, Lear both withholds a benison from Cordelia and gives a malediction to Goneril. Note the difference in Lear's power in the scenes.
  8. upbraid
    express criticism towards
    His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us
    On every trifle.
  9. tarry
    stay longer than you should
    Away, away. If you will measure your lubber’s length again, tarry.
  10. forsooth
    certainly; indeed (now often used ironically)
    Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue.
  11. retinue
    the group following and attending to some important person
    Not only, sir, this your all-licensed Fool,
    But other of your insolent retinue
    Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth
    In rank and not-to-be-endurèd riots.
  12. redress
    act of correcting an error or a fault or an evil
    Sir,
    I had thought by making this well known unto you
    To have found a safe redress, but now grow fearful,
    By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
    That you protect this course and put it on
    By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
    Would not ’scape censure, nor the redresses sleep
    Which in the tender of a wholesome weal
    Might in their working do you that offense,
    Which else were shame, that then necessity
    Will call discreet proceeding.
  13. weal
    the good of a community
    Sir,
    I had thought by making this well known unto you
    To have found a safe redress, but now grow fearful,
    By what yourself too late have spoke and done,
    That you protect this course and put it on
    By your allowance; which if you should, the fault
    Would not ’scape censure, nor the redresses sleep
    Which in the tender of a wholesome weal
    Might in their working do you that offense,
    Which else were shame, that then necessity
    Will call discreet proceeding.
  14. perforce
    by necessity
    That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus,
    That these hot tears, which break from me perforce,
    Should make thee worth them.
  15. dotage
    mental infirmity as a consequence of old age
    Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike,
    He may enguard his dotage with their powers
    And hold our lives in mercy.
Created on Wed Feb 06 13:33:31 EST 2013 (updated Mon Aug 11 12:56:42 EDT 2025)

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