King Lear: Act 5

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. exasperate
    make furious
    To take the widow
    Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril,
    And hardly shall I carry out my side,
    Her husband being alive.
  2. incur
    make oneself subject to
    We are not the first
    Who with best meaning have incurred the worst.
  3. exalt
    praise, glorify, or honor
    Not so hot.
    In his own grace he doth exalt himself
    More than in your addition.
    Another definition of exalt is "raise in rank, character, or status" — which is what Regan (legitimate daughter and heir of a king, and widow of a duke) did to Edmund (bastard son of an earl) by giving him the powers of her position. To undermine Regan, Goneril argues that Edmund does not need Regan to exalt him because he is already gloriously worth praising.
  4. patrimony
    an inheritance coming by right of birth
    Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony.
    Dispose of them, of me; the walls is thine.
  5. heinous
    extremely wicked or deeply criminal
    If none appear to prove upon thy person
    Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
    There is my pledge.
  6. manifest
    clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
    If none appear to prove upon thy person
    Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
    There is my pledge.
  7. adversary
    someone who offers opposition
    Yet am I noble as the adversary
    I come to cope.
  8. illustrious
    having or conferring glory
    I protest,
    Maugre thy strength, place, youth, and eminence,
    Despite thy victor-sword and fire-new fortune,
    Thy valor, and thy heart, thou art a traitor,
    False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father,
    Conspirant ’gainst this high illustrious prince,
    And from th’ extremest upward of thy head
    To the descent and dust below thy foot,
    A most toad-spotted traitor.
  9. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    By th’ law of war, thou wast not bound to answer
    An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquished,
    But cozened and beguiled.
    The definition is for vanquish as a verb, but vanquished is used as an adjective in the example sentence — this makes the meaning the opposite of what is given, since Goneril is arguing that Edmund was not conquered but cheated. This is a desperate attempt to restore honor to a fatally wounded Edmund who is lying at the feet of his opponent.
  10. cozen
    cheat or trick
    By th’ law of war, thou wast not bound to answer
    An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquished,
    But cozened and beguiled.
  11. arraign
    call before a court to answer an indictment
    Say if I do; the laws are mine, not thine.
    Who can arraign me for ’t?
  12. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    The bloody proclamation to escape
    That followed me so near—O, our lives’ sweetness,
    That we the pain of death would hourly die
    Rather than die at once!—taught me to shift
    Into a madman’s rags, t’ assume a semblance
    That very dogs disdained.
  13. piteous
    deserving or inciting a feeling of sympathy and sorrow
    He fastened on my neck and bellowed out
    As he’d burst heaven, threw him on my father,
    Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
    That ever ear received, which, in recounting,
    His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
    Began to crack.
  14. puissant
    powerful
    He fastened on my neck and bellowed out
    As he’d burst heaven, threw him on my father,
    Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
    That ever ear received, which, in recounting,
    His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
    Began to crack.
  15. vex
    disturb the peace of mind of
    Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him
    That would upon the rack of this tough world
    Stretch him out longer.
Created on Tue Feb 12 12:37:15 EST 2013 (updated Mon Aug 11 15:40:58 EDT 2025)

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