# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

King Lear
[I, 1]

Earl of Kent

11

I cannot conceive you.

2

King Lear
[I, 1]

Earl of Kent

15

I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so
proper.

3

King Lear
[I, 1]

Cordelia

93

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty
According to my bond; no more nor less.

4

King Lear
[I, 2]

Earl of Gloucester

380

[reads] 'This policy and reverence of age makes the world
bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us
till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle
and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways,
not as it hath power, but as it is suffer'd. Come to me, that
of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I
wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live
the beloved of your brother,
'EDGAR.'
Hum! Conspiracy? 'Sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half
his revenue.' My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart
and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? Who brought it?

5

King Lear
[I, 2]

Earl of Gloucester

421

He cannot be such a monster.

6

King Lear
[I, 4]

Earl of Kent

547

I do profess to be no less than I seem, to serve him truly
that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to
converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear
judgment, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.

7

King Lear
[I, 4]

Knight

593

I beseech you pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for
my duty cannot be silent when I think your Highness wrong'd.

8

King Lear
[I, 4]

Duke of Albany

842

I cannot be so partial, Goneril,
To the great love I bear you—

9

King Lear
[I, 4]

Duke of Albany

877

How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell.
Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

10

King Lear
[I, 5]

Fool

898

Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose, that what a
man cannot smell out, 'a may spy into.

11

King Lear
[II, 2]

Duke of Cornwall

1163

This is some fellow
Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he!
An honest mind and plain- he must speak truth!
An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.
These kind of knaves I know which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly-ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely.

12

King Lear
[II, 4]

Regan

1422

I cannot think my sister in the least
Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance
She have restrain'd the riots of your followers,
'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end,
As clears her from all blame.

13

King Lear
[II, 4]

Regan

1590

This house is little; the old man and 's people
Cannot be well bestow'd.

14

King Lear
[III, 2]

Earl of Kent

1718

Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night
Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark
And make them keep their caves. Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry
Th' affliction nor the fear.

15

King Lear
[III, 4]

Earl of Gloucester

1940

Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer
T' obey in all your daughters' hard commands.
Though their injunction be to bar my doors
And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out
And bring you where both fire and food is ready.

16

King Lear
[III, 6]

Lear

2053

She cannot deny it.

17

King Lear
[IV, 1]

Old Man

2267

You cannot see your way.

18

King Lear
[IV, 1]

Edgar

2308

Poor Tom's acold. [Aside] I cannot daub it further.

19

King Lear
[IV, 2]

Duke of Albany

2373

O Goneril,
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face! I fear your disposition.
That nature which contemns it origin
Cannot be bordered certain in itself.
She that herself will sliver and disbranch
From her material sap, perforce must wither
And come to deadly use.

20

King Lear
[IV, 6]

Edgar

2611

Come on, sir; here's the place. Stand still. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down
Hangs one that gathers sampire- dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
That on th' unnumb'red idle pebble chafes
Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.