...to drive his master mad. At the end of the Act Lear has his first serious premonition of insanity: O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven ! Keep me in temper : I would not be mad ! The second great shock comes in the second act when Lear finds Kent in the stocks. This causes the...

...monster ingratitude! How seriously is he thinking of taking back the crown? What is unexpected is, O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper, I would not be mad. Is this as a result of something specific - the rejection and cursing of Goneril? Or has he felt for...

...to drive his master mad. At the end of the Act Lear has his first serious premonition of insanity: O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! The second great shock conies in the second act when Lear finds Kent in the stocks. This causes the...

...hath made me mad' (111.1.147-8). These are lines that remind me of King Lear's heart-breaking appeal, 'O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! / Keep me in temper; I would not be mad'(iv43-4), a fact that encouraged me to play Hamlet's lines as equally genuine and vulnerable. This...

...age, the threat of madness first appears to the King. He leaves Albany stricken with fear and praying: O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven Keep me in temper; I would not be mad At the appearance of the madness of the King, the Fool foresees the destruction of innocence which...

...Goneril: 'I did her wrong." At the end of the act he has his first serious premonition of insanity: O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper: I would not be mad! (Iv42-3) The third great shock comes when Lear finds Kent in the stocks. This insult to the royal dignity...

...dedication? It may well be all of these but WS suggests another ingredient- A cool head, in adversity. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; Keep me in temper; I would not be mad ! [King Lear I v 43] Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? [Julius Caesar I v ii 40] Down, down...

...tempestuous and he verges on the point of madness; he appears to be under forces other than himself: "O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! / keep me in temper; I would not be mad" (1 .v:38-39). When Cornwall challenges Kent on the question of his moral uprightness, the latter defends...

...come gradually, that's another thing that's in the text. There are these quotable quotes, like "Oh let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad." He's not praying to heaven. He's saying to himself, "Don't lose it," trying to tamp down his own terrible...

...acknowledge - himself. Nor to accede to this divine imperative is indeed madness, and leads to madness: 'O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! . . . Keep me in temper, I would not be mad!' Lear believes wits and truth are something he himself can decide on. But the person who places himself...