KENT: This is nothing, Fool.
FOOL: Then ’tis like the breath of an unfee’d lawyer. You gave me nothing for ‘t. – Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle?
LEAR: Why no, boy. Nothing can be made out of nothing.
FOOL: [to Kent] Prithee tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4. When Kent complains that one of the Fool’s rhymes means nothing, the quick witted Fool uses a simile to compare this to the speech of an unpaid lawyer. The Fool asks Lear can he make no use of nothing. Here he is questioning Lear’s life and his foolishness, as Lear has given away all he had to his daughters, so he is literally left with nothing. King Lear, echoing his words of dismissal to daughter Cordelia, says that nothing can be made of nothing. This produces the Fool’s sharp response, telling Kent to remind Lear that his income is nothing now that he has no land, as he won’t believe a fool. Ironically Lear is the great fool in this play and the Fool one of its wisest characters. The theme of nihilism is also explored in this passage with the repeated use use of the word "nothing."