King Lear Oswald Quotes

Put on what weary negligence you please,
You and your fellows. I’d have it come to question.
If he distaste it, let him to my sister,
Whose mind and mine I know in that are one,
Not to be overruled. Idle old man
That still would manage those authorities
That he hath given away. Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again and must be used
With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abused.
Remember what I have said.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 3. Goneril’s evil intent and wicket behavior towards her retired father can be seen when she instructs the servant Oswald to be rude and less polite to Lear. She calls him a foolish old man, who believes he can still wield the power that he has given away. Old fools become like babies again, she points out to Oswald, and they must be disciplined instead of flattered when they are misguided.

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2. Shakespeare was master without parallel of the stinging insult and poisonous put down. Here Kent picks a fight with Goneril’s steward Oswald and uses colorful language to insult him in a variety of ways. In one of the bard’s best insulting passages, Kent does a demolition job on Osward, branding him a knave and rogue, proud and lily-livered, a "pander" (pimp) and son of a bitch! The Earl’s scalding-hot torrent of invective is also full of references to Oswald’s low social status and social climbing – his servant’s three suits, his filthy worsted stockings and playing the "bawd" (woman in charge of a brothel) to please his masters.

GONERIL: Now, where’s your master?
OSWALD: Madam, within, but never man so changed.
I told him of the army that was landed;
He smiled at it. I told him you were coming;
His answer was "The worse." Of Gloucester’s treachery
And of the loyal service of his son
When I informed him, then he called me "sot"
And told me I had turned the wrong side out.
What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him;
What like, offensive.

– William Shakespeare

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 2. When Goneril returns to her palace, Oswald tells her that Albany has changed. It appears that his eyes are now opened to Goneril’s villainy. Oswald says that Albany is happy the French army has landed, but not happy to know he is seeing Goneril again. When Oswald tells him of Gloucester’s "treachery" and Edmund’s "loyal service," Albany brands Goneril’s self-seeking steward a "sot" and "turned the wrong side out."
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