The brief verbal exchanges between Gloucester, Kent, and Edmund at the beginning of the first act and scene of William Shakespeare's King Lear are of special significance because they presage the disorder and strife in the following acts of the tragedy. In fact, Marvin Rosenberg, author of Masks of King Lear, states "The first words and the first visual images of Lear awaken the [...] disequilibrium that energizes the play" (11). Rosenberg's assertion should be noted because it is in the first lines that the reader learns that England's hoary ruler has decided to carve up his kingdom, a move that will, in future, engender bedlam within his realm and conscience. Within the first thirty lines of Lear the reader also witnesses Gloucester's mocking disdain and contempt for his misbegotten son, Edmund. The ridicule and derision that Edmund endures at...