Gloucester leads the party to the farmhouse and then leaves them promising to bring back supplies.
Lear's madness makes him want revenge
against his daughters. He will put them on trial immediately. To do this he must appoint judges to the bench, and so he seeks first to seat Edgar. Next to him he wants to seat Fool, Cordelia. But looking at her he sees something that reminds him of his daughters which causes him to stand and stare. Cordelia is obviously very concerned that she has been found out.
It seems that Fool, Cordelia, knows who Poor Tom is, but Poor Tom doesn't know who the Fool is, and after pointing to the way Lear is staring at Cordelia, asks her in song to "come over" to him, or reveal her identity to him. But Cordelia refuses singing that "Her boat has a leak, And she must not speak; Why she dares not come over to thee!" Edgar notices the beautiful voice with which she sings.
Lear tries again to appoint his judges, and so he seeks again to seat Edgar, whom he perceives to be a man "robbed" of justice. Next to him he wants to seat Fool, Cordelia, whom he describes as Edgar's "yoke-fellow of equity" - certainly Cordelia has been robbed of justice. Then finally he has Kent sit on the bench.
Edgar tries again to get Cordelia to reveal herself with just one blast of her "minikin mouth." But Cordelia drops the matter by co-operating with Lear in the opening of the trials first of Goneril and then of Regan.
Goneril is represented in Lear's mind by a joint-stool, but the reality of what he is looking at soon comes to him and he sees Goneril and Regan as having escaped and charges Edgar with failing in his duties.
Edgar looks in the mirror the Fool is carrying to check his disguise, and says to the audience, in an aside, that his tears are messing up his disguise. Lear wants Edgar to be one of his 100 knights, but insists that his clothing must be changed, which is the last thing that Edgar wants!
Kent is concerned about Lear's state of mind and seeks to encourage him to rest
for a while.
Lear says that they will go to supper in the morning, and the Fool responds "And I'll go to bed at noon." Cordelia realizes that she will put off the Fool's motley the next day, and that the Fool will be no more. The Fool will go to bed to sleep - which means "to die" elsewhere in the play.
Gloucester returns and announces that there is a plot to kill Lear who must be placed on a litter (an enclosed
couch) and taken to Dover. The Fool, Cordelia, tries to separate herself from Lear's entourage at this point, in order to get to Dover in advance of Lear and put on her French Queen's identity. But Kent will not let her go insisting that she must help bear her master. She must not stay behind.
Edgar is finally free of his dangerous companions, but feels very sorry for Lear. He determines that he will quit his disguise, but will soon change his mind about that.
