All 3 Uses of
serpent
in
King Lear
- Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; Turn all her mother's pains and benefits To laughter and contempt; that she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!†
Scene 1.4 *serpent = snake
- Never, Regan: She hath abated me of half my train; Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart:—All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall On her ingrateful top!†
Scene 2.4
- —Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and, in thine arrest, This gilded serpent [pointing to Goneril.]†
Scene 5.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(serpent) a snake
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
For less common senses of "serpent", see a comprehensive dictionary.