Kent is placed in the stocks, but he accepts his punishment good-naturedly. He tells Gloucester that he will relax and sleep the time away because he is tired. Kent also adds the following comment:
A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels. (149)
At this line Kent probably points at his feet sticking out of the stocks and wiggles them. He seems to have a sense of humor about his unpleasant situation. The word fortune here, as elsewhere, refers to fate or destiny. Just as the heels of a pair of shoes can grow thin and worn and eventually erode away all together, so too can one’s luck disappear. During the Middle Ages people believed that fate was usually unfair, and that all anyone could do is accept it without growing angry or resentful.
Yet, Kent also has hope. After Gloucester leaves, Kent is alone on the stage. In a soliloquy (a speech representing his thoughts, not intended as actual speech spoken aloud), Kent states that …
Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery. (157-58)
Kents means that only misery (only people who are suffering and are miserable) can see miracles or can believe that miracles will come. Other people do not necessarily need miracles, but miserable people do.
Despite his light and humorous comments to Gloucester, Kent is feeling miserable. But he also has the hope that a miracle may happen. He takes out a letter from Cordelia. In it Lear’s daughter, now the Queen of France, writes that she is aware of the “losses” or ills affecting England and promises to find “remedies” for them (162).
The tired Earl of Kent then closes his eyes and bids Dame Fortune good night:
Fortune, good night; smile once more; turn thy wheel!
(165)
Kent is hoping and praying that fate or destiny will soon set matters right and will be positive once again. Kent uses the traditional medieval image of Fortune as a goddess who clasps a giant wheel, which holds the destiny of all men. Those at the top of Fortune’s wheel receive good fortune. However, the goddess can at any moment spin her wheel; and then those who once had good fortune find only misery and suffering in its place. Fortune is a capricious goddess who may favor a man one instant and then turn on him the next. Good fortune is just a matter of chance. Kent is hoping that Fortune, who has turned her wheel against both Lear and himself, will turn her wheel again. He hopes to be in Fortune’s good favor once more. Shakespeare himself was a strong believer in the mysterious force of fate, and lines like this one often appear in his plays.
The short third scene is comprised entirely of a soliloquy by Edgar. Since his father, the Earl of Gloucester, has declared Edgar to be a traitor and an outlaw, Edgar has decided to conceal his true identity (a parallel to the deception taken by Kent). Edgar disguises himself as an unfortunate mad beggar and calls himself “Tom” (20). Tom is just a conventional or generic name for any unknown madman. Edgar wears just a few dirty rags to cover his body and smears mud over his face and limbs. He thus becomes unrecognizable, and no one wants to approach him or bother with him because he does truly appear to be a madman. The disguise also relates to a theme on madness that is present throughout the play. Edgar pretends to be mad, Lear does become mad, and madness affects the entire kingdom.
Edgar feels that he is perfectly safe in his disguise, for he declares that Bedlam beggars are rather common and that their treatment by the society at large serves as a precedent for how Edgar expects to be treated – that is, he expects to be shunned and avoided. Bedlam refers to the Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which was built back in the 13th century. The hospital became quite famous (or, rather, notorious) as a lunatic asylum for the treatment of mentally ill patients. Such patients became well known to the people of London; and the word Bedlam eventually became synonymous with chaos and madness.
One of the words in the play which scholars have been unable to define clearly is Turlygod:
Edgar calls himself, “Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom!” (20). The unusual word is clearly a reference to Edgar’s wretched condition. The first part of the word may be derived from the Old English teorian (to be tired) or possibly even the Old English teran (to tear). In Old English the word god developed later into the modern good, and as such could mean either considerable or even welfare. However, because of a lack of other references for this curious word, the precise meaning of Turlygod will never be definitely defined.