Oswald

Family: Goneril's household · Role: servant · First appears: King Lear · Act I, Scene III

Oswald is a servant in Goneril’s household. In Act I, Scene III, Goneril orders him and his fellows to treat King Lear with deliberate negligence—“Put on what weary negligence you please”—and sends him to warn Regan about Lear and his followers. When Lear summons him in Act I, Scene IV, Oswald refuses to return.

In Act II, Scene II, Kent attacks Oswald after accusing him of serving against King Lear, and Oswald declares that he and Kent have deep antipathy. He appeals to Regan on Goneril’s behalf, saying that his sister may take it worse if her gentleman is abused for following her affairs, while also recalling that Lear had struck him because of a misconstruction. In Act IV, Scene VI, Oswald confronts Gloucester as an enemy, but Edgar fights him while protecting Gloucester and kills him; dying, Oswald asks Edgar to bury his body and deliver the letters found on him to Edmund.

Relationship record

Life events

• Goneril orders Oswald and his fellows to treat King Lear with deliberate negligence.(King Lear · Act I, Scene III)
  • With: Goneril King Lear
  • “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 our sister,”
• Oswald refuses to return when King Lear summons him.(King Lear · Act I, Scene IV)
  • With: King Lear
  • “Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would not.”
• Goneril sends Oswald to warn her sister about King Lear and his followers.(King Lear · Act I, Scene IV)
  • With: Goneril
  • “Take you some company, and away to horse: Inform her full of my particular fear;”
• Kent attacks Oswald after accusing him of serving against King Lear.(King Lear · Act II, Scene II)
  • With: Kent
  • “Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the King; and take vanity the puppet’s part against the royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I’ll so carbonado your shanks:—draw, you rascal; come your ways! OSWALD. Help, ho! murder! help! KENT. Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike! [Beating him.]”
• Edgar fights Oswald to protect Gloucester and kills him.(King Lear · Act IV, Scene VI)
  • With: Edgar Gloucester
  • “[They fight, and Edgar knocks him down.] OSWALD. Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse. If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body; And give the letters which thou find’st about me To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out Upon the British party. O, untimely death! [Dies.]”