In Act IV, scene vi, the blinded Earl of Gloucester meets his king in the fields near Dover. Once the epitome of power and majesty, Lear has now been reduced to the level of a lunatic vagabond; yet Gloucester instinctively kisses the hand of the master he loved and reverenced, and asks: ‘Dost thou know me?’ (line 135). It is a most poignant question, since Gloucester must be wondering whether Lear will ever appreciate that it was because of kindness and loyalty to his king that his eyes were gouged. Nevertheless, Gloucester rises above the intensity of personal feeling to engage in impersonal and generalised reflection. Appalled by Lear's mad ramblings, he exclaims: ‘O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world / Shall so wear out to nought’ (lines 133-4).

In King Lear, Shakespeare's tragic art reaches its maximum of intensity and comprehensiveness, and this incident can be taken as exemplifying its characteristic procedures. Gloucester's response to Lear is rooted in feelings engendered by the immediate situation, and by a keen sense of the human person and human relationships; yet Lear's mad incoherence makes him think instantly of universal nature, the end of the world, and the return to primordial confusion. Moreover, one very simple word which Gloucester uses serves both to involve the whole experience of the play in the present moment and to underpin its cosmic perspective.