Act 3, Scene 2 Summary

Several strangers listen as Lear tells this poetic story - a man lost his voice, found the bird that stole it singing beautifully, captured it, and took it before the king. The bird didn't sing, but wept because it had been caged. Lear tells how the man was been beaten by the king and then freed the bird, but not before complaining to himself loudly and frequently that the king had been a fool. He then tells how the bird learned to copy what the man said, how the king went into the forest one day and heard the bird repeating what he'd learned, how he punished the bird by nailing it alive to a tree, and how the man felt the bird's pain and anguish. At the conclusion of the story, some of the strangers want to ask Lear questions...