In King Lear, the word "nothing" is frequently used in the play, with its usage being 34 times in 29 speeches. The first "nothing" exchanges are the most famous, setting the main plot into motion. Lear asks Cordelia to hear what her sisters have said in their professions of love, and later emphasizes the next two uses of the word: "And nothing more" and "Nothing. I have sworn."
In a clever irony, Edmund's first words to his own father echo Cordelia's first words to her father: "Nothing, my lord." This creates the two offsprings' oppositional roles for the rest of the play. Gloucester's response, which also contains one of the great motifs of the play, also sets into motion the subplot of the play.
The next major use of the word comes within two dozen lines of the first appearance of the Fool in the play. Lear tells the Fool that "nothing" cannot create anything, and the certainty in Lear's mind has been reduced to theory, conjecture, or hope. The Fool uses the word three more times within 50 lines, telling Lear what remains of his kingdom after dividing it between his two eldest daughters. The third is the start of another linguistic motif: the saying of nothing, which hearkens back to the word's first usage in the play, the utterance of "Nothing, my lord" by Cordelia.
The equation motif is present in various instances in Shakespeare's plays, such as Kent's insult of Oswald and Edgar's transformation into Poor Tom. The negation of linguistic change and re-equation with nothing is also evident in statements by Edmund, Lear, and Gloucester. The concept of nothing is centered on Lear's daughters, and the concept of nothing is centered on them and him.
The use of "nothing" undergoes an evolution in the second half of the play, with the penultimate use found in Goneril's captured letter to Edmund. In Act Four, Scene Five of King Lear, the use of "nothing" disappears, replaced by anything but. Lear laments how his daughters flattered him and that he was everything. Even Gloucester seems to pick up on this, saying of Lear, "O ruined piece of nature! This great world // Shall so wear out no naught" (IV.v.132-3). :check:
Only three plays in the entire Canon use "nothing," "naught," "everything," and "anything," and this play leads the pack in usages of each of the four, and thus of all four in total. However, the final "nothing" line by Albany ruins the play. Overall, Shakespeare's use of "nothing" in the play is a propos of nothing. :check: