While Kent is out looking for Lear, he meets one of Lear’s knights. Kent asks where Lear is and is told that he is wandering through the storm, raving and raging, with only the Fool for company. The Fool is, apparently, trying to cheer Lear up with jokes. Kent gives the knight some secret information, that the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany are not getting on well at all, and that there are French spies in their courts who have seen this and reported back on their quarrels and their harsh treatment of Lear. The French, believing civil war is imminent, have secretly landed at English ports and are waiting for the opportunity to show themselves. Kent asks the knight to go to Cordelia in Dover and ask her to help Lear. He assures the knight that, despite his lowly appearance (disguised as Caius), he is a nobleman. Kent gives the knight a ring to show Cordelia as proof of the source of the information.
