Is their superstition in King Lear?

Answer 1

Yes, many of the characters blame the events of what happens to them on external sources based on superstitions.

Gloucester blames the gods for his misfortunes and remarks that: "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods./They kill us for their sport." (Act 4, Scene 1)

He further states that: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend/no good to us" (Act 1, Scene 2). He places faith in planetary aliment and feels this decrees bad things will happen and is thus to blame when it does. He takes the eclipse to be a bad omen, thus affirming his belief that susersitions and 'the gods' rule theirs lives and are therefore to blame.

While Kent states that: "It is the stars,/The stars above us, govern our conditions;/Else one self mate and mate could not beget/Such different issues." (Act 4, Scene 3) This indicates that he blames planets and stars for events that com to pass mirroring Gloucester's beliefs.

Lear too often places the blame for what happens on external superstitions, claiming that he is "a man more sinned against than sinning" (Act 2, Scene 2). He means that he is not to blame for what happened, although later he sees that his own actions, pride and blindness caused the evil in the play.