Note to King Lear, 1.4.215: "The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo"

The cuckoo is notorious for being a brood parasite, which means that it lays its eggs in other birds' nests, so that those other birds will hatch and care for the cuckoo chicks. The Fool is comparing Goneril to a cuckoo chick and King Lear to the hedge-sparrow.









Cuckoo chick [left] being fed by its foster parent.