Cite and analyze passages exemplifying unconditional love and loyalty in Act II of Shakespeare's King Lear.

Unconditional love and loyalty are displayed at a number
of points in Act 2 of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Perhaps the best
examples of these traits appear in Act 2, scenes 2 and 3, in the person of Lear’s loyal
follower, Kent, although the Earl of Gloucester also displays real love and loyalty in
these scenes.

Kent, sent by Lear to deliver a message to
Regan, one of Lear’s daughters, roundly abuses Oswald, one of Regan’s servants.  When
Regan and appears with her husband, the Duke of Cornwall, Kent demonstrates his
unconditional love and loyalty to the old king by refusing to curry favor with these
newly powerful people. He even manages to suggest his contempt for Regan and Cornwall –
a contempt rooted in his continuing love and loyalty to Lear.  Thus when Cornwall
suggests that Kent may consider Cornwall and Regan physically ugly, Kent bluntly
replies,

Sir,
’tis my occupation to be plain:

I have seen better faces in
my time

Than stands on any shoulder that I
see

Before me at this instant.
 (2.2.94-97)

Such a statement
is certainly impolitic, but it implies Kent’s devotion to the ruler he truly loves and
respects: Lear. As he later tells Cornwall, “I serve the king, . . . my master”
(2.2.130, 133).  Gloucester also shows love and loyalty toward Lear by referring to the
latter as “the good king” (2.2.143). Gloucester additionally shows love toward Kent by
asking Cornwall not to punish him. Inevitably, however, Kent is
punished for his conduct by being placed in the stocks, but he doesn’t really seem to be
overly bothered this outcome. Nevertheless, Gloucester continues to show concern for
him: “I’ll entreat for thee” (2.2.157).

When Lear himself
appears on the scene, Kent salutes him from the stocks: “Hail to thee, noble master”
(2.3.4). He shows his love and loyalty to Lear by speaking honestly to the king about
the conduct of Regan and Cornwall, even though Lear does not at first believe him
(2.3.11-21). In their ensuing conversation, Kent calls Lear “My Lord” (2.3.26) and “your
highness” (2.3.27) and later worries about the king’s small number of attendants
(2.3.61).  Gloucester also shows his own continuing devotion to Lear by addressing him
as “My dear lord” (2.3.89) and “my good lord” (2.3.95, 97).  It is true, of course, that
Cornwall later addresses Lear as “your grace” (2.3.124), but for Cornwall this is a mere
conventional formality.  Kent and Gloucester, on the other hand, are truly loving and
loyal toward their king, as Kent especially has proved during his time in the
stocks.