In this scene, Edgar is pretending to be mad to disguise himself because his brother has tried to frame him. His father Gloucester, along with Kent, King Lear and Lear’s Fool are hiding in a farmhouse on Gloucester’s land. Gloucester leaves to find food for Lear, and Lear holds a mock trial for his daughters that he believes have betrayed him. Edgar and Lear’s Fool speak like they are crazy during the mock trial and the trial is quite bizarre. When Gloucester comes back, he tells Kent that he has overheard the plot to kill Lear and asks Kent to bring Lear to Dover where people are waiting to protect him. Everyone leaves except Edgar, and he is now speaking in his real voice, not the voice of a madman. In this passage, he explains that his own suffering doesn’t come close to what the King has suffered.

When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes

In these lines, there is personification – “misery” is an emotion and cannot really be our enemy except in a poetic sense. Edgar is saying that when he sees how much Lear (“his better”) is suffering, his own misery does not seem so bad.

When that which makes me bend makes the king bow,

This is an example of metaphor. Edgar’s suffering is like someone bending over with pain, but the king’s suffering is really laying him low – he is bowing under its pressure.

When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.

This is another example of personification. Grief is not a person, and cannot have “mates” (friends”) or companionship (“fellowship”). Edgar says that when he sees the suffering of someone else (mates) it makes his own seem less.