King LearStandard Ebooks King Lear is a tragedy by Shakespeare, written about 1605 or 1606. Shakespeare based it on the legendary King Leir of the Britons, whose story is outlined in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s pseudohistorical History of the Kings of Britain (written in about 1136). The play tells the tale of the aged King Lear who is passing on the control of his kingdom to his three daughters. He asks each of them to express their love for him, and the first two, Goneril and Regan do so effusively, saying they love him above all things. But his youngest daughter, Cordelia, is compelled to be truthful and says that she must reserve some love for her future husband. Lear, enraged, cuts her off without any inheritance. The secondary plot deals with the machinations of Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, who manages to convince his father that his legitimate son Edgar is plotting against him. After Lear steps down from power, he finds that his elder daughters have no real respect or love for him, and treat him and his followers as a nuisance. They allow the raging Lear to wander out into a storm, hoping to be rid of him, and conspire with Edmund to overthrow the Earl of Gloucester. The play is a moving study of the perils of old age and the true meaning of filial love. It ends tragically with the deaths of both Cordelia and Lear—so tragically, in fact, that performances during the Restoration period sometimes substituted a happy ending. In modern times, though, King Lear is performed as written and generally regarded as one of Shakespeare’s best plays. This Standard Ebooks edition is based on William George Clark and William Aldis Wright’s 1887 Victoria edition, which is taken from the Globe edition. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks. |
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... Man , tenant to Gloucester Doctor Fool Oswald , steward to Goneril A Captain employed by Edmund Gentleman attendant on Cordelia A Herald Servants to Cornwall Goneril , Regan , Cordelia , daughters to Lear Knights of Lear's train ...
William Shakespeare. ACT I SCENE I KING LEAR'S palace ( Enter KENT ... gentleman , Edmund ? No , my lord . GLOUCESTER My lord of Kent : remember ... KING LEAR He hath been out nine years, and ACT I ...
... gentleman for chiding of his fool ? Yes , madam . By day and night he wrongs me ; every hour He flashes into one gross crime or other , That sets us all at odds : I'll not endure it : His knights grow riotous , and himself upbraids us ...
... LEAR How's that ? FOOL KING LEAR Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise . O , let me not be mad , not mad , sweet heaven Keep me in temper : I would not be mad ! ( Enter Gentleman . ) How now ! are the horses ready ?
... king must take it ill , That he's so slightly valued in his messenger , Should have him thus restrain'd . I'll answer that . My sister may receive it much more worse , To have her gentleman abused , assaulted , For following her affairs ...