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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... answer'd. Tell me, my daughters— Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state— Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge ...
... answer my life my judgment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least; Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverbs no hollowness. Kent, on thy life, no more. My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies ...
... little seeming substance , Or all of it , with our displeasure pieced , And nothing more , may fitly like your grace , She's there , and she is yours . I know no answer . KING LEAR Will you, with those infirmities she owes, Unfriended,
... answer . He's coming , madam ; I hear him . ( Horns within . ) Put on what weary negligence you please , You and your fellows ; I'll have it come to question : If he dislike it , let him to our sister , Whose mind and mine , I know , in ...
... answered me in the roundest manner , he would not . He would not ! KNIGHT My lord , I know not what the matter is ; but , to my judgment , your highness is not entertained with that ceremonious affection as you were wont ; there's a ...