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. |
From inside the book
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... draw A third more opulent than your sisters ? Speak . CORDELIA Nothing , my lord . KING LEAR Nothing ! CORDELIA Nothing . KING LEAR Nothing will come of nothing : speak again . CORDELIA Unhappy that I am , I cannot heave My heart into ...
... KING LEAR Whom I have ever honour'd as my king , Loved as my father , as my master follow'd , As my great patron thought on in my prayers— The bow is bent and drawn , make from the shaft . KENT KING LEAR KENT KING LEAR KENT Let it fall.
... draws the horse ? Whoop , Jug ! I love thee . KING LEAR FOOL KING LEAR FOOL Doth any here know me ? This is not Lear : Doth Lear walk thus ? speak thus ? Where are his eyes ? Either his notion weakens , his discernings Are lethargied ...
... draw my sword upon you Draw; seem to defend yourself; now quit you well. Yield: come before my father. Light, ho, here! Fly, brother. Torches, torches! So, farewell. (Exit EDGAR .) Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion. (Wounds his ...
... Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you: draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. (Drawing his sword.) Away! I have nothing to do with thee. Draw, you rascal: you ...