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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... my plight shall carry Half my love with him , half my care and duty : Sure , I shall never marry like my sisters , To love my father all . KING LEAR But goes thy heart with this ? CORDELIA Ay , good my lord . KING LEAR So.
... never held but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it, Thy safety being the motive. Out of my sight! See better, Lear; and let me still remain The true blank of thine eye. KING LEAR Now, by Apollo— KENT KING LEAR ...
... never yet , and with strain'd pride To come between our sentence and our power , Which nor our nature nor our place can bear , Our potency made good , take thy reward . Five days we do allot thee , for provision To shield thee from ...
... never plant in me. I yet beseech your majesty— If for I want that glib and oily art, To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend, I'll do't before I speak —that you make known It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness, No ...
... never heretofore sounded you in this business ? Never , my lord : but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit , that , sons at perfect age , and fathers declining , the father should be as ward to the son , and the son manage his ...