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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... o ' the parings . ( Enter GONERIL . ) How now , daughter ! what makes that frontlet on ? Methinks you are too much of late i ' the frown . Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning ; now thou art an O ...
... o ' the savour Of other your new pranks . I do beseech you To understand my purposes aright : As you are old and reverend , you should be wise . Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires ; Men so disorder'd , so debosh'd and bold ...
... 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 come with letters against the king; and take vanity the puppet's part against ...
... o ' the coxcombs with a stick , and cried ' Down , wantons , down ! ' ' Twas her brother that , in pure kindness to his horse , buttered his hay . ( Enter CORNWALL , REGAN , GLOUCESTER , and Servants . ) KING LEAR Good morrow to you ...
... Infect her beauty , You fen - suck'd fogs , drawn by the powerful sun , To fall and blast her pride ! O the blest gods ! so will you wish on me , When the rash mood is on . KING LEAR REGAN KING LEAR No , Regan , thou.