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
Results 1-5 of 8
... in the letter ! Abhorred villain ! Unnatural , detested , brutish villain ! worse than brutish ! Go , sirrah , seek him ; I'll apprehend him : abominable villain ! Where is he ? EDMUND GLOUCESTER I do not well know, my lord. If.
... sirrah , where's my daughter ? So please you- ( Exit . ) What says the fellow there ? Call the clotpoll back . ( Exit a Knight . ) Where's my fool , ho ? I think the world's asleep . ( Re - enter Knight . ) How now ! where's that ...
... Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. KENT Why, fool? FOOL Why, for taking one's part that's out of favour: nay, an thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly: there, take my coxcomb: why, this fellow has ...
... Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. KING LEAR Do. FOOL KENT FOOL Mark it, nuncle: Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Ride more than thou goest, Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than ...
... sirrah ? I have used it , nuncle , ever since thou madest thy daughters thy mothers : for when thou gavest them the rod , and put'st down thine own breeches , ( Singing . ) Then they for sudden joy did weep , And I for sorrow sung ...