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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... thing so monstrous, to dismantle So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence Must be of such unnatural degree, That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her, Must be a faith that reason ...
... thing : I have years on my back forty eight . Follow me ; thou shalt serve me : if I like thee no worse after dinner , I will not part from thee yet . Dinner , ho , dinner ! Where's my knave ? my fool ? Go you , and call my fool hither ...
... thing than a fool : and yet I would not be thee , nuncle ; thou hast pared thy wit o ' both sides , and left nothing i ' the middle : here comes one o ' the parings . ( Enter GONERIL . ) How now , daughter ! what makes that frontlet on ...
... thing she begs , A little to disquantity your train ; And the remainder , that shall still depend , To be such men as may besort your age , And know themselves and you . Darkness and devils ! Saddle my horses ; call my train together ...
... thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I shall be there afore you. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. (Exit.) If a man's brains were in's heels, were't ...