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 25
... 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 ... thou Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better. KING OF FRANCE Is it but this —a tardiness in.
... art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised! Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon ... Thou losest here, a better where to find. Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we Have no such daughter, nor ...
... Thou , nature , art my goddess ; to thy law My services are bound . Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom , and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me , For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon - shines Lag of a ...
... thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd, So may it come, thy master, whom thou lovest, Shall find thee full ... art thou? A man, sir. What dost thou profess? what wouldst thou with us? I do profess to be no less than I seem; to ...
... art thou ? Not so young , sir , to love a woman for singing , nor so old to dote on her for any 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 ...