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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... had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me. OSWALD Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. KENT Fellow, I know thee. OSWALD What dost thou know me for? KENT A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; SCENE II ...
... knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave ...
... knave. CORNWALL Why dost thou call him a knave? What's his offence? KENT CORNWALL KENT His countenance likes me not. No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain: I have seen better faces in my ...
... knave; which for my part I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to 't. What was the offence you gave him? I never gave him any: It pleased the king his master very late To strike at me, upon his ...
... knave , I will . CORNWALL GLOUCESTER CORNWALL REGAN GLOUCESTER KENT GLOUCESTER This is a fellow of the self - same colour Our sister speaks of . Come , bring away the stocks ! ( Stocks brought out . ) Let me beseech your grace not to do ...