King Lear

ABOUT KING LEAR

● King Lear is a play about blindness – blindness to others’ motivations,
blindness to one’s own true nature, blindness to the emptiness of power
and privilege, and blindness to the importance of selfless love. Lear’s only
desire is to enjoy a comfortable, carefree old age, but he fails to see the
role his absolute power has played in shaping his relationship with his
daughters, whom he expects to take care of him. Once he loses his power
Lear gains insight into his own nature and realizes his shortcomings,
admitting “mine eyes are not ‘o th’ best.” Tragically, this self-knowledge
comes too late, at a point when Lear has forfeited the power that might
have enabled him to change his fate. He finally sees the world as it really
is, but is powerless to do anything about it. He dies after saying the final
words, “look there, look there,” a literal command that the others look at
Cordelia, but also a symbolic plea that the survivors see themselves, and
the world, more accurately.

● This play is one of Shakespeare’s, ‘Tragic Plays.’

● The play opens with a glimpse of the subplot that mirrors the main action,
as Gloucester explains that he has two sons, one legitimate and one
illegitimate, but he tries to love them equally. They discuss Lear’s plans to
divide his kingdom, suggesting that he has already decided to share
equally among his daughters, and his love test will be just a show, and
actually won’t decide anything. Lear then announces his intention to
divide his kingdom, admitting that Cordelia is his favorite. He clearly
expects all three daughters to try to outdo each other with declarations of
their love, for which he will reward them with portions of land. But
Cordelia refuses to flatter him, and humiliates him publicly with her
disobedience. Enraged by Cordelia’s stubbornness, Lear disowns her, and
divides the kingdom between the remaining two daughters. Lear’s
inability to understand that despite Cordelia’s reluctance to publicly
flatter her father she actually loves him best is the tragic mistake that
incites the action of the rest of the play.

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● The audience understands that Lear’s other two daughters, the deceitful
Goneril and Reagan, are the antagonists to Lear’s desire to hold onto his
power, and the rising action of the play see these two characters actively
thwarting their father and hastening his downfall. After dividing his
kingdom between Goneril and Reagan, Lear continues to demand that his
daughters care for him, expecting to retain the privileges of the crown
without the responsibilities. Lear has never recognised the role power
plays in his family, so he expects his daughters to treat him exactly as they
did when he was their king. Instead, Regan and Goneril treat Lear
according to his new status as a powerless old man. Lear is deprived not
only of the loving care he expected from his daughters, but also of his
attendant knights, and finally even the shelter of their roofs. Meanwhile,
the subplot reverses the structure of the main plot: while Lear mistakenly
believes that power plays no role in his family, Edmund is all too aware of
the role power plays in his. Angry that his illegitimate status makes him
powerless, Edmund schemes to banish Edgar and take his place as
Gloucester’s heir.

● In keeping with its mirrored plot and subplot, King Lear has two
simultaneous climaxes where a protagonist comes in direct conflict with
an antagonist. For Lear, this moment comes when he is denied shelter by
his daughters and forced to wander in the storm, a reversal of fortune that
drives him mad. He tries to make the storm obey him, and the result is
that he is deprived of the few comforts he has left. Lear spends much of
the storm talking with Edgar, who is disguised as a mad beggar called
“Poor Tom,” and helps Lear see that as king he failed to care enough for
the poor and downtrodden “wretches” of his kingdom. Meanwhile,
Edmund triggers the climax of the subplot when he reveals to Cornwall
that Gloucester has tried to help Lear. As a result, Gloucester is blinded,
stripped of his title and banished from his home. The climax of the subplot
confirms the vision of the main plot: raw, violent power is a greater force
than even the love of families. Edmund has achieved his goal because he
understands this truth and is prepared to act on it.

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● In his madness and suffering, Lear learns how fragile and temporary his
former power was, and in the play’s falling action this insight allows him to
be reconciled with Cordelia. He no longer demands that his daughter treat
him like a king. He is happy to be treated as a “foolish, fond old man” so
long as Cordelia loves him. He imagines that in prison he and Cordelia will
be sustained not by power but by their mutual love for one another: “We
two alone will sing like birds i’the cage.” Edgar, still disguised as Poor Tom,
meets his blinded father, Gloucester, who intends to commit suicide: both
men are so damaged by the political power that has crushed them—Edgar
forced to hide, Gloucester suicidal and unable to see—that father and son
are unable to be truly reconciled. Edgar does not reveal his true identity
to Gloucester, and he has to trick his father into surviving his suicide
attempt. Edgar’s deception suggests that true reconciliation is impossible
for families torn apart by power, which undermines Lear’s reconciliation
with Cordelia, and foreshadows the terrible denouement of the play, in
which both families will be destroyed.

● The play’s denouement involves the deaths of many of the characters,

most of them violent. Edgar kills his brother Edmund. Edgar also
unintentionally kills his father, who is overcome by the discovery that his
son has survived and forgives him. Edgar is restored to power, as the new
Duke of Gloucester, but like Edmund he has had to destroy his family to
do it. Lear’s family is also destroyed. Regan, Goneril, Cordelia and finally
Lear himself all die. The center of the denouement is Cordelia’s death.
Even though Edmund reverses his orders to have Cordelia and Lear killed,
his decision comes too late. This truth echoes the fatalism of the entire
play – a mistake, once made, can’t be undone, just as Lear can’t undo his
fatal mistake of giving the wrong daughters his kingdom. In the play’s final
scene Lear carries Cordelia’s body onstage, howling with grief. Lear has
finally learned to love his daughter without asking for anything in return,
only to have her taken from him. All Lear’s suffering has been for nothing.

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THEMES
I. Justice

King Lear is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and awful, seemingly
meaningless disasters. The play’s succession of terrible events raises an
obvious question for the characters—namely, whether there is any
possibility of justice in the world, or whether the world is fundamentally
indifferent or even hostile to humankind.

II. Authority versus Chaos

King Lear is about political authority as much as it is about family

dynamics. Lear is not only a father but also a king, and when he gives away
his authority to the unworthy and evil Goneril and Regan, he delivers not
only himself and his family but all of Britain into chaos and cruelty.

III. Reconciliation

Darkness and unhappiness pervade King Lear, and the devastating Act 5
represents one of the most tragic endings in all of literature. Nevertheless,
the play presents the central relationship—that between Lear and
Cordelia—as a dramatic embodiment of true, self-sacrificing love.

IV. Nihilism

King Lear presents a bleak vision of a world without meaning. Lear begins
the play valuing justice, the social order, and the value of kingship, but his
values are undermined by his experiences. Lear ends up believing that
justice, order and kingship are just flattering names for raw, brutal power.

V. Self-knowledge

King Lear shows that a lack of self-knowledge can cause chaos and
tragedy, but the play also suggests that self-knowledge is painful, and

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perhaps not worth the effort it takes to achieve it. Lear’s tragic flaw is a
lack of self-knowledge. His daughter Regan identifies this flaw in the play’s
opening scene: “he hath ever but slenderly known himself.” Lear achieves
self-knowledge, but at the cost of his wealth, power and sanity.

VI. The Unreliability of Speech

King Lear suggests that people’s speeches and words are not always
reliable and trustworthy. The tragic events of King Lear are set in motion
because Lear believes the loving speeches Goneril and Regan make, even
though they are obviously deceitful. Goneril claims her love makes
“speech unable” which is emptied of meaning because she is in the middle
of a long speech.

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KING LEAR
Lear, king of Britain, had three daughters; Goneril, wife to the duke of Albany;
Regan, wife to the duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia, a young maid, for whose love
the king of France and duke of Burgundy were joint suitors, and were at this
time making stay for that purpose in the court of Lear. The old king, worn out
with age and the fatigues of government, he being more than fourscore years
old, determined to take no further part in state affairs, but to leave the
management to younger strengths, that he might have time to prepare for
death, which must at no long period ensue. With this intent he called his three
daughters to him, to know from their own lips which of them loved him best,
that he might part his kingdom among them in such proportions as their
affection for him should seem to deserve. Goneril, the eldest, declared that she
loved her father more than words could give out, that he was dearer to her than
the light of her own eyes, dearer than life and liberty, with a deal of such
professing stuff, which is easy to counterfeit where there is no real love, only a
few fine words delivered with confidence being wanted in that case. The king,
delighted to hear from her own mouth this assurance of her love, and thinking
truly that her heart went with it, in a ht of fatherly fondness bestowed upon her
and her husband one-third of his ample kingdom. Then calling to him his second
daughter, he demanded what she had to say. Regan, who was made of the same
hollow metal as her sister, was not a whit behind in her profession, but rather
declared that what her sister had spoken came short of the love which she
professed to bear for his highness; insomuch that she found all other joys dead,
in comparison with the pleasure which she took in the love of her dear king and
father. Lear blessed himself in having such loving children, as he thought; and
could do no less, after the handsome assurances which Regan had made, than
bestow a third of his kingdom upon her and her husband, equal in size to that
which he had already given away to Goneril. Then turning to his youngest
daughter Cordelia, whom he called his joy, he asked what she had to say,
thinking no doubt that she would glad his ears with the same loving speeches
which her sisters had uttered, or rather that her expressions would be so much
stronger than theirs, as she had always been his darling, and favoured by him
above either of them. But Cordelia, disgusted with the flattery of her sisters,

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whose hearts she knew were far from their lips, and seeing that all their coaxing
speeches were only intended to wheedle the old king out of his dominions, that
they and their husbands might reign in his lifetime, made no other reply but
this, that she loved his majesty according to her duty, neither more nor less. The
king, shocked with this appearance of ingratitude in his favourite child, desired
her to consider her words, and to mend her speech, lest it should mar her
fortunes. Cordelia then told her father, that he was her father, that he had given
her breeding, and loved her; that she returned those duties back as was most fit,
and did obey him, love him, and most honour him. But that she could not frame
her mouth to such large speeches as her sisters had done, or promise to love
nothing else in the world. Why had her sisters husbands, if (as they said) they
had no love for anything but their father? If she should ever wed, she was sure
the lord to whom she gave her hand would want half her love, half of her care
and duty; she should never marry like her sisters, to love her father all. Cordelia.
who in earnest loved her old father even almost as extravagantly as her sisters
pretended to do, would have plainly told him so at any other time, in more
daughter-like and loving terms, and without these qualifications, which did
indeed sound a little ungracious; but after the crafty flattering speeches of her
sisters, which she had seen drawn such extravagant rewards, she thought the
handsomest thing she could do was to love and be silent. This put her affection
out of suspicion of mercenary ends, and showed that she loved, but not for gain;
and that her professions, the less ostentatious they were, had so much the more
of truth and sincerity than her sisters'. This plainness of speech, which Lear
called pride, so enraged the old monarch who in his best of times always showed
much of spleen and rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so
clouded over his reason, that he could not discern truth from flattery, nor a gay
painted speech from words that came from the heart--that in a fury of
resentment he retracted the third part of his kingdom, which yet remained, and
which he had reserved for Cordelia, and gave it away from her, sharing it equally
between her two sisters and their husbands, the dukes of Albany and Cornwall;
whom he now called to him, and in presence of all his courtiers bestowing a
coronet between them, invested them jointly with all the power, revenue, and
execution of government, only retaining to himself the name of king; all the rest
of royalty he resigned; with this reservation, that himself, with a hundred
knights for his attendants, was to be maintained by monthly course in each of

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his daughters' palaces in turn. So preposterous a disposal of his kingdom, so

little guided by reason, and so much by passion, filled all his courtiers with
astonishment and sorrow; but none of them had the courage to interpose
between this incensed king and his wrath, except the earl of Kent, who was
beginning to speak a good word for Cordelia, when the passionate Lear on pain
of death commanded him to desist; but the good Kent was not so to be repelled.
He had been ever loyal to Lear, whom he had honoured as a king, loved as a
father, followed as a master; and he had never esteemed his life further than as a
pawn to wage against his royal master's enemies, nor feared to lose it when
Lear's safety was the motive; nor now that Lear was most his own enemy, did
this faithful servant of the king forget his old principles, but manfully opposed
Lear, to do Lear good; and was unmannerly only because Lear was mad. He had
been a most faithful counsellor in times past to the king, and he besought him
now, that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in many weighty matters),
and go by his advice still; and in his best consideration recall this hideous
rashness: for he would answer with his life, his judgment that Lear's youngest
daughter did not love him least, nor were those empty-hearted whose low
sound gave no token of hollowness. When power bowed to flattery, honour was
bound to plainness. For Lear's threats, what could he do to him, whose life was
already at his service? That should not hinder duty from speaking. The honest
freedom of this good earl of Kent only stirred up the king's wrath the more, and
like a frantic patient who kills his physician, and loves his mortal disease, he
banished this true servant, and allotted him but five days to make his
preparations for departure; but if on the sixth his hated person was found within
the realm of Britain, that moment was to be his death. And Kent bade farewell to
the king, and said, that since he chose to show himself in such fashion, it was
but banishment to stay there; and before he went, he recommended Cordelia to
the protection of the gods, the maid who had so rightly thought, and so
discreetly spoken; and only wished that her sisters' large speeches might be
answered with deeds of love; and then he went, as he said, to shape his old
course to a new country. The king of France and duke of Burgundy were now
called in to hear the determination of Lear about his youngest daughter, and to
know whether they would persist in their courtship to Cordelia, now that she
was under her father's displeasure, and had no fortune but her own person to
recommend her: and the duke of Burgundy declined the match, and would not

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take her to wife upon such conditions; but the king of France, understanding
what the nature of the fault had been which had lost her the love of her father,
that it was only a tardiness of speech, and the not being able to frame her
tongue to flattery like her sisters, took this young maid by the hand, and saying
that her virtues were a dowry above a kingdom, bade Cordelia to take farewell of
her sisters and of her father, though he had been unkind, and she should go with
him, and be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer possessions
than her sisters: and he called the duke of Burgundy in contempt a waterish
duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run all away like
water. Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and they
sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their duty; but to strive
to content her husband, who had taken her (as they tauntingly expressed it) as
Fortune's alms. And Cordelia with a heavy heart departed, for she knew the
cunning of her sisters, and she wished her father in better hands than she was
about to leave him in. Cordelia was no sooner gone, than the devilish
dispositions of her sisters began to show themselves in their true colours. Even
before the expiration of the first month, which Lear was to spend by agreement
with his eldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the difference
between promises and performances. This wretch having got from her father all
that he had to bestow, even to the giving away of the crown from off his head,
began to grudge even those small remnants of royalty which the old man had
reserved to himself, to please his fancy with the idea of being still a king. She
could not bear to see him and his hundred knights. Every time she met her
father, she put on a frowning countenance; and when the old man wanted to
speak with her, she would feign sickness, or anything to get rid of the sight of
him; for it was plain that she esteemed his old age a useless burden, and his
attendants an unnecessary expense: not only she herself slackened in her
expressions of duty to the king, but by her example, and (it is to be feared) not
without her private instructions, her very servants affected to treat him with
neglect, and would either refuse to obey his orders, or still more
contemptuously pretend not to hear them. Lear could not but perceive this
alteration in the behaviour of his daughter, but he shut his eyes against it as long
as he could, as people commonly are unwilling to believe the unpleasant
consequences which their own mistakes and obstinacy have brought upon them.

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True love and fidelity are no more to be estranged by ill, than falsehood and
hollow-heartedness can be conciliated by good, usage. This eminently appears
in the instance of the good earl of Kent, who, though banished by Lear, and his
life made forfeit if he were found in Britain, chose to stay and abide all
consequences, as long as there was a chance of his being useful to the king his
master. See to what mean shifts and disguises poor loyalty is forced to submit
sometimes; yet it counts nothing base or unworthy, so as it can but do service
where it owes an obligation! In the disguise of a serving man, all his greatness
and pomp laid aside, this good earl proffered his services to the king, who, not
knowing him to be Kent in that disguise, but pleased with a certain plainness, or
rather bluntness in his answers, which the earl put on (so different from that
smooth oily flattery which he had so much reason to be sick of, having found the
effects not answerable in his daughter), a bargain was quickly struck, and Lear
took Kent into his service by the name of Caius, as he called himself, never
suspecting him to be his once great favourite, the high and mighty earl of Kent.
This Caius quickly found means to show his fidelity and love to his royal master:
for Goneril's steward that same day behaving in a disrespectful manner to Lear,
and giving him saucy looks and language, as no doubt he was secretly
encouraged to do by his mistress, Caius, not enduring to hear so open an affront
put upon his majesty, made no more ado but presently tripped up his heels, and
laid the unmannerly slave in the kennel; for which friendly service Lear became
more and more attached to him. Nor was Kent the only friend Lear had. In his
degree, and as far as so insignificant a personage could show his love, the poor
fool, or jester, that had been of his palace while Lear had a palace, as it was the
custom of kings and great personages at that time to keep a fool (as he was
called) to make them sport after serious business: this poor fool clung to Lear
after he had given away his crown, and by his witty sayings would keep up his
good humour, though he could not refrain sometimes from jeering at his master
for his imprudence in uncrowning himself, and giving all away to his daughters;
at which time, as he rhymingly expressed it, these daughters For sudden joy did
weep And he for sorrow sung, That such a king should play bo-peep And go the
fools among. And in such wild sayings, and scraps of songs, of which he had
plenty, this pleasant honest fool poured out his heart even in the presence of
Goneril herself, in many a bitter taunt and jest which cut to the quick: such as
comparing the king to the hedge-sparrow, who feeds the young of the cuckoo

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till they grow old enough, and then has its head bit off for its pains; and saying,
that an ass may know when the cart draws the horse (meaning that Lear's
daughters, that ought to go behind, now ranked before their father); and that
Lear was no longer Lear, but the shadow of Lear: for which free speeches he was
once or twice threatened to be whipped. The coolness and falling off of respect
which Lear had begun to perceive, were not all which this foolish fond father
was to suffer from his unworthy daughter: she now plainly told him that his
staying in her palace was inconvenient so long as he insisted upon keeping up an
establishment of a hundred knights; that this establishment was useless and
expensive, and only served to kill her court with riot and feasting; and she
prayed him that he would lessen their number, and keep none but old men
about him, such as himself, and fitting his age. Lear at first could not believe his
eyes or ears, nor that it was his daughter who spoke so unkindly. He could not
believe that she who had received a crown from him could seek to cut off his
train, and grudge him the respect due to his old age. But she persisting in her
undutiful demand, the old man's rage was so excited, that he called her a
detested kite, and said that she spoke an untruth; and so indeed she did, for the
hundred knights were all men of choice behaviour and sobriety of manners,
skilled in all particulars of duty, and not given to rioting or feasting, as she said.
And he bid his horses to be prepared, for he would go to his other daughter,
Regan, he and his hundred knights; and he spoke of ingratitude, and said it was a
marble-hearted devil, and showed more hideous in a child than the
sea-monster. And he cursed his eldest daughter Goneril so as was terrible to
hear; praying that she might never have a child, or if she had, that it might live to
return that scorn and contempt upon her which she had shown to him that she
might feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it was to have a thankless child.
And Goneril's husband, the duke of Albany, beginning to excuse himself for any
share which Lear might suppose he had in the unkindness, Lear would not hear
him out, but in a rage ordered his horses to be saddled, and set out with his
followers for the abode of Regan, his other daughter. And Lear thought to
himself how small the fault of Cordelia (if it was a fault) now appeared, in
comparison with her sister's, and he wept; and then he was ashamed that such a
creature as Goneril should have so much power over his manhood as to make
him weep. Regan and her husband were keeping their court in great pomp and
state at their palace; and Lear despatched his servant Caius with letters to his

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daughter, that she might be prepared for his reception, while he and his train
followed after. But it seems that Goneril had been beforehand with him, sending
letters also to Regan, accusing her father of waywardness and ill humours, and
advising her not to receive so great a train as he was bringing with him. This
messenger arrived at the same time with Caius, and Caius and he met: and who
should it be but Caius's old enemy the steward, whom he had formerly tripped
up by the heels for his saucy behaviour to Lear. Caius not liking the fellow's look,
and suspecting what he came for, began to revile him, and challenged him to
fight, which the fellow refusing, Caius, in a fit of honest passion, beat him
soundly, as such a mischiefmaker and carrier of wicked messages deserved;
which coming to the ears of Regan and her husband, they ordered Caius to be
put in the stocks, though he was a messenger from the king her father, and in
that character demanded the highest respect: so that the first thing the king saw
when he entered the castle, was his faithful servant Caius sitting in that
disgraceful situation. This was but a bad omen of the reception which he was to
expect; but a worse followed, when, upon inquiry for his daughter and her
husband, he was told they were weary with travelling all night, and could not see
him; and when lastly, upon his insisting in a positive and angry manner to see
them, they came to greet him, whom should he see in their company but the
hated Goneril, who had come to tell her own story, and set her sister against the
king her father! This sight much moved the old man, and still more to see Regan
take her by the hand; and he asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look upon
his old white beard. And Regan advised him to go home again with Goneril, and
live with her peaceably, dismissing half of his attendants, and to ask her
forgiveness; for he was old and wanted discretion, and must be ruled and led by
persons that had more discretion than himself. And Lear showed how
preposterous that would sound, if he were to go down on his knees, and beg of
his own daughter for food and raiment, and he argued against such an unnatural
dependence, declaring his resolution never to return with her, but to stay where
he was with Regan, he and his hundred knights; for he said that she had not
forgot the half of the kingdom which he had endowed her with, and that her
eyes were not fierce like Goneril's, but mild and kind. And he said that rather
than return to Goneril, with half his train cut off, he would go over to France,
and beg a wretched pension of the king there, who had married his youngest
daughter without a portion. But he was mistaken in expecting kinder treatment

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of Regan than he had experienced from her sister Goneril. As if willing to outdo
her sister in unequal behaviour, she declared that she thought fifty knights too
many to wait upon him: that five-and-twenty were enough. Then Lear, nigh
heart-broken, turned to Goneril and said that he would go back with her, for her
fifty doubled five-and-twenty, and so her love was twice as much as Regan's. But
Goneril excused herself, and said, what -teed of so many as five-and-twenty? or
even ten? or five? when he might be waited upon by her servants, or her sister's
servants? So these two wicked daughters, as if they strove to exceed each other
in cruelty to their old father, who had been so good to them, by little and little
would have abated him of all his train, all respect (little enough for him that once
commanded a kingdom), which was left him to show that he had once been a
king! Not that a splendid train is essential to happiness, but from a king to a
beggar is a hard change, from commanding millions to be without one
attendant; and it was the ingratitude in his daughters' denying it, more than
what he would suffer by the want of it, which pierced this poor king to the heart;
insomuch, that with this double ill-usage, a vexation for having so foolishly given
away a kingdom, his wits began to be unsettled, and while he said e knew not
what, he vowed revenge against those unnatural hags, and to make examples of
them that should be a terror to the earth! While he was thus idly threatening
what his weak arm could never execute, night came on, and a loud storm of
thunder and lightning with rain; and his daughters still persisting in their
resolution not to admit his followers, he called for his horses, and chose rather
to encounter the utmost fury of the storm abroad, than stay under the same
roof with these ungrateful daughters: and they, saying that the injuries which
wilful men procure to themselves are their just punishment, suffered him to go
in that condition and shut their doors upon him. The wind were high, and the
rain and storm increased, when the old man sallied forth to combat with the
elements, less sharp than his daughters' unkindness. For many miles about there
was scarce a bush; and there upon a heath, exposed to the fury of the storm in a
dark night, did king Lear wander out, and defy the winds and the thunder; and
he bid the winds to blow the earth into the sea, or swell the waves of the sea till
they drowned the earth, that no token might remain of any such ungrateful
animal as man. The old king was now left with no other companion than the
poor fool, who still abided with him, with his merry conceits striving to outjest
misfortune, saying it was but a naughty night to swim in, and truly the king had

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better go in and ask his daughter's blessing: But he that has a little tiny wit With
heigh ho, the wind and the rain! Must make content with his fortunes fit Though
the rain it raineth every day: and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's
pride. Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his
ever-faithful servant the good earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius, who ever
followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to be the earl; and
he said: 'Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love night, love not such nights as
these. This dreadful storm has driven the beasts to their hiding places. Man's
nature cannot endure the affliction or the fear.' And Lear rebuked him and said,
these lesser evils were not felt, where a greater malady was taxed. When the
mind is at ease, the body has leisure to be delicate, but the temper in his mind
did take all feeling else from his senses, but of that which beat at his heart. And
he spoke of filial ingratitude, and said it was all one as if the mouth should tear
the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were hands and food and everything to
children. But the good Caius still persisting in his entreaties that the king would
not stay out in the open air, at last persuaded him to enter a little wretched
hovel which stood upon the heath, where the fool first entering, suddenly ran
back terrified, saying that he had seen a spirit. But upon examination this spirit
proved to be nothing more than a poor Bedlam beggar, who had crept into this
deserted hovel for shelter, and with his talk about devils frighted the fool, one of
those poor lunatics who are either mad, or feign to be so, the better to extort
charity from the compassionate country people, who go about the country,
calling themselves poor Tom and poor Turlygood, saying: 'Who gives anything to
poor Tom?' sticking pins and nails and sprigs of rosemary into their arms to
make them bleed; and with such horrible actions, partly by prayers, and partly
with lunatic curses, they move or terrify the ignorant countryfolks into giving
them alms. This poor fellow was such a one; and the king seeing him in so
wretched a plight, with nothing but a blanket about his loins to cover his
nakedness, could not be persuaded but that the fellow was some father who had
given all away to his daughters, and brought himself to that pass: for nothing he
thought could bring a man to such wretchedness but the having unkind
daughters. And from this and many such wild speeches which he uttered, the
good Caius plainly perceived that he was not in his perfect mind, but that his
daughters' ill usage had really made him go mad. And now the loyalty of this
worthy earl of Kent showed itself in more essential services than he had hitherto

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found opportunity to perform. For with the assistance of some of the king's
attendants who remained loyal, he had the person of his royal master removed
at daybreak to the castle of Dover, where his own friends and influence, as earl
of Kent, chiefly lay; and himself embarking for France, hastened to the court of
Cordelia, and did there in such moving terms represent the pitiful condition of
her royal father, and set out in such lively colours the inhumanity of her sisters,
that this good and loving child with many tears besought the king her husband
that he would give her leave to embark for England, with a sufficient power to
subdue these cruel daughters and their husbands, and restore the old king her
father to his throne; which being granted, she set forth, and with a royal army
landed at Dover. Lear having by some chance escaped from the guardians which
the good earl of Kent had put over him to' take care of him in his lunacy, was
found by some of Cordelia's train, wandering about the fields near Dover, in a
pitiable condition, stark mad, and singing aloud to himself with a crown upon
his head which he had made of straw, and nettles, and other wild weeds that he
had picked up in the corn-fields. By the advice of the physicians, Cordelia,
though earnestly desirous of seeing her father, was prevailed upon to put off the
meeting, till by sleep and the operation of herbs which they gave him, he should
be restored to greater composure. By the aid of these skilful physicians, to
whom Cordelia promised all her gold and jewels for the recovery of the old king,
Lear was soon in a condition to see his daughter. A tender sight it was to see the
meeting between this father and daughter; to see the struggles between the joy
of this poor old king at beholding again his once darling child, and the shame at
receiving such filial kindness from her whom he had cast off for so small a fault
in his displeasure; both these passions struggling with the remains of his malady,
which in his half-crazed brain sometimes made him that he scarce remembered
where he was, or who it was that so kindly kissed him and spoke to him; and
then he would beg the standers-by not to laugh at him, if he were mistaken in
thinking this lady to be his daughter Cordelia! And then to see him fall on his
knees to beg pardon of his child; and she, good lady, kneeling all the while to ask
a blessing of him, and telling him that it did not become him to kneel, but it was
her duty, for she was his child, his true and very child Cordial! and she kissed
him (as she said) to kiss away all her sisters' unkindness, and said that they might
be ashamed of themselves, to turn their old kind father with his white beard out
into the cold air, when her enemy's dog, though it had bit her (as she prettily

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expressed it), should have stayed by her fire such a night as that, and warmed
himself. And she told her father how she had come from France with purpose to
bring him assistance; and he said that she must forget and forgive, for he was
old and foolish, and did not know what he did, but that to be sure she had great
cause not to love him, but her sisters had none. And Cordelia said that she had
no cause, no more than they had. So we will leave this old king in the protection
of his dutiful and loving child, where, by the help of sleep and medicine, she and
her physicians at length succeeded in winding up the untuned and jarring
senses which the cruelty of his other daughters had so violently shaken. Let us
return to say a word or two about those cruel daughters. These monsters of
ingratitude, who had been so false to their old father, could not be expected to
prove more faithful to their own husbands. They soon grew tired of paying even
the appearance of duty and affection, and in an open way showed they had fixed
their loves upon another. It happened that the object of their guilty loves was
the same. It was Edmund, a natural son of the late earl of Gloucester, who by his
treacheries had succeeded in disinheriting his brother Edgar, the lawful heir,
from his earldom, and by his wicked practices was now earl himself; a wicked
man, and a fit object for the love of such wicked creatures as Goneril and Regan.
It falling out about this time that the duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died,
Regan immediately declared her intention of wedding this earl of Gloucester,
which rousing the jealousy of her sister, to whom as well as to Regan this wicked
earl had at sundry times professed love, Goneril found means to make away with
her sister by poison; but being detected in her practices, and imprisoned by her
husband, the duke of Albany, for this deed, and for her guilty passion for the earl
which had come to his ears, she, in a ht of disappointed love and rage, shortly
put an end to her own life. Thus' the justice of Heaven at last overtook these
wicked daughters. While the eyes of all men were upon this event, admiring the
justice displayed in their deserved deaths, the same eyes were suddenly taken
off from this sight to admire at the mysterious ways of the same power in the
melancholy fate of the young and virtuous daughter, the lady Cordelia, whose
good deeds did seem to deserve a more fortunate conclusion: but it is an awful
truth, that innocence and piety are not always successful in this world. The
forces which Goneril and Regan had sent out under the command of the bad
earl of Gloucester were victorious, and Cordelia, by the practices of this wicked
earl, who did not like that any should stand between him and the throne, ended

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her life in prison. Thus, Heaven took this innocent lady to itself in her young
years, after showing her to the world an illustrious example of filial duty. Lear
did not long survive this kind child. Before he died, the good earl of Kent, who
had still attended his old master's steps from the first of his daughters' ill usage
to this sad period of his decay, tried to make him understand that it was he who
had followed him under the name of Caius; but Lear's care-crazed brain at that
time could not comprehend how that could be, or how Kent and Caius could be
the same person: so Kent thought it needless to trouble him with explanations
at such a time; and Lear soon after expiring, this faithful servant to the king,
between age and grief for his old master's vexations, soon followed him to the
grave. How the judgment of Heaven overtook the bad earl of Gloucester, whose
treasons were discovered, and himself slain in single combat with his brother,
the lawful earl; and how Goneril's husband, the duke of Albany, who was
innocent of the death of Cordelia, and had never encouraged his lady in her
wicked proceedings against her father, ascended the throne of Britain after the
death of Lear, is needless here to narrate; Lear and his Three Daughters being
dead, whose adventures alone concern our story.

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KEY FACTS

At a Glance:

Full Title:
The Tragedy of King Lear

Author:
William Shakespeare

Type Of Work:
Play

Genre:
Tragedy

Language:
English

Time And Place Written:

England, 1604–1605

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Date Of First Publication:

First Folio edition, 1623

Publisher:
John Heminge and Henry Condell, two senior members of
Shakespeare’s acting troupe

Characters
I. King Lear:
The aging king of Britain and the protagonist of the play. Lear is used to
enjoying absolute power and to being flattered, and he does not respond
well to being contradicted or challenged. At the beginning of the play, his
values are notably hollow—he prioritizes the appearance of love over
actual devotion and wishes to maintain the power of a king while
unburdening himself of the responsibility. Nevertheless, he inspires
loyalty in subjects such as Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, all of
whom risk their lives for him.

II. Cordelia:
Lear’s youngest daughter, disowned by her father for refusing to flatter
him. Cordelia is held in extremely high regard by all of the good
characters in the play—the king of France marries her for her virtue alone,
overlooking her lack of dowry. She remains loyal to Lear despite his
cruelty toward her, forgives him, and displays a mild and forbearing
temperament even toward her evil sisters, Goneril and Regan. Despite her
obvious virtues, Cordelia’s reticence makes her motivations difficult to
read, as in her refusal to declare her love for her father at the beginning of
the play.

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III. Goneril:

Lear’s ruthless oldest daughter and the wife of the duke of Albany. Goneril
is jealous, treacherous, and amoral. Shakespeare’s audience would have
been particularly shocked at Goneril’s aggressiveness, a quality that it
would not have expected in a female character. She challenges Lear’s
authority, boldly initiates an affair with Edmund, and wrests military
power away from her husband.

IV. Regan:
Lear’s middle daughter and the wife of the duke of Cornwall. Regan is as
ruthless as Goneril and as aggressive in all the same ways. In fact, it is
difficult to think of any quality that distinguishes her from her sister.
When they are not egging each other on to further acts of cruelty, they
jealously compete for the same man, Edmund.

V. Gloucester:
A nobleman loyal to King Lear whose rank, earl, is below that of duke. The
first thing we learn about Gloucester is that he is an adulterer, having
fathered a bastard son, Edmund. His fate is in many ways parallel to that
of Lear: he misjudges which of his children to trust. He appears weak and
ineffectual in the early acts, when he is unable to prevent Lear from being
turned out of his own house, but he later demonstrates that he is also
capable of great bravery.

VI. Edgar:
Gloucester’s older, legitimate son. Edgar plays many different roles,
starting out as a gullible fool easily tricked by his brother, then assuming a
disguise as a mad beggar to evade his father’s men, then carrying his
impersonation further to aid Lear and Gloucester, and finally appearing as
an armored champion to avenge his brother’s treason. Edgar’s propensity
for disguises and impersonations makes it difficult to characterize him
effectively.

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VII. Edmund:
Gloucester’s younger, illegitimate son. Edmund resents his status as a
bastard and schemes to usurp Gloucester’s title and possessions from
Edgar. He is a formidable character, succeeding in almost all of his
schemes and wreaking destruction upon virtually all of the other
characters.

VIII. Kent:

A nobleman of the same rank as Gloucester who is loyal to King Lear. Kent
spends most of the play disguised as a peasant, calling himself “Caius,” so
that he can continue to serve Lear even after Lear banishes him. He is
extremely loyal, but he gets himself into trouble throughout the play by
being extremely blunt and outspoken.

IX. Albany:
The husband of Lear’s daughter Goneril. Albany is good at heart, and he
eventually denounces and opposes the cruelty of Goneril, Regan, and
Cornwall. Yet he is indecisive and lacks foresight, realizing the evil of his
allies quite late in the play.

X. Cornwall:
The husband of Lear’s daughter Regan. Unlike Albany, Cornwall is
domineering, cruel, and violent, and he works with his wife and
sister-in-law Goneril to persecute Lear and Gloucester.

XI. Fool:
Lear’s jester, who uses double-talk and seemingly frivolous songs to give
Lear important advice.

XII. Oswald:
The steward, or chief servant, in Goneril’s house. Oswald obeys his
mistress’s commands and helps her in her conspiracies.

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Q/A or Notes, Area:

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