The Tragedy of King Lear, often shortened to King Lear, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in late 1605 or early 1606. Set in pre-Roman Britain, the play depicts the consequences of King Lear's love-test, in which he divides his power and land according to the praise of his daughters. The play is known for its dark tone, complex poetry, and prominent motifs concerning blindness, madness and human nature.
The earliest known performance was on Saint Stephen's Day in 1606. Modern editors derive their texts from three extant publications: the 1608 quarto (Q1), the 1619 quarto (Q2, unofficial and based on Q1), and the 1623 First Folio. The quarto versions differ significantly from the folio version.
In 1681, after the English Restoration, Nahum Tate produced a revised version with a romantic subplot and a less bleak ending. This version displaced Shakespeare's from the professional stage until 1838. However, since then, Shakespeare's original play has come to be regarded as one of his supreme achievements. In his A Defence of Poetry (1821), Percy Bysshe Shelley called King Lear "the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world", and the play is regularly cited as one of the greatest works of literature ever written.
Characters
Lear – King of Britain Goneril – Lear's eldest daughter Regan – Lear's middle daughter Cordelia – Lear's youngest daughter The Fool – attendant on Lear Duke of Albany – Goneril's husband Duke of Cornwall – Regan's husband King of France – suitor and later husband to Cordelia Duke of Burgundy – suitor to Cordelia Earl of Gloucester – a Lear loyalist Edgar – Gloucester's first-born son Edmund – Gloucester's illegitimate son Earl of Kent – a Lear loyalist Oswald – Goneril's steward Doctor – attends on Cordelia Curan – Gloucester's servant Old Man – a tenant of Gloucester
Plot
The play begins with the Earls of Gloucester and Kent discussing Lear's succession plans. Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son, Edmund. The court arrives and Lear announces he will finalise the marriage of his youngest daughter, Cordelia, to either the Duke of Burgundy or the King of France. Lear will also abdicate, granting a third of his kingdom to each daughter, provided they declare their love for him. Goneril and Regan make flattering speeches but Cordelia says she loves him according to her duty. Outraged, Lear disowns Cordelia, dividing her inheritance between her two sisters. Lear sets conditions: he retains the title of king, he will reside with Goneril and Regan, and he keeps a retinue of a hundred knights. Kent chastises Lear for abdicating and for disowning Cordelia, so Lear banishes him. Lear offers Cordelia without a dowry to her suitors. France accepts, admiring her honesty.
Ambitious Edmund resents the way he carries a stigma for his birth and plots to supplant his legitimate brother, Edgar, with a forged letter. Meanwhile, rather than leaving, Kent has disguised himself as 'Caius'. Lear hires him after he beats Goneril's servant, Oswald, for lack of manners. Goneril has lost patience with hosting the king and his retinue of knights, who have become a disorderly mob, and so orders him to dismiss half his knights. Enraged, Lear curses Goneril and threatens to take back his power, before departing for Regan's residence. In a private conversation, Lear fears he might be going mad. After encouraging Edgar to fly the castle, Edmund insinuates his brother was planning to murder Gloucester. Convinced, the earl disinherits Edgar, proclaiming him an outlaw. Edgar is pursued across the countryside, causing him to adopt the persona of a mad beggar named Tom o' Bedlam.
Regan and her husband, the Duke of Cornwall, arrive at Gloucester's home. Kent and Oswald quarrel, leading Cornwall and Regan to place Kent in the stocks. When Lear sees his messenger stocked, he struggles to control his rage. Together, Goneril and Regan decide to dismiss his knights. Lear goes mad, running out into a storm. Regan, Goneril, and Cornwall shut the gates after him, despite Gloucester's protests. Lear and the Fool are found on the heath by Kent, who leads them to shelter. In a hovel, they encounter Edgar as the mad beggar. During the stormy night, Gloucester arrives and encourages Kent to take Lear to Dover, where he knows a French army will land to restore the king. Edmund reveals Gloucester's intelligence to Cornwall and Regan. When Gloucester returns, Cornwall gouges out his eyes as retribution. One of Cornwall's servants intervenes, mortally wounding Cornwall. Discovering Edmund's betrayal, Gloucester realises that Edgar was innocent. The blinded earl is thrown out, hiring Poor Tom, whom he fails to recognise as his outlawed son, to lead him to Dover.
Goneril instructs Oswald to kill Gloucester and to deliver a letter to Edmund, for whom she has an adulterous infatuation. The widowed Regan is also attracted to Edmund, who is pitting the two sisters against each other. Edgar tricks the suicidal Gloucester into thinking he has survived a leap from the cliffs of Dover. They meet Lear again, who discourses madly about kingship, flattery, and hypocrisy. Oswald tries to kill Gloucester but is slain by Edgar. In Oswald's pocket, Edgar finds Goneril's letter to Edmund. Cordelia is reconciled with Lear, whose madness abates enough for him to ask her forgiveness. Regan, Goneril, Albany, and Edmund meet with their forces, preparing for battle. In disguise, Edgar gives Goneril's letter to Albany. The British defeat the French, capturing Lear and Cordelia. Edmund sends them to prison with covert orders for execution.
Regan declares she will marry Edmund, not knowing she has been poisoned by Goneril. Albany uses the letter to proclaim Edmund and Goneril as traitors. Regan collapses and dies. Edmund calls for trial by combat and Edgar appears as an anonymous champion, defeating Edmund. Goneril flees, killing herself off-stage. Edgar reveals himself and Gloucester's recent death. A repentant, dying Edmund discloses his order to kill Lear and Cordelia. Lear carries the dead Cordelia in his arms, before dying of grief. Albany offers to share power: Kent refuses, expecting soon to follow Lear into the grave. Edgar neither accepts nor declines.
Sources
Shakespeare's play is based on various accounts of the semi-legendary Brythonic figure Leir of Britain, whose name has been linked by some scholars to the Brythonic god Lir/Llŷr, though in actuality the names are not etymologically related. Shakespeare's most important source is probably the second edition of The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande by Raphael Holinshed, published in 1587. Holinshed himself found the story in the earlier by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which was written in the 12th century. Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published 1590, also contains a character named Cordelia, who also dies from hanging, as in King Lear.
Other possible sources are the anonymous play King Leir (published in 1605); The Mirror for Magistrates (1574), by John Higgins; The Malcontent (1604), by John Marston; The London Prodigal (1605); Montaigne's Essays, which were translated into English by John Florio in 1603; A Description of Elizabethan England (1577), by William Harrison; Remains Concerning Britain (1606), by William Camden; Albion's England (1589), by William Warner; and A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures (1603), by Samuel Harsnett, which provided some of the language used by Edgar while he feigns madness. King Lear is also a literary variant of a common folk tale, "Love Like Salt", Aarne–Thompson type 923, in which a father rejects his youngest daughter for a statement of her love that does not please him.
The source of the subplot involving Gloucester, Edgar, and Edmund is a tale in Philip Sidney's Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1580–90), with a blind Paphlagonian king and his two sons, Leonatus and Plexitrus.
Changes from source material
Besides the subplot involving the Earl of Gloucester and his sons, the principal innovation Shakespeare made to this story was the death of Cordelia and Lear at the end; in the account by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Cordelia restores Lear to the throne, and succeeds him as ruler after his death. During the 17th century, Shakespeare's tragic ending was much criticised and alternative versions were written by Nahum Tate, in which the leading characters survived and Edgar and Cordelia were married (despite the fact that Cordelia was previously betrothed to the King of France). As Harold Bloom states: "Tate's version held the stage for almost 150 years, until Edmund Kean reinstated the play's tragic ending in 1823."
Holinshed states that the story is set when Joash was King of Judah (), while Shakespeare avoids dating the setting, only suggesting that it is sometime in the pre-Christian era (with numerous anachronisms, such as Anglo-Saxon names and titles like Duke and Earl).
The character of Earl of Kent (disguised as 'Caius') is a creative elaboration on Perillus, the king's loyal retainer in King Leir. The Fool, Oswald, and Edmund's Captain were created wholly by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's Lear and other characters make oaths to Jupiter, Juno, and Apollo. While the presence of Roman religion in Britain is technically an anachronism, nothing was known about any religion that existed in Britain at the time of Lear's alleged life.
Holinshed identifies the personal names of the Duke of Albany (Maglanus), the Duke of Cornwall (Henninus), and the Gallic/French leader (Aganippus). Shakespeare refers to these characters by their titles only, and also changes the nature of Albany from a villain to a hero, by reassigning Albany's wicked deeds to Cornwall. Maglanus and Henninus are killed in the final battle, but are survived by their sons Margan and Cunedag. In Shakespeare's version, Cornwall is killed by a servant who objects to the torture of the Earl of Gloucester, while Albany is one of the few surviving main characters. Isaac Asimov surmised that this alteration was due to the title Duke of Albany being held in 1606 by Prince Charles, the younger son of Shakespeare's benefactor King James.Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, Volume II, section "King Lear". However, this explanation is faulty, because James' older son, Prince Henry, held the title Duke of Cornwall at the same time.
Date and text
There is no direct evidence to indicate when King Lear was written or first performed. It is thought to have been composed sometime between 1603 and 1606. A Stationers' Register entry notes a performance before James I on 26 December 1606. The 1603 date originates from words in Edgar's speeches which may derive from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603). A significant issue in the dating of the play is the relationship of King Lear to the play titled The True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of King Leir and his Three Daughters, which was published for the first time after its entry in the Stationers' Register of 8 May 1605. This play had a significant effect on Shakespeare, and his close study of it suggests that he was using a printed copy, which suggests a composition date of 1605–06. Conversely, Frank Kermode, in the Riverside Shakespeare, considers the publication of Leir to have been a response to performances of Shakespeare's already-written play; noting a sonnet by William Strachey that may have verbal resemblances with Lear, Kermode concludes that "1604–05 seems the best compromise".