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    King Lear
    King Lear
    King Lear
    Ebook197 pages2 hours

    King Lear

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    The story of a king who craves flattery—and the daughter who refuses him even at the cost of her own inheritance.
     
    King Lear wants nothing more than to be praised, and when he decides to divide his realm according to how much each of his daughters can impress him with their declarations of love, Goneril and Regan are quick to oblige. Only the youngest, Cordelia, cannot give him what he wants—and she is promptly cut out of his will.
     
    Lear’s decision will roil not only his family but his kingdom, for the political implications of the inheritance set off a tragic series of events as Lear’s madness grows. One of the theater’s greatest works, re-popularized most recently by the 2018 film adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins, King Lear is a cornerstone of Western literature and a timeless story.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateMay 5, 2020
    ISBN9781504062954
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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    Reviews for King Lear

    4/5

    2,712 ratings50 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A very enjoyable edition. Unlike most of the Arden editions, Foakes comes across more as an educator than an academic-among-friends. This does mean occasionally that he'll cover ground most professional-level readers already understand, but it makes this a really well-rounded introduction to the play.

      The decision here is to incorporate both Quarto and Folio texts in one, with the differences clearly delineated. It's probably the best possible option for this play, and well done.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorite Shakespeare plays, though it had been a long time since I read it. Didn't disappoint on a reread!
    • 4/5
      This did not quite top Hamlet as my favorite Shakespeare play but it is way up there. With the exception of the black and white hatted Gloucester boys there is a lot more moral complexity and ambiguity than you normally see in Shakespeare play; it wasn't until well into the play that I had any idea who I was supposed to sympathize with between the king and the daughters and that suspense actually adding a great deal to my interest while reading. Edgar's antic disposition is a lot more interesting and entertaining to me than Hamlet's but he doesn't have anything like Hamlet's soliloquies.
    • 3/5
      The version of Lear I saw in 2012 too closely matched the texted: too many story lines, too many gag scenes, and too much talking about how hard it is to be king. The tragedy of Lear is that he gets exactly what he deserved. For me, it lacks much of the intrigue of Macbeth or the poetry of Hamlet or Othello.
    • 3/5
      Another great tragic tale as told my Shakespeare. Like all his plays, you're able to dig deep into this story and draw out tons of stories, themes and hidden meanings out of all its layers. An enjoyable read for any Shakespeare enthusiast.
    • 5/5
      The writer I feel most in awe of, by a mile, is Shakespeare. I'm not going to say anything much about him because it's all been said, so I'll just say he's the boss, and the play that most shocks and thrills and saddens me is King Lear. But I could almost have said exactly the same about most of the plays he wrote. Every time I experience him in performance I feel overwhelmed by his brilliance, and I just have to shut up before I get too sycophantic.
    • 3/5
      Compare to his other masterpieces, this was for me too wide in character and at the same time lacking the intimacy of baseline human feelings or experience. "Thy truth be thy dower."
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy. The plot, language, and characterization show the dramatist at his mature best.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's works. Blood, death, and treachery. Who could ask for more!
    • 5/5
      If I could only recommend one Shakespeare Play it would be King Lear.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare but I have not read it in a long time and I do not think that I have ever seen it.
    • 5/5
      The proud King Lear disowns his most dutiful daughter and is consequently betrayed by his other two. A bastard son betrays both his brother and father out of jealousy and malice. I think it is the saddest of his tragedies, and it moves very quickly to me (though not as quickly as Macbeth). It is also really one of the most profound expressions of human suffering ever written in the English language. The play sees deeply into the soul, and so I would often linger a bit on a line or speech with a quiet awe. The actions pierce its characters with a sad, penetrating irony. The eyes will eventually see in their blindness. The heart bleeds and the storm rages. It is depressing, yes. But in all, as depraved as its villains are, I also read in King Lear what is very beautiful about humanity and kinship, however frail it may appear teetering on the edge of a cliff: compassion, loyalty, charity, and mercy.
    • 5/5
      There are three main reasons for the disorder already occurring by the end of Act I. The first and most obvious is Lear's madness. He certain seems to be loosing it a bit, and his crazed banishment of Cordelia and Kent couldn't possibly have done anything but harm to him. The second reason is Cordelia's sister's treachery. It could be argued that they appear to be trying to protect him and their people by taking away his knights, he is crazy after all, if it weren't for Cordelia's parting words to them; "I know you what you are;/And, like a sister, am most loth to call/Your faults as they are nam'd. Love well our father:/To your professed bosoms I commit him:/But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, I would prefer him to a better place." And a few lines later; "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning/Who cover faults, at last shame them derides." These lines seem to indicate that Cordelia knows that Goneril and Regan are not only flattering Lear for gain, but also that they hold him in contempt, and will likely do him harm, and revealing the second harbinger of disorder.

      The third indicator of the chaos to come is Edmund. I feel bad for him, for the contempt others hold him in because of the doings of his parents, but he quickly does what he can to dispel my pity for him with his evil attitudes as he works to turn his father and brother against one another. I find it ironic that he distains his father's belief in fate through astrology, yet confesses that because of when he was born he was supposed to be 'rough and lecherous,' yet doesn't believe himself to have those traits he was just showing.

      Shakespeare's purpose in showing this disorder seems to come from the idea of dividing his kingdom. A divided kingdom would often lead to civil war and chaos, so Lear's deliberate dividing of the kingdom would probably have been viewed as deliberately inviting disorder.

      Power in England was structured in a pyramid. The king on top, and wealth and power went to a few nobles who had all the money. Lear was trying to disrupt that structure in a way that would have alarmed the people watching the play. Cordelia took a great risk in not bowing to her father's wishes, as his denying her dowry could have driven away both her suitors, leaving her alone and destitute in a world that didn't favor lone women. In her case, however Cordelia's suitor from France still marries her, which would be very unusual since she had no dowry, and she wouldn't gain him an alliance with England.

      Family dynamics can change depending on the health of a person, as others may come into their lives and as children grow up. Cordelia was Lear's favorite child, yet when she would not lie to him with flattery, he cast her off. Why? Did he not realize that her impending marriage would change is relationship with her? She would still love him, of course, but even with the play being in pre-Christian era, the belief would probably have been that the wife's foremost alliegence should be to her husband, and Lear should have understood this. In fact, it seems strange that he would have even questioned this part of the structure of society at all.

      No one has a perfect family. This is shown in Edgar and Edmund's family. Gloster (or Gloucester as some versions call him) may have been unfaithful to his wife, it's never stated whether she was alive at the time of Edmund's conception. If Gloster was unfaithful to his wife than he was dishonest and breaking one of the oldest understandings of marriage. If Edgar's mother had already died, that Gloster was not responsible enough to remarry, and to marry Edmund's mother, or at least admit himself Edmund's father when the boy was a child, instead of waiting until Edmund was old enough to distinguish himself, and in doing so, add to Gloster's reputation. It seems very unfair that Edmund, and almost any other illigitmate child born until the the late 1900s should be punished for something that their parents did. Yet neither should Edmund take out his misfortunes on his brother, who was, in all probability, guiltless in tormenting him. After all, Edgar trusts Edmund completely, which does not seem like an attitude he would hold had he tormented Edmund before. I think that Gloster could have stopped his fate had he treated Edmund with kindness from the beginning of his life, rather than waiting until Edmund could add to his reputation to acknowledge him.

      I don't actually seem him mocking Edmund, so much as simply being ashamed of his illegitimacy because it was Gloster's own act that was the cause of Edmund's bastardy. As Gloster was speaking to Kent, he was very frank about the manner of Edmund's conception, to the point that we would say he was being rude to Edmund, but really, for the time, the fact that he had acknowledged Edmund as his son at all was better than many bastards would have gotten. For this reason I think that more than anything it was the fact that he took so long to acknowledge Edmund, that led to Edmund's bitterness and Gloster's downfall.

      (This review is patched up from posts I made on an online Shakespeare class)
    • 3/5
      A fairly quick read. I didn't love it as much as I remember. Lear was way obsessed with 'nature' and the whole thing was so pompous. But not as bad as some of his other stuff.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy the Folger editions of Shakespeare - to each his own in this matter. Some find Lear to be overblown, I am tremendously moved by it, and haunted by the image of the old man howling across the barren heaths with his dead daughter in his arms. 'I am bound upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead.' Lear 4.7.52-54
    • 3/5
      Not my cup of tea, but it was nice to read it because I haven't before.
    • 4/5
      King Lear makes a fateful decision to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. The reaction of one daughter, Cordelia, displeases the king so much that he cuts her out of any inheritance. The kingdom will be divided between the other two daughters, Goneril and Regan. His plan is that they will take care of him in his old age. They soon decide that they don't want to use their inheritance to support their father, and the king finds himself with nowhere to shelter in a violent storm. Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester's illegitimate son plots to usurp his legitimate brother's place as their father's heir. As in many of Shakespeare's plays, there are characters in disguise. It's filled with violence and cruelty without comic relief like the gravedigger scene in Hamlet. The family conflict at its heart will continue to resonate with audiences and readers as long as there are families.
    • 4/5
      To sum up the play in one sentence: this is the story of a king seeking to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on who could articulate her love for him the best. Beyond that it is the tragedy of emotional greed - of wanting to be loved at any cost. It is the tragedy of politics and family dynamics. Youngest daughter Cordelia is unwilling to conform to her father's wishes of exaggerated devotion. Isn't the last born always the rebel in the family? As a result Cordelia's portion of the kingdom is divided among her two sisters, Goneril and Regan. The story goes on to ooze betrayal and madness. Lear is trapped by his own ego and made foolish by his hubris.
    • 5/5
      My absolute favorite Shakespeare play. Extra love for the fact that this came up when I searched for Stephen King.
    • 5/5
      Teaching it for the second time. The Folger edition is okay, but it badly needs to be updated; and the illustrations in the facing page are, to my mind, badly chosen, unless they're meant only to promote the grandeur of the Folger library. I think they would have done much better to provide photos of scenes taken from various productions/films/adaptations of Lear; no doubt the students would pay more attention to such things, to say nothing of nonexpert instructors like me.

      Oh, the play: certainly very good at cutting the legs out from under the notion that suffering can be redemptive. Lear discovers compassion and love, Gloucester grows up, but what do they get? Death. And what are we left with? The two appalling milquetoast prigs, Albany and Edgar,* perhaps the two characters in Lear who understand least well what the whole thing is about. At least Kent has the grace to go off and wait to die.

      * Hilarious: I just googled these names and the second hit is some plagiarism mill that's selling an essay that reads "Albany and Edgar both possess honest and kind characters." You have got to be kidding me! Please, please, please let someone try to get this paper past me. How stupid or desperate would someone have to be to pay for a paper that's, at best, a B-?
    • 5/5
      Shakespeare, William. King Lear. University of Virginia Electronic Text Center, 15XX. This is my favorite Shakespeare play. I don't know if I would have re-read it now if I hadn't had a copy on my iPaq and needed something to read at night without disturbing Molly and Tony on our trip to Madrid. I like Lear for its apocalyptic vision and because I think the transition from one generation to the next is an interesting topic. The paper I wrote on this play in college, which compares Edgar to the Fool, is one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      For some reason I was rather set against this play at the beginning. However, it had all the elements I enjoy in a story; gruesome, depressing and yet, after act two, compelling. I couldn't put it down. It's sort of the flip-side of his comedies. Lots of misunderstanding at the beginning, betrayals by the bad guys (that's not in the comedies much), lots of people running around disguised as other people, then at the end, instead of everyone forgiving everyone after all is revealed, almost everyone dies. Not quite the happy-ever-after ending of the comedies, yet in this play it worked. I'm left with one thing unsettled though, what happened to the blind Gloucester?
    • 3/5
      The illustrations are unremarkable.
    • 3/5
      This play was discussed by the Great Books KC group of which I am a member. We also watched the movie "A Thousand Acres" to see another version of the plot. This story becomes more harrowing the older one becomes. It's a reminder that one's children don't always remain loyal. But then again, some parents do bad things or make unwise choices.
    • 4/5
      I recently read this for the Shakespeare module on my degree, and was a little disappointed. Having been told it was the Bard's masterpiece, I perhaps came to it with rather high expectations, but then doesn't everyone with Shakespeare? In my own opinion I feel that it falls short of Hamlet, though is superior to Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's line-up of 'famous tragedies' in terms of reading; on performance I cannot comment having seen only Hamlet and R&J. The Fool is an excellent character, and his relationship with Cordelia perhaps the most interesting in the drama. Edmond is also a good dramatic character, but the sisters Regan and Gonerill were flat. Lear's language is itself at times brilliant, but something left me wanting the dexterity of Hamlet. Cordelia is powerful in her absence, and really dominates the final act through her own speech, and that of Lear. The play is undoubtedly infused with some magical moments, but as a text to read, it does not, for me, inspire or humor as Hamlet manages.
    • 4/5
      Vain and silly King Lear demands that each of his three daughters describe their love for him. When the youngest and favored Cordelia gives a reply that is less gushing, but more reasonable, than her sisters, the King banishes her. This sets up a chain of miserable events in which the sisters and their husbands scramble to replace Cordelia in their father's heart, but fail because ambition brings out their cruelty.
    • 4/5
      Probably the best of Shakespeare's works thematically, but not the easiest to follow. The sub-plots, the various intrigues, makes for a very convoluted plot. Some great roles though -- Lear, Edgar playing a madman, the Fool, the evil Edmund and the scheming daughters ... some serious scene-stealing material.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Shakespeare plays. King Lear asks his daughters who truly loves him, and the oldest two spin golden words of flattery while the third one cannot do so. Lear abandons his third daughter and this opens the story to the madness that follows. Brilliantly imagined characters and psyches. Worth it
    • 5/5
      Excellent work. I saw this performed at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN. Very powerful performance. I liked this edition in particular because it explained the nuances of the language right next to the original text. That plus the performance made this easier to understand.
    • 5/5
      When people want to rank Shakespeare's plays, usually Hamlet comes out as number one. This, in my experience, is the only other of his plays that I have seen mentioned as his greatest. If I were to rank his plays solely based upon their impact upon the world, I would probably agree with the usual placement of Hamlet as number one. However, were I to rank them based upon their impact on me, Lear gets the nod. Lear accurately and horrifyingly portrays the primal nature of man like few other works of literature; the only other to come to my mind is Lord of the Flies. Yet it's more than that; Lord of the Flies can afford to ignore the effects of sexual attraction and familial ties upon our nature, but Lear (the work, not the character) meets these head-on and uses them to devastating effect. This play alone would guarantee Shakespeare a place as one of the greatest English authors. With the rest of his body of work, there's no question that he is the greatest.

    Book preview

    King Lear - William Shakespeare

    Act I

    SCENE I. King Lear’s palace.

    Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND

    KENT

    I thought the king had more affected the Duke of

    Albany than Cornwall.

    GLOUCESTER

    It did always seem so to us: but now, in the

    division of the kingdom, it appears not which of

    the dukes he values most; for equalities are so

    weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice

    of either’s moiety.

    KENT

    Is not this your son, my lord?

    GLOUCESTER

    His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have

    so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am

    brazed to it.

    KENT

    I cannot conceive you.

    GLOUCESTER

    Sir, this young fellow’s mother could: whereupon

    she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son

    for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.

    Do you smell a fault?

    KENT

    I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it

    being so proper.

    GLOUCESTER

    But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year

    elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:

    though this knave came something saucily into the

    world before he was sent for, yet was his mother

    fair; there was good sport at his making, and the

    whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this

    noble gentleman, Edmund?

    EDMUND

    No, my lord.

    GLOUCESTER

    My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my

    honourable friend.

    EDMUND

    My services to your lordship.

    KENT

    I must love you, and sue to know you better.

    EDMUND

    Sir, I shall study deserving.

    GLOUCESTER

    He hath been out nine years, and away he shall

    again. The king is coming.

    Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants

    KING LEAR

    Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.

    GLOUCESTER

    I shall, my liege.

    Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND

    KING LEAR

    Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

    Give me the map there. Know that we have divided

    In three our kingdom: and ‘tis our fast intent

    To shake all cares and business from our age;

    Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

    Unburthen’d crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,

    And you, our no less loving son of Albany,

    We have this hour a constant will to publish

    Our daughters’ several dowers, that future strife

    May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,

    Great rivals in our youngest daughter’s love,

    Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,

    And here are to be answer’d. Tell me, my daughters,—

    Since now we will divest us both of rule,

    Interest of territory, cares of state,—

    Which of you shall we say doth love us most?

    That we our largest bounty may extend

    Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,

    Our eldest-born, speak first.

    GONERIL

    Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

    Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;

    Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

    No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;

    As much as child e’er loved, or father found;

    A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;

    Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

    CORDELIA

    [Aside] What shall Cordelia do?

    Love, and be silent.

    LEAR

    Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,

    With shadowy forests and with champains rich’d,

    With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,

    We make thee lady: to thine and Albany’s issue

    Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,

    Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.

    REGAN

    Sir, I am made

    Of the self-same metal that my sister is,

    And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

    I find she names my very deed of love;

    Only she comes too short: that I profess

    Myself an enemy to all other joys,

    Which the most precious square of sense possesses;

    And find I am alone felicitate

    In your dear highness’ love.

    CORDELIA

    [Aside] Then poor Cordelia!

    And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love’s

    More richer than my tongue.

    KING LEAR

    To thee and thine hereditary ever

    Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;

    No less in space, validity, and pleasure,

    Than that conferr’d on Goneril. Now, our joy,

    Although the last, not least; to whose young love

    The vines of France and milk of Burgundy

    Strive to be interess’d; what can you say to draw

    A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

    CORDELIA

    Nothing, my lord.

    KING LEAR

    Nothing!

    CORDELIA

    Nothing.

    KING LEAR

    Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

    CORDELIA

    Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

    My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty

    According to my bond; nor more nor less.

    KING LEAR

    How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,

    Lest it may mar your fortunes.

    CORDELIA

    Good my lord,

    You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I

    Return those duties back as are right fit,

    Obey you, love you, and most honour you.

    Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

    They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,

    That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry

    Half my love with him, half my care and duty:

    Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

    To love my father all.

    KING LEAR

    But goes thy heart with this?

    CORDELIA

    Ay, good my lord.

    KING LEAR

    So young, and so untender?

    CORDELIA

    So young, my lord, and true.

    KING LEAR

    Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:

    For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,

    The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;

    By all the operation of the orbs

    From whom we do exist, and cease to be;

    Here I disclaim all my paternal care,

    Propinquity and property of blood,

    And as a stranger to my heart and me

    Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,

    Or he that makes his generation messes

    To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

    Be as well neighbour’d, pitied, and relieved,

    As thou my sometime daughter.

    KENT

    Good my liege,—

    KING LEAR

    Peace, Kent!

    Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

    I loved her most, and thought to set my rest

    On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!

    So be my grave my peace, as here I give

    Her father’s heart from her! Call France; who stirs?

    Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,

    With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third:

    Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

    I do invest you jointly with my power,

    Pre-eminence, and all the large effects

    That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,

    With reservation of an hundred knights,

    By you to be sustain’d, shall our abode

    Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain

    The name, and all the additions to a king;

    The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,

    Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,

    This coronet part betwixt you.

    Giving the crown

    KENT

    Royal Lear,

    Whom I have ever honour’d as my king,

    Loved as my father, as my master follow’d,

    As my great patron thought on in my prayers,—

    KING LEAR

    The bow is bent and drawn, make from the shaft.

    KENT

    Let it fall rather, though the fork invade

    The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly,

    When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?

    Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,

    When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound,

    When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom;

    And, in thy best consideration, cheque

    This hideous rashness: answer my life my judgment,

    Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least;

    Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound

    Reverbs no hollowness.

    KING LEAR

    Kent, on thy life, no more.

    KENT

    My life I never held but as a pawn

    To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,

    Thy safety being the motive. .

    KING LEAR

    Out of my sight!

    KENT

    See better, Lear; and let me still remain

    The true blank of thine eye.

    KING LEAR

    Now, by Apollo,—

    KENT

    Now, by Apollo, king,

    Thou swear’st thy gods in vain.

    KING LEAR

    O, vassal! miscreant!

    Laying his hand on his sword

    ALBANY CORNWALL

    Dear sir, forbear.

    KENT

    Do:

    Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow

    Upon thy foul disease. Revoke thy doom;

    Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat,

    I’ll tell thee thou

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