King Lear (Shakespeare)
Short summary
Ancient Britain. King Lear decided to divide his kingdom among his three daughters based on their declarations of love.
His two eldest daughters professed extravagant love and received their shares. The youngest daughter, Cordelia, refused to flatter him and spoke honestly about her duty. Enraged, Lear disowned her and banished the Earl of Kent for defending her. The King of France married Cordelia without a dowry.
Lear planned to live alternately with his two eldest daughters, retaining a hundred knights. Both daughters soon mistreated him, reducing his retinue and showing him disrespect. Driven to madness by their ingratitude, Lear wandered into a storm on the heath, accompanied only by his Fool and the disguised Kent.
Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester's illegitimate son Edmund plotted against his legitimate brother Edgar, forcing Edgar to flee and disguise himself as a mad beggar. Edmund betrayed his father to the Duke of Cornwall for helping Lear. Cornwall gouged out Gloucester's eyes as punishment.
Cordelia returned with a French army to rescue her father. Lear and Cordelia were reunited, but they were captured when the French forces were defeated. Edmund secretly ordered Cordelia's execution. Edgar challenged Edmund to combat and mortally wounded him. The two eldest daughters both poisoned themselves over their rivalry for Edmund's affection.
Lear entered carrying Cordelia's dead body.
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes, I’ld use them so
That heaven’s vault should crack. She’s gone for ever!
...She’s dead as earth.
Overcome with grief, Lear died beside his daughter. The kingdom passed to Albany and Edgar.
Detailed summary by acts and scenes
Act titles and scene descriptions are editorial.
Act 1. The division of the kingdom and Lears tragic mistake
Scene 1. Lear divides his kingdom; Cordelia banished
In the palace, two noblemen discussed the division of the kingdom. They observed that the king seemed to favor the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cornwall equally. Their conversation turned to an illegitimate son, whose father had often blushed to acknowledge him but now spoke of him openly.
The king entered with his court and announced his intention to divide his kingdom among his three daughters to avoid future strife. He planned to retire from the burdens of rule and asked each daughter to declare how much she loved him, promising the greatest portion to whoever loved him most.
The eldest daughter declared she loved her father more than words could express, dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty. The king rewarded her with a third of his kingdom. The second daughter claimed she was made of the same material as her sister and prized herself at her worth, finding herself happy only in her father's love. She too received an ample third of the kingdom.
When the king turned to his youngest and favorite daughter, she replied simply that she had nothing to say. The king, shocked, urged her to speak again or risk marring her fortunes. She explained that she loved him according to her bond, no more nor less, and that when she married, her husband would receive half her love and duty. She could not promise to love only her father as her sisters claimed to do.
Enraged by what he perceived as ingratitude, the king disowned his youngest daughter completely. He swore by sacred powers that he disclaimed all paternal care and would hold her as a stranger to his heart forever. A loyal nobleman attempted to intervene, but the king warned him not to come between the dragon and his wrath. The nobleman persisted, arguing that the youngest daughter did not love her father least and that those who spoke loudest often had the emptiest hearts.
The king banished the nobleman, giving him five days to prepare and threatening death if he remained in the kingdom after ten days. The nobleman bid farewell, blessing the youngest daughter for her honesty and warning the elder sisters that their deeds should match their words.
Two suitors had come to court the youngest daughter. The king offered her to the first suitor with nothing but his displeasure as her dowry. The suitor declined. The second suitor, however, declared that she was most rich in being poor and most loved in being despised. He took her as his queen, and they departed for his kingdom. The youngest daughter bid farewell to her sisters, warning them to treat their father well.
After everyone left, the two elder sisters discussed their father's declining judgment and unpredictable behavior. They agreed that he had always loved their youngest sister most and that his decision to cast her off revealed his poor judgment. They noted his age brought infirmity and waywardness, and they resolved to act together to limit his authority if he proved troublesome.
Scene 2. Edmunds plot against Edgar
At another nobleman's castle, his illegitimate son declared his allegiance to nature rather than social custom. He questioned why he should be considered base simply for being born outside marriage, when he was as well-formed and capable as any legitimate son. He held a forged letter that he planned to use to turn his father against his legitimate brother and claim the inheritance for himself.
When his father entered, the illegitimate son pretended to hide the letter. His father demanded to see it, and the son reluctantly showed him a letter supposedly from his legitimate brother, suggesting they kill their father to gain his inheritance sooner. The father was horrified and vowed to apprehend his legitimate son. The illegitimate son suggested his father hide and overhear a conversation to confirm the plot, and the father agreed.
When the legitimate son arrived, the illegitimate son warned him that their father was angry with him and advised him to go armed and avoid their father until his rage cooled. The legitimate son, confused and innocent, agreed to follow his brother's advice.
Scene 3. Goneril complains about Lear
At the eldest daughter's palace, she complained to her steward that her father wronged her constantly. His knights grew riotous, and he himself found fault with everything. She instructed the steward to treat her father and his followers with deliberate negligence, hoping to provoke a confrontation that would give her an excuse to reduce his retinue.
Scene 4. Lear confronts Gonerils disrespect
The banished nobleman returned in disguise and offered his services to the king, who accepted him without recognizing him. The king's jester entertained them with riddling songs and jokes that hinted at the king's folly in giving away his kingdom.
When the steward showed disrespect, the king struck him, and the disguised nobleman tripped him. The king thanked his new servant for his loyalty. The eldest daughter then confronted her father about his unruly knights and demanded he reduce their number. The king was shocked by her ingratitude and cursed her, praying that she would never have children or that any child she bore would torment her.
Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose... Into her womb convey sterility!... that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
The king declared he would leave and stay with his other daughter instead. When he returned briefly, he was even more distraught to learn that his eldest daughter had dismissed fifty of his followers. He cursed her again and left with his remaining knights. The eldest daughter's husband expressed concern about her treatment of her father, but she dismissed his worries and sent a letter to her sister warning her about their father's behavior.
Scene 5. Lear travels to Regan
The king sent the disguised nobleman ahead with letters to his second daughter. The jester continued to mock the king's decision to give away his power. The king began to fear he was losing his sanity and prayed to heaven to keep him from madness.
Act 2. Kent in the stocks and growing conflict
Scene 1. Edmund frames Edgar; Cornwall arrives
At the nobleman's castle, his illegitimate son learned that the second daughter and her husband would arrive that night. He saw this as an opportunity to advance his plot. When his legitimate brother appeared, the illegitimate son urged him to flee, claiming their father was searching for him. He then wounded his own arm and told his father that his brother had attacked him when he refused to join a plot against their father. The father vowed to capture his legitimate son and praised his illegitimate son's loyalty.
When the second daughter and her husband arrived, they expressed horror at the supposed treachery. The husband praised the illegitimate son's loyalty and took him into his service. The second daughter suggested that the legitimate son had been corrupted by the king's riotous knights.
Scene 2. Kent attacks Oswald and is put in stocks
Outside the castle, the disguised nobleman encountered the steward from the eldest daughter's house. Recognizing him as the man who had been disrespectful to the king, the nobleman insulted him and drew his sword. The steward cried for help, and the second daughter's husband emerged with guards. Despite the nobleman's explanation that he was defending the king's honor, the husband ordered him placed in the stocks as punishment. The nobleman protested that this was an insult to the king himself, but the husband insisted.
Left alone in the stocks, the nobleman read a letter he had received, which gave him hope that help was coming. He fell asleep.
Scene 3. Edgar becomes Poor Tom
The legitimate son, now a fugitive, decided to disguise himself as a mad beggar to escape capture. He planned to grime his face with filth, knot his hair, and present himself as one of the Bedlam beggars who roamed the countryside. In this disguise, he would be safe from those hunting him.
Scene 4. Lear finds Kent in stocks; both daughters reject him
The king arrived at the castle and was shocked to find his messenger in the stocks. He could not believe that his daughter and her husband would commit such an insult. The jester made jokes about the king's declining fortunes. When the king demanded to see his daughter, he was told she was tired from traveling and would not come. The king tried to be patient, but his anger grew.
Finally, his daughter and her husband appeared. The king complained about his eldest daughter's treatment of him, but his second daughter defended her sister. She suggested the king was old and should be ruled by wiser heads. She urged him to return to his eldest daughter and apologize. The king refused, declaring he would rather live outdoors than submit to such humiliation.
The eldest daughter arrived, and the two sisters united against their father. They questioned why he needed any followers at all when they could provide servants for him. The king tried to explain that even beggars have something superfluous to their basic needs, and that his followers represented his dignity. But as his daughters continued to reduce the number of knights they would allow him, the king's rage and grief overwhelmed him. He declared he would have terrible revenge on them both, though he knew not what form it would take. He rushed out into the approaching storm, and his daughters ordered the castle doors shut against him.
Act 3. The storm and Lears descent into madness
Scene 1. Kent and a gentleman discuss the storm
On the heath during the storm, the disguised nobleman met a gentleman who reported that the king was out in the tempest, raging against the elements with only his jester for company. The nobleman revealed that there was division between the two dukes and that forces from France had secretly landed in Britain. He gave the gentleman a ring and asked him to go to Dover to find someone who would help the king.
Scene 2. Lear rages in the storm
The king stood in the storm, calling on the winds and thunder to destroy the world. He declared that the elements owed him nothing, unlike his ungrateful daughters. The jester begged him to seek shelter, but the king continued his tirade against ingratitude.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples... Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds... that make ingrateful man!
The disguised nobleman found them and urged the king to take shelter in a nearby hovel. The king began to realize the suffering of the poor and homeless, acknowledging that he had taken too little care of such wretches when he had power.
Scene 3. Gloucester plans to help Lear
At the castle, the nobleman whose legitimate son had fled told his illegitimate son that he had received a letter about a conflict between the two dukes. He had also learned that forces were coming to help the king. Though the daughters had forbidden him to help the king, he planned to do so secretly. The illegitimate son decided to betray this information to the second daughter's husband.
Scene 4. Lear meets Poor Tom in the hovel
At the hovel, the king insisted on staying outside to endure the storm, saying the tempest in his mind made him insensible to physical suffering. He reflected on filial ingratitude and felt himself approaching madness. Finally, he agreed to enter the hovel, but first sent the jester in. While waiting, he spoke movingly about the poor and homeless.
Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads... defend you?
O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp.
The jester ran out, frightened by a madman inside. The disguised legitimate son emerged, playing his role as Poor Tom, a mad beggar tormented by demons. The king, seeing this apparently naked, mad creature, became convinced that unkind daughters had reduced him to this state. He began to identify with the beggar and started tearing off his own clothes.
Is man no more than this?... Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide... Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings!
The nobleman whose son had fled arrived with a torch, having defied his daughters' orders to help the king. He urged them all to take shelter, but the king insisted on talking with his "philosopher," the mad beggar. The nobleman was heartbroken to see the king in such a state and reflected that his own son's supposed treachery had nearly driven him mad as well.
Scene 5. Cornwall plans revenge on Gloucester
The second daughter's husband told the illegitimate son that he now perceived the legitimate son's supposed plot was provoked by the father's own goodness. The illegitimate son showed him the letter about forces coming to help the king. The husband declared the father would be arrested and made the illegitimate son the new earl.
Scene 6. Mock trial of Goneril and Regan
In a farmhouse, the king's madness deepened. He insisted on holding a mock trial of his daughters, with the mad beggar and the jester serving as judges. He arraigned his eldest daughter for kicking him and his second daughter for her warped looks. The disguised nobleman and the nobleman whose son had fled watched in anguish as the king's wits completely gave way. Finally, exhausted, the king fell asleep. The nobleman whose son had fled revealed that he had learned of a plot to kill the king and urged them to take him to Dover immediately, where he would find safety and welcome.
Scene 7. Gloucester is blinded by Cornwall
The two sisters and the second daughter's husband ordered the nobleman whose son had fled to be captured and brought before them. When he was dragged in, they bound him to a chair. The second daughter pulled his beard, and her husband demanded to know why he had helped the king. The nobleman declared he had sent the king to Dover because he would not see the daughters' cruelty. The husband then gouged out one of the nobleman's eyes. A servant, horrified by this cruelty, tried to stop him, and in the fight that followed, the husband was mortally wounded, but not before he gouged out the nobleman's other eye. The second daughter killed the servant and ordered the now-blind nobleman thrust out of the castle to find his way to Dover by smell.
Act 4. Gloucesters blinding and reunion preparations
Scene 1. Edgar leads blind Gloucester
The disguised legitimate son encountered his blinded father being led by an old man. The father lamented that he had wronged his legitimate son and wished he could see him again to apologize. The legitimate son, still in disguise, offered to lead his father to Dover. The father gave him his purse and asked to be led to a cliff, where he intended to end his life.
I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw... O dear son Edgar,
The food of thy abused father’s wrath!
Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I’ld say I had eyes again!
Scene 2. Goneril and Edmunds affair; news of Cornwalls death
The eldest daughter returned home with the illegitimate son. She was disappointed that her husband had not met them and complained that he seemed pleased by news that should have angered him. She gave the illegitimate son a token of her favor and sent him back to her sister. Her husband confronted her about her cruelty to her father, and they argued bitterly. A messenger arrived with news that the second daughter's husband had died from his wound and that the blinded nobleman's eyes had been put out. The eldest daughter was secretly pleased, seeing an opportunity to pursue the illegitimate son without her sister as a rival.
Scene 3. Kent and gentleman discuss Cordelia
Near Dover, the disguised nobleman learned that the youngest daughter had received his letters and wept for her father. She was now in Dover with French forces, but the king refused to see her out of shame for how he had treated her. The nobleman revealed that he would soon disclose his true identity.
Scene 4. Cordelia searches for Lear
The youngest daughter led soldiers in search of her father, who had been seen wandering mad in the fields, crowned with weeds and flowers. She prayed for his restoration and sent soldiers to find him.
Scene 5. Regans jealousy of Goneril
The second daughter questioned the eldest daughter's steward about a letter her sister had sent to the illegitimate son. She revealed her own interest in the illegitimate son and warned the steward that she, as a widow, was more suitable for him than her married sister. She gave him a token to deliver to the illegitimate son.
Scene 6. Gloucesters failed suicide; Lears mad scene; Oswald killed
The legitimate son led his blind father to what he claimed was the edge of a high cliff, though they were actually on flat ground. The father gave him another purse, bid him farewell, and fell forward, believing he was leaping to his death. The son then pretended to be a different person who had witnessed the fall, convincing his father that he had miraculously survived and that the gods had preserved him. The father resolved to bear his afflictions patiently.
The mad king appeared, fantastically dressed with wild flowers. He raved about authority, justice, and sexuality, revealing profound insights in his madness. He recognized the blind nobleman and spoke movingly about the human condition. When attendants arrived to take him to his youngest daughter, he ran away, but they pursued him.
The eldest daughter's steward found the blind nobleman and attempted to kill him for the reward. The legitimate son, still in disguise, defended his father and killed the steward. On the steward's body, he found a letter from the eldest daughter to the illegitimate son, revealing a plot to murder her husband. The son decided to show this letter to her husband at the appropriate time.
Scene 7. Lear reunited with Cordelia
The youngest daughter was reunited with the disguised nobleman, who still concealed his identity. The king was brought in, asleep, having been given fresh garments. When he awoke, he was confused and thought his daughter was a spirit. Gradually, he recognized her and knelt to her, begging her forgiveness. She assured him he had no need to kneel and that she had no cause to be angry with him. The king, still confused about where he was, acknowledged he was a foolish old man. The doctor advised that the king should not be troubled further but allowed to rest and recover.
Act 5. The final battle and tragic ending
Scene 1. Edmunds duplicity with both sisters
The British forces prepared for battle. The illegitimate son had sworn love to both sisters, and they were jealous of each other. The eldest daughter's husband expressed concern about fighting against the king, though he agreed they must oppose the French invasion. The legitimate son, still disguised, gave the eldest daughter's husband a letter to read before the battle, promising to produce a champion to prove its contents if they won. The illegitimate son reflected that he could not enjoy both sisters and that after the battle, he would ensure the king and his youngest daughter never received mercy.
Scene 2. Lear and Cordelia captured
The battle was fought, and the British forces won. The king and his youngest daughter were captured. The king, rather than being distressed, was happy to be imprisoned with his daughter, imagining they would sing together like birds in a cage and be God's spies, observing the world from their prison.
Come, let’s away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage... and we’ll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies.
The illegitimate son sent them away with a captain, giving him secret orders to kill them both.
Scene 3. Deaths of Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, and Lear
The eldest daughter's husband demanded custody of the prisoners, but the illegitimate son refused, saying they were already secured. The two sisters quarreled over the illegitimate son. The second daughter suddenly fell ill, having been poisoned by her sister. The eldest daughter's husband arrested the illegitimate son for treason and challenged him to trial by combat. A herald called for a champion to prove the charges.
The legitimate son appeared in armor, still not revealing his identity. He accused the illegitimate son of treason and they fought. The illegitimate son was mortally wounded. The eldest daughter's husband showed him the letter revealing the plot against his life. The eldest daughter fled, and the second daughter was carried away, dying from poison.
The legitimate son finally revealed his identity to his dying brother and told how he had cared for their blind father until the old man's heart burst from the conflicting emotions of joy and grief. The disguised nobleman also revealed himself as the loyal earl who had served the king throughout his trials. A gentleman rushed in with a bloody knife, announcing that the eldest daughter had killed herself after confessing to poisoning her sister.
The dying illegitimate son, moved by these events, tried to do some good before death. He revealed that he had ordered the king and his youngest daughter killed. Messengers were sent to stop the execution, but they were too late. The king entered carrying his dead daughter in his arms, howling with grief. He had killed the man who was hanging her, but could not save her.
And my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
The king, broken by grief, died while gazing at his daughter's face. The eldest daughter's husband proposed that the legitimate son and the loyal earl should rule the kingdom together, but the earl indicated he would soon follow his master in death. The survivors reflected on the weight of their sad time and acknowledged that the oldest had borne the most suffering, while those who were young would never see so much nor live so long.