Type of Work

.......King Lear is a stage play in the form of a tragedy centering on the decline and fall of a dysfunctional royal family. It is also sometimes referred to as a chronicle play because it draws upon historical information in such documents as The True Chronicle History of King Leir and His Daughters (anonymous, 1594) and The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, by Raphael Holinshed (1587).

Composition, Performance, and Publication Dates
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.......Shakespeare wrote King Lear between 1604 and 1605. The first documented performance of the play took place December 26, 1606, before King James I at Whitehall. A quarto edition of the play—containing misprints and errors—was published in 1608. The authoritative First Folio edition appeared in 1623. 

Sources

.......The probable main sources for the play were The True Chronicle History of King Leir and His Daughters (anonymous, 1594); The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, by Raphael Holinshed (1587); Arcadia (1590), by Sir Philip Sidney; and a Dutch pamphlet entitled “Strange, Fearful and True News Which Happened at Carlstadt in the Kingdom of Croatia” (used as a reference to eclipses by Gloucester in Act I, Scene II).

Settings
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.......The action takes place in Ancient Britain. The places include the castles of King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, the palace of the Duke of Albany, a forest, a heath, a farmhouse near Gloucester’s castle, a French camp near Dover, a British camp near Dover, and fields near Dover. 

Characters

Lear: King of England. He is a headstrong old man who is blind to his weaknesses and misjudges his three daughters, believing that the two evil daughters have his best interests at heart and that his good and selfless daughter opposes him. He undergoes great suffering that opens his eyes and ennobles his character. Whether there was a historical Lear is uncertain.
Goneril, Regan: Selfish, greedy daughters of Lear who pretend to love him when he announces that he will gives them shares of his kingdom. Later, they treat him cruelly.
Cordelia: Loyal and unselfish daughter of Lear. He disowns her after confusing her honesty with insolence. She continues to love her father in spite of his rejection of her.
Duke of Burgundy: Suitor of Cordelia. He decides to reject her after Lear disowns her.
King of France: Suitor of Cordelia. He marries her even though Lear has disowned her.
Duke of Cornwall: Regan's husband, who is just as cruel as she is.
Duke of Albany: Goneril's husband. He turns against her when he realizes that she is an evil schemer.
Earl of Kent: True and honest friend of Lear who remains loyal even after the king banishes him. To continue serving the king, he wears a disguise and calls himself “Caius.”
Earl of Gloucester: Old man who suffers from many of the same faults as Lear. Like Lear, he is old and self-important; like Lear, he misjudges his children and undergoes suffering that makes him a better man. However, Gloucester is less forceful and demanding than Lear and more given to compromise. Such qualities make him a foil of Lear.
Edgar: Gloucester's loyal son and heir. He resembles Cordelia in his loyalty to hid father.
Edmund: Gloucester's evil bastard son. He resembles Goneril and Regan in his disloyalty to his father.
Fool: Jester loyal to Lear and Cordelia. The fool is a walking paradox—that is, he is the wisest character in play in that he is the only character who understands the motivations of Lear, his daughters, and other characters. He acts as a kind of mirror, reflecting Lear’s faults and weaknesses.
Curan: Courtier.
Old Man: Tenant of Gloucester.
Doctor: Physician who attends Lear after the old king arrives at Dover.
Oswald: Villainous steward of Goneril.
Captain: Employee of Edmund.
Gentleman: Attendant of Cordelia.
Herald
First Servant, Second Servant, Third Servant: Servants of the Duke of Cornwall.
Minor Characters: Knights of Lear's train, captains, messengers, soldiers, and attendants.
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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. (1. 1. 39-45)

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less. (1. 1. 76-78)

By day and night he wrongs me; every hour
He flashes into one gross crime or other,
That sets us all at odds: I'll not endure it. (1. 3. 5-7)

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest¹,
Ride more than thou goest²,
Learn more than thou trowest³,
Set less than thou throwest⁴;
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score. (1. 4. 71-80)

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just. (3. 4. 33-41)

..............O sir, to willful men
..............The injuries that they themselves procure
..............Must be their schoolmasters. (2. 4. 316-318)

Ironically and paradoxically, Lear's progressing mental derangement makes him keenly aware of his faults and weaknesses. At the beginning of the play, he is sane but mad; at the end of the play, he is mad but sane. The great 19th Century American poet Emily Dickinson wrote a one-stanza poem on the madness of sanity (and the sanity of madness) in 1861 (probably without any thought of King Lear). The first three lines aptly sum up Lear's behavior:

..............Much Madness is divinest Sense—
..............To a discerning Eye—
..............Much Sense—the starkest Madness—
..............(Emily Dickinson)

As in Macbeth and Othello, all things are not as they appear. At the beginning of the play, the Lears and other characters are presented as normal and caring. But as Shakespeare rubs away the pretty veneers of the characters, we find greed, betrayal, lust for power, and cruelty. In other words, they are anything but normal and caring. 
Greed and lust for power corrupt human beings and bring about their downfall. Goneril and Regan reject their own father in favor of material possessions and power. Ultimately, their cupidity results in their downfall. 
Fate (the gods) turns humans into playthings. As Gloucester says in Act IV, Scene I, “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. / They kill us for their sport” (4. 1. 44-45). This is an old theme in world history and literature. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Job wonders why he, a righteous man, suffers so many reverses, including the loss of his material possessions, his sons, and his health. In Greek tragedy—in particular, in the plays of Sophocles, such as Oedipus Rex—fate plays an extremely important role as an inexorable force. In the Nineteenth Century, English novelist Thomas Hardy populated his novels with characters dominated by forces outside of them or irresistible forces within them. The environment, Darwinian determinism, and the human libido all turned humans into marionettes. 
Candor has a sharp edge. Telling the truth can deeply wound the listener as well as the speaker. Cordelia wins our admiration because she is forthright and sincere. However, her honesty offends her father, and he disowns her. The Earl of Kent, a loyal subject of Lear, suffers banishment for speaking up for Cordelia. Like the previous theme, this theme is an old one in world history and literature. In 399 B.C. the Greek philosopher Socrates paid with his life for being honest and asking probing questions that exposed the hypocrisy of others, declaring that his god had commanded him to do so. In England, statesman and humanist Sir Thomas More also died (1535) for being honest—in particular, for his outspoken opposition to King Henry VIII's divorce from Katherine of Aragon on grounds that it violated moral law. 
Advanced age and wisdom do not go hand-in-hand. Lear is probably about 80, but he is often childish in his judgments until suffering reforms him. Shakespeare's depiction of Lear may have been, in part, an attempt to discredit or satirize the tendency of people in Elizabethan England automatically to revere elders and authority figures.

King's Fool
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.......King Lear’s fool (court jester) is the wisest character in the play in that he is the only character who understands the motivations of Lear, his daughters, and other characters. He constantly ridicules Lear, the better to make the old man understand himself and the folly of his selfish, headstrong ways. “If thou wert my fool, nuncle,” he says, “I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time” (1. 5. 25). 
.......In the courts of England, a fool was a comic figure with a quick tongue who entertained the king, the queen, and their guests. He was allowed to—and even expected to—criticize anyone at court. Many fools were dwarfs or cripples, their odd appearance enhancing their appeal and, according to prevailing beliefs, bringing good luck to the court. Actors William Kempe and Richard Armin became London celebrities for their performances as fools in Shakespeare’s plays. Armin wrote a book about fools, Foole Upon Foole; or Six Sortes of Sottes. Egypt’s pharaohs were the first rulers to use fools, notably Pygmies from African territories to the south.

Animal Imagery

.......Shakespeare uses metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech to compare Regan, Goneril, and other characters to animals. This imagery shows that human greed and lust for power, as well as other negative qualities, turn people into rapacious or poisonous beasts. It also demonstrates that the dilemmas people create for themselves can lower them to the status of beasts. Among the animals to which characters are compared are rats, wolves, sheep, goats, horses, dogs (including a mastiff, a greyhound, a spaniel, and a mongrel), cats, mice, owls, wild geese, bears, monkeys, crabs, snails, an ass, a hedge-sparrow, a cuckoo, and each of the following:

Kite: bird of prey that occurs in several varieties. It feeds on small land animals, fish, garbage, and carrion. In Act I, Scene IV, Lear speaks this line to Goneril: "Detested kite! thou liest" (Line 284). 
Vulture: scavenger bird that feeds primarily on carcasses. In Act II, Scene IV, Lear bemoans Goneril's behavior by saying that “she hath tied / sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here [points to his heart]” (Lines 136-137). 
Serpent: large snake, such as a python or boa constrictor; any poisonous snake; the devil in the form of a snake. In Act II, Scene IV, Lear says Goneril "struck me with her tongue, / Most serpent-like, upon the very heart" (Lines 162-163).
Pelican: bird of prey that feeds on fish. In Act III, Scene IV,  Lear "scolds" himself for fathering Regan and Goneril, saying “‘twas this flesh begot those pelican daughters” (Lines 76-77).
Tiger: Tiger: largest member of the cat family. In Act IV, Scene II,  the Duke of Albany condemns Regan and Goneril for their treatment of Lear, comparing them to tigers.

Patrimony, Henry VIII, and the Annesley Case

.......The first scene of Act 1 resembles a legal proceeding that determines the rightful heirs of a decedent’s estate. However, in this case, the “decedent,” Lear, is alive, acting as arbiter. According to English law, the firstborn male would automatically inherit Lear’s possessions, including the crown. But since Lear has fathered only females, he has decided to parcel out his kingdom before his death to his three daughters, granting the largest part of his property to the daughter who loves him most. Ironically, he ends up repudiating the only daughter who truly loves him, Cordelia, in the mistaken belief that her refusal to vie with her two sisters for his affections is a sign that she loves him least. Swearing oaths, he disowns Cordelia, telling her that 

          by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate,⁵ 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,
Propinquity⁶ and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. (1. 1. 96-103)

• Do you tend to go along with the crowd even though you disagree with what the crowd says or, like Cordelia, do you say what you really think? 
• Is Lear affected more by forces within himself or outside himself?
• What does the violent storm symbolize? In other words, is it meant to represent in some way what is happening to Lear and other characters? Does nature play a key role in other Shakespeare plays? 
• What was the role of the fool in the play? Why did kings and queens in earlier times have fools, or court jesters? Describe a typical jester—his apparel, his temperament, his talents. 
• Compare and contrast Lear and Gloucester, both of whom have misjudged their children. 
• In an informative essay discuss the character growth of King Lear. 
• In an informative essay, discuss the character growth of Edgar, Gloucester’s loyal son, and the Duke of Albany, Goneril’s husband. 
• Even though Lear banishes the Duke of Kent for defending Cordelia, Kent remains loyal to Lear and still serves him in the disguise of a peasant named Caius. In an informative or argumentative essay, explain why Kent refuses to turn against Lear. 

1. Lend . . . owest: Lend less than you own or possess.
2. Ride . . . goest: Ride more than you walk.
3. Learn . . .trowest: Learn more than you claim or suppose that you know.
4. Set . . . throwest: Be prudent when wagering in a game of dice. 
5. Hecate: goddess of witchcraft in Greek methology.
6. Propinquity: kinship, relationship.

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