Characters in the play
King Lear: (Ancient King of Britain)
Gunnery, Ruigan, and Cordelia: (The King's three daughters)
Duke of Albany: (his eldest son-in-law)
Duke of Cornwall: (his second son-in-law)
The King of France married Cortelia as his queen
Duke of Burgundy: (Cordelia's suitor)
Count of Kanter, Earl of Glade (minister of King Lear)
Edgar: (Glade's eldest son)
Edmond: (Greste's illegitimate son)
Fool: (Rigoletto before King Lear)
Oswald: (Gunnary's general manager)
Curran: (Courtier)
Old Man: (Glade's tenant)
Doctors, gentlemen, officers, generals, knights, messengers, heralds, attendants, etc
Scene: Ancient Britain
Oil painting "King Lear"
King Lear, a story of filial piety and good and evil. The story has been around Europe for a long time, and by Shakespeare's day, the story was well known throughout Britain. Shakespeare processed it, turning comedy into tragedy (the original versions ended with King Lear finally regaining power), and then put it on stage to become the play we see today, King Lear.
King Lear unfolds the story in a main line and a side line.
masterstroke:
King Lear felt old and decided to abdicate. Before abdicating, he brought in his three daughters to hear how much they loved him and took the opportunity to reward them with his land.
He found his eldest daughter, Gonliath, who said, "Father and King, if I were to say that I love you, I hate it in words; I love you more than I love my own eyeballs, heaven and earth, and freedom; I have transcended all that can be bought with gold and silver, a rare treasure; no less than I love a life that enjoys the honor of the world, health, and beauty." The younger generation has always loved the elders, and the filial piety of the father has come to the top like this. This piece of filial piety makes people unable to speak, and the language is too cold. For example, I can't tell you my love for you. (King Lear, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, translated by Fang Ping, hereinafter the same) He happily rewarded her with one-third of the land.
Next he asked the second daughter Ruigan, who did not have the eloquence of the eldest sister, and could only borrow the words of the sister: "I asked myself, I only felt that my love had been said to her, but she had not yet reached home; I decided that all the joys enjoyed by the keen senses had become enemies for me, and I knew that bathing in the grace of my father and king was my great happiness." King Lear, who was happy to blossom, gave another third of the land to his second daughter.
Finally he asked his beloved little daughter, Cortelia, but in his heart he thought of giving her the last third of the most fertile and fertile land. I didn't think the little daughter replied, "Unfortunately, I can't put my heart on my lips." I love the Father and the King according to my duty; no more, no less. The king, enraged, deprived his youngest daughter of the right to a fief, and did not even give her a dowry (the king of France married Cortelia), and the most fertile land was redistributed to the other two sisters.
The king, who had surrendered his power, wealth, and land, took turns to stay in the two daughters' homes, and did not think about how the eldest daughter said how she loved her father, but once she gained power, she immediately began to turn her face, not only reducing the king's attendants, but also scolding the king for being wrong, and even driving him away.
King Lear was quite angry, and scolded the eldest daughter for a while and went to find the second daughter. The second daughter, who was at the Earl's Mansion at the time, received letters from both her sister and father, both accusing each other of not being. However, the vicious and ungrateful second daughter had already decided to collude with the eldest sister and injured the king's attendant who had gone to deliver the letter.
Lear didn't believe all this and confronted him in person. As a result, he was reprimanded by his two daughters and son-in-law (the eldest daughter also rushed to the palace), and on that night of heavy rain and thunder, he abandoned his father and his entourage outside, ignoring them.
The kind Earl of Glade found them privately, gave them food and drink, and then contacted her young daughter to come to their rescue. Learning that her father had been bullied by her two older sisters, Camelia was distraught and said that the King of France had led a large army to help her father seize the throne.
spur:
The Earl of Glade had two sons, one was the eldest son of the husband's life, named Edgar, and the other was an illegitimate son, named Edmond. According to the etiquette of the time, illegitimate children could not inherit titles and wealth. Edmund was therefore distraught, fabricating evidence of his brother's rebellion, tricking his father into driving him away, and sending people to hunt him down, so that Edgar could only pretend to be Hanako and hide around.
Not only that, but Edmund secretly colluded with the king's two daughters, with whom they both had an affair. Greedy for profit, he did not hesitate to betray his father again, lying about his father's rebellion and defection to King Lear's military intelligence. The imprisoned Count of Glade was eventually gouge out a pair of eyes, and his son and two daughters of the king expelled him from the palace.
The Earl of Gladys, whose eyes were gouged out
The two lines meet here.
Cordelia's army was eventually defeated, and she herself died in prison.
The eldest daughter poisoned her younger sister Ruigan in order to monopolize Edmund, but she was killed by her husband due to the exposure of her adultery.
Edmond was killed while playing against Edgar.
King Lear could not bear the painful blow and died of grief.
King Lear, who wept at The Corpse of Camelia