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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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King Lear
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(c.1605)
The most elemental of *Shakespeare's tragedies, much of the later action taking place on an open heath with the protagonist drifting into madness as he discusses wild and weighty topics with the Fool, his licensed jester.
The tragedy is set in motion when Lear, a legendary king of Britain, proposes to divide his kingdom between his three daughters; the unscrupulous Regan and Goneril get half each because Cordelia refuses to engage in a public display of exaggerated love for her father.
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Dependent now on the evil sisters' charity, the king is treated steadily worse until he escapes to join Cordelia, who has married the king of France. A parallel story concerns the earl of Gloucester, who takes pity on Lear but is equally unwise about his own children. He has trusted his bastard son, Edmund, and has rejected the legitimate Edgar. But it is Edgar, himself living on the heath in the guise of madness as poor Tom, who protects his father after Regan's husband has gouged his eyes from their sockets (one of them with the line 'Out, vile jelly!').
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Lear is reunited with Cordelia (she has landed near Dover with a French army) but soon they are both captured. Edmund, now the lover of both Regan and Goneril, orders that Cordelia shall be hanged. Edgar challenges and defeats him in single combat (while jealous Goneril poisons Regan and then kills herself), but the restoration of order comes too late to save Cordelia. Lear carries her body on to the stage crying 'Howl, howl, howl, howl!' and himself dies.
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