King Lear (1605) is
an anguished, storm-ridden journey of the mind and spirit.
With many of the most searching passages in Shakespeare, it
still is an acquired taste for some theatre-goers.
Among the sources
for Shakespeare's tragedy of "unaccommodated man"
"Historia Regum Britanniae,"
written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the first known publication
of this story. Afterwards, other versions appeared in
"The First Part of the Mirror for Magistrates," published by
John Higgins in 1574, and in "Chronicles," published by
Holinshed in 1587. A play entitled "The True Chronicle History
of King Lear" was written in 1594 and published in 1605;
although based on the same story, it is marked by strong
Christian piety and ends quite differently, for Cordelia is
spared and King Lear is reinstated to the throne.
is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and
seemingly meaningless violence. It asks whether the world is
fundamentally indifferent or even hostile to humankind.
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us
for their sport,”
Gloucester muses, realizing
it foolish for humankind to assume that the natural world
works in parallel with socially or morally convenient notions
of justice (IV.i.37–38).
Edgar, on the other hand,
insists that “the gods are just,” believing that individuals
get what they deserve (V.iii.169). But, in the end, we
are left with only a terrifying uncertainty—although the
wicked die, the good die along with them, culminating in the
awful image of
Cordelia’s body in his arms.
There is goodness in the world of the play, but there is also
madness and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs
in the end.