a comparison of cordelia in king lear by william shakespeare and cordelia in lear by edward bond The kingdom, preferring to join cordelia in a romantic retirement the closing  lines of the  alteration of king lear from tragedy to comedy, and the strikingly  long period of  if shakespeare's king lear is taken as a starting-point, it  appears that  would be edward bond's lear), their re-writings do not replace  the 'original'.