Lear's dilemma - future of Britain & Cordelia

Tripartition of Britain - Lear's grand plan

Kent & Gloster - Lear's attitude to Cornwall

Act 1 Scene 1 - Enter KING LEAR

The flattery game - Goneril & Regan

Sharing the kingdom - a third more opulent

Lear and flattery - did he love it or hate it?

Duke of Burgundy - the dowerless suitor

King of France - in choler parted

Edmund - sectary astronomical

Duke of Albany - worthy prince

Queen Goneril - King Lear's successor?

Oswald - this detested groom

Goneril - under the influence

Regan - is she worse than Goneril?

Goneril/Edmund/Regan - unequilateral triangle

Division 'twixt Albany and Cornwall - rumour

Lear's sanity - recovery

The final tableau - Lear endures his going hence

The last word - Albany or Edgar?

 

 

 

 

King Lear

The division of Britain

'King Lear', the play, is 400 years old. Lear, himself, has mostly suffered a bad press. The division of Britain that he proposed is often denounced and offered as evidence of his declining mental powers. But, now, it can be revealed that Lear has been judged unfairly and it is his critics who can be seen as foolish.

Recently, ancient relics, including a jester's wand and a coxcomb, were discovered by samphire pickers on the White Cliffs of Dover. Of much interest was a scroll of cowhide, brown with age and dry with sun that, after chemical treatment, proved to be a 'document'. Computer enhancement revealed a map and some text. Once deciphered, it was found to be Lear's plan for the division of Britain.

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