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King Lear
King Lear
Shakespeare, William
Published: 1606
Type(s): Plays
Source: http://shakespeare.mit.edu/
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About Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was
an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer
in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is of-
ten called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply
"The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been
translated into every major living language, and are performed more of-
ten than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised
in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway,
who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an act-
or, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have
retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few re-
cords of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been consider-
able speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs,
and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613.
His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to
the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet,
King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the
English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known
as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays
were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his
lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published
the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all
but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was
a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did
not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Ro-
mantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the
Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George
Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was
repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship
and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are con-
sistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political
contexts throughout the world. Source: Wikipedia
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Act I
SCENE I. King Lear's palace.
Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND
KENT
I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
Albany than Cornwall.
GLOUCESTER
It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
division of the kingdom, it appears not which of
the dukes he values most; for equalities are so
weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice
of either's moiety.
KENT
Is not this your son, my lord?
GLOUCESTER
His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge: I have
so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am
brazed to it.
KENT
I cannot conceive you.
GLOUCESTER
Sir, this young fellow's mother could: whereupon
she grew round-wombed, and had, indeed, sir, a son
for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed.
Do you smell a fault?
KENT
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I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it
being so proper.
GLOUCESTER
But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year
elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account:
though this knave came something saucily into the
world before he was sent for, yet was his mother
fair; there was good sport at his making, and the
whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this
noble gentleman, Edmund?
EDMUND
No, my lord.
GLOUCESTER
My lord of Kent: remember him hereafter as my
honourable friend.
EDMUND
My services to your lordship.
KENT
I must love you, and sue to know you better.
EDMUND
Sir, I shall study deserving.
GLOUCESTER
He hath been out nine years, and away he shall
again. The king is coming.
Sennet. Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL,
REGAN, CORDELIA, and Attendants
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