King Lear by William Shakespeare Part I

Author: Once upon a time there lived a king whose name was Lear. He was the king of Britain. He had three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia.

One day King Lear called his daughters and said to them:

King Lear: I am very old and tired. I want to divide Britain into three parts and give one part to each of you. But first you must tell me how much you love me.

Author: Goneril and Regan were not good daughters. They did not love their father. But they were very greedy. They wanted to become queens very much. So Goneril said:

Goneril: Dear father, I love you very much. I love you more than my eyes, more than my beauty, more than my life. No child loves his father more than I love you.

Author: Then Regan spoke:

Regan: Dear father, I love you so much that I will give my life for you, I will care for you. I love you more than anything else in the world.

Author: King Lear was very glad. Then he asked his youngest daughter Cordelia to speak. She was his favourite daughter.

Cordelia loved her father very much, but she didn’t want to repeat the words of her sisters. So, she said nothing. Only when King Lear told her angrily that she must speak, she said:

Cordelia: I don’t understand why my sisters say that they love you more than anything else. They are married. Don’t they love their husbands? You are my father, and of course, I love you. But when I marry, I’ll love my husband, too.

Author: King Lear did not like Cordelia’s words. He shouted at her and said:

King Lear: Get out. I don’t want to have such a daughter. You won’t get anything.

Author: So, he divided the country between Regan and Goneril and gave Cordelia nothing.

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Part II

Author: Cordelia went to France and married the French king, who loved her very much.

Old king had nothing now. He wanted to rest. So he went to Goneril’s castle to stay there. But soon he understood the that Goneril didn’t love him. At last she said she was tired of him.

So King Lear decided to go to his other daughter, Regan. But Regan was no better than Goneril. King Lear with his followers had to stand at the gates of the castle and wait for a long time. At last  Regan came, but she wasn’t glad to see the king. Soon Goneril came, and the king saw his two daughters again.

He tried to speak to them, but they didn’t let him speak.

Regan, Goneril: You, old fool, go away and never come back.                                                                                     

Nearly all his knights and his servants left him. Only a brave knight Kent remained true and was with him. Kent sent a man to France with a letter for Cordelia. In the letter he told her everything.

When Cordelia read the letter, she quickly gathered an army and went to Britain to fight her sisters’ armies and make Lear king of Britain again. But the French army was beaten . Lear and Cordelia became prisoners.

But Regan and Goneril were not happy. They were so wicked that they simply couldn’t be happy. They even hated each other. Finally Goneril poisoned Regan. Soon after that she killed herself with a knife.

Cordelia was hanged in prison.

When King Lear saw the death   of Cordelia, his heart broke and he died, too.