Lakhasly

Lear, King of Britain, had three daughters -- Goneril, wife of the Duke of Albany, Regan, wife of the Duke of Cornwall, and Cordelia, the youngest.He was so angry at Cordelia's plainness of speech, which he called pride, that he shared the third part ofhis kingdom equally between Cordelia's two sisters and their husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall.That same day one of Goneril's servants was disrespectful to Lear and spoke rudely to him, as no doubt he was secretly encouraged to do by Goneril herself.Lear had escaped from the care ofthe soldiers in whose charge Kent had left him, and he was found by some of Cordelia's soldiers, wandering about the fields near Dover in a sad condition.The latter did not recognize him as Kent in his new dress, but was pleased with his direct speech and honesty; and so an agreement was made, and Lear took his favourite adviser back into his service under the name of Caius.But Goneril too sent letters to her sister, saying that her father would do nothing he was asked and was bad-tempered, and advising Regan not to receive him with such a large number of followers.He commanded the wind to blow the earth into the sea, or to make the waves so big that they drowned the earth, so that no sign remained of such an ungrateful animal as man.Caius still continued to beg the king not to stay out in the open air, and at last persuaded him to enter a miserable little hut that they came to. The fool entered first but ran out in terror saying that he had seen a spirit.

Lear, King of Britain, had three daughters — Goneril, wife of the Duke of Albany, Regan, wife of the Duke of Cornwall, and Cordelia, the youngest. The King of France and the Duke of Burgundy each wanted Cordelia for his wife, and at the time of this story they were staying at Lear's court.
The old king was over eighty years old and tired of government. He had decided to take no further part in state affairs, but to leave younger people to manage it. He called his three daughters to him to find out from their own lips which of them loved him best, so that he could divide his lands and money among them according to their love for him.
Goneril, the oldest, declared that she loved her father more than words could tell; that he was dearer to her than the light of her
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own eyes, dearer than life itself. Such talk is easy to pretend where there is no real love, but the king was very pleased to hear it. Thinking that her heart went with her words, he gave her and her husband one-third ofhis large kingdom.
Regan, his second daughter, who was as worthless as her sister, declared that the love which she felt for her father was much greater than her sisters. She found all other joys dead compared with the pleasure which she took in the love of her dear king and father.
Lear felt so happy to have what he thought were such loving children that he gave Regan and her husband another third of his kingdom, equal in size to the share which he had already given to Goneril.
Then turning to his youngest daughter, Cordelia, whom he called his joy, he asked what she had to say. He thought no doubt that she would please his ears with the same loving speeches as her sisters, or even that hers would be stronger than theirs, as she had always been his favourite. But Cordelia was upset by the claims made by her sisters, which she knew were only intended to persuade the king to give them part of his country. So she only answered that she loved her father according to her duty, neither more nor less.
The king was shocked at these words from his favourite child, and asked her to consider her words carefully and to improve her speech so that it did not spoil her fortunes.
Cordelia then told the king that she loved, obeyed and honoured him because he was her father and he had brought her up and loved her. But she could not make such grand speeches as her sisters had done or promise to love nothing else in the world. Why did her sisters have husbands if (as they said) they had no love for anything except their father? If she ever married, she was sure that her husband would want at least half of her love, half of her care and duty.
Cordelia really loved her father almost as much as her sisters pretended to do. At any other time, she would have told him so in stronger and more loving words. But when she saw how her sisters' deceitful words had won such rich prizes, she thought the best thing she could do was to love and be silent. This showed that she loved him, but not for what she could obtain, and her words, simple as they were, had much more truth and sincerity in them than those ofher sisters.
Old age had made Lear so unwise that he could not tell truth from untruth, nor a brightly painted speech from words that came from the heart. He was so angry at Cordelia's plainness of speech, which he called pride, that he shared the third part ofhis kingdom equally between Cordelia's two sisters and their husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall. He now called them to him, and, in the presence of all his court, he gave them his kingdom to share, together with all the powers of government. He kept only the title of king for himself, and it was agreed that he, and a hundred soldiers to serve him, should live month by month in each ofhis daughters' palaces in turn.
Such an unbelievably foolish division of his country, made more in anger than by reason, filled all his nobles with shock and sorrow. But none of them had the courage to act except the Earl of Kent. He was beginning to speak for Cordelia when the angry Lear commanded him to stop or he would have him put to death. To this the good Kent paid no attention. He had always been faithful to Lear, whom he had honoured as a king, loved as a father and followed as a master. He had been ready to give his life in war against the king's enemies or when the king's safety was in danger. Now that Lear was his own greatest enemy, this faithful servant argued with him for Lear's own good.
He begged the king to follow his advice, as he had so often done in the past, and to undo what he had so unwisely done. Kent said that he would die rather than let Lear believe that his
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youngest daughter loved him less than her sisters did.As for Lear's threats, they could not frighten a man whose life was already at the king's service. That should not prevent him from speaking the truth.
The honest words of this good Earl of Kent only made the king more angry. Like a madman who kills his own doctor, he ordered this true servant to leave the country, and gave him only five days to prepare to do so. If, on the sixth day, he was found within the borders of Britain, he would be put to death.
So Kent said goodbye to the king, but before he went he called on the gods to protect Cordelia. He only hoped that her sisters' fine speeches would be followed by acts of love; and then he left, as he said, to carry his old life to a new country.
The King of France and the Duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear what Lear had decided about his youngest daughter, and to see whether they still wanted to marry Cordelia, now that she had nothing but herself to bring them. The Duke of Burgundy refused to have her as his wife under such conditions, but the King of France understood why she had lost her father's love. He took her by the hand and said that her goodness was worth more than a kingdom. He told her to say goodbye to her sisters and to her father, even though he had been unkind to her, and said that she should go with him and be his queen and rule over a fairer kingdom than her sisters.
Then, with tears in her eyes, Cordelia said goodbye to her sisters and begged them to love their father well. They told her that they knew their duty, and advised her to try to make her husband happy, for he had taken her almost as a beggar. And so Cordelia left, with a heavy heart, because she knew the deceit of her sisters and she wished that her father could be in better hands than theirs.
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As soon as Cordelia had gone, her sisters began to show their true characters. Even before the end of the first month, which Lear spent with his oldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the difference between promises and actions. Once she had got from her father all that he had to give, the ungrateful woman now began to dislike the few small signs that showed he was still king. She could not bear to see him and his hundred soldiers. Every time she met her father, she was angry with him. When the old man wanted to speak to her, she pretended to be sick, so she did not have to see him. It was plain that she thought his old age a useless continuation of his life, and his soldiers an unnecessary cost. She stopped showing any respect to the king and, following her example and even her orders, her servants also began to ignore him; they refused to obey his orders or pretended not to hear him.
Lear could not help noticing this change in his daughter's behaviour, but he shut his eyes to it for as long as he could, just as most people do not wish to believe the unpleasant effects of their own mistakes.
All this time, the good Earl of Kent had chosen to stay in Britain as long as there was a chance of being useful to his . master, although he knew that if he was discovered he would be put to death. Dressed as a servant, he offered his services to the king. The latter did not recognize him as Kent in his new dress, but was pleased with his direct speech and honesty; and so an agreement was made, and Lear took his favourite adviser back
into his service under the name of Caius.
Caius quickly found a way to show his loyalty to his royal
master. That same day one of Goneril's servants was disrespectful to Lear and spoke rudely to him, as no doubt he was secretly encouraged to do by Goneril herself. Caius quickly knocked him down, and Lear was grateful for his support.
Caius was not the only friend Lear had. It was the custom of
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kings at that time to keep a fool to make them laugh after finishing more serious business. The poor fool who had once lived in Lear's palace stayed with him after he had given away his kingdom, and often made him happy, although the man often laughed at Lear for his foolishness in giving away everything to his daughters.
Goneril now plainly told the king that he could not continue to stay in her palace if he still wished to keep his hundred soldiers. She said that such a number was both expensive and useless, and only filled her court with noise and feasting. She asked him to reduce the number and to keep only the old men, men like himself and suitable for his age.
At first Lear could not believe his eyes or ears. He could not believe that his own daughter would speak to him so unkindly.
But when she repeated her demand, the old man became angry and said she was lying. It is true that she was; the hundred soldiers were all men of polite behaviour and excellent manners who were not in the habit ofmaking a noise.
Lear decided to go to his other daughter, Regan, taking his hundred soldiers with him, and he ordered his horses to be prepared. He spoke of Goneril's ungratefulness and prayed that she might never have a child, or, if she did, that it might live to show her the disrespect that she had shown to him. Then she would know that a thankless child is worse than the bite of a snake. The Duke of Albany began to make excuses for any share which Lear might think he had in the unkindness, but Lear refused to listen to him. He set out with his followers for Regan's house. He thought to himself how small Cordelia's fault (if it was a fault) now seemed, compared with her sister's, and he cried. Then he was ashamed that such a creature as Goneril had enough power over him to make him cry like this.
Regan and her husband were living in great style at their palace. Lear sent his servant Caius with letters to his daughter to
prepare her for his arrival, while he and his soldiers followed. But Goneril too sent letters to her sister, saying that her father would do nothing he was asked and was bad-tempered, and advising Regan not to receive him with such a large number of followers.
This messenger arrived at the same time as Caius, and it was the servant whom Caius had formerly knocked down for his rude behaviour to Lear. Caius suspected what he had come for, and spoke angrily to him. He asked him to fight, but the servant refused. Caius then gave him a good beating, but when Regan and her husband heard of this, they ordered Caius to be publicly beaten and tied up in the square for everyone to see, even though he was a messenger from the king and should have been treated with respect. So the first thing the king saw when he entered the castle was his servant sitting in that shameful situation.
This was a bad sign of how he might expect to be received, but a worse one followed. When he asked for his daughter and her husband, he was told that they were very tired after travelling all night, and could not see him. He was angry and demanded to see them, but when at last they came to greet him, the hated
Goneril was with them. She had come to tell her own story and set her sister against the king, her father.
The old man was very upset by this sight, and even more so when he saw Regan take Goneril by the hand. He asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look at his white beard. Regan advised him to go home again with Goneril and live with her peacefully, sending away half his soldiers and asking her forgiveness. She said that he was old and lacking in good sense, and must be ruled by persons who had more wisdom than himself.
Lear asked if he should go down on his knees and beg for food and clothes from his own daughter. He said that he would never return with her but would stay with Regan, he and his hundred soldiers, for she had not forgotten the half of the kingdom which he had given her, and her eyes were not cold
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like Goneril's, but gentle and kind. He also said that rather than return to Goneril with only half his soldiers, he would go to France and beg help from the king who had married his youngest daughter when she had nothing.
But he was mistaken in thinking that he would receive kinder treatment from Regan than he had done from her sister Goneril. She now declared that she thought 50 soldiers were too many to wait on him, and that 25 were enough. Then Lear, nearly heartbroken, turned to Goneril and said that he would go back with her, for her 50 was double 25, and so her love was twice as much as Regan's. But Goneril excused herself and asked why he needed so many as twenty-five, or even ten, or even five, when her own servants or her sister's could look after him.
So these two ungrateful daughters each tried to be more cruel than the other to their old father, who had been so good to them. Their aim was gradually to rob him of all his soldiers and of all the respect that was left to show that he had once been a king. It was hard to change from a king to a beggar, and it was his daughters' ungratefulness which hurt this poor king so much. His mind began to become unbalanced and, though he did not know what he was saying, he promised that these unnatural creatures should be punished.
While he was threatening what his weak arm could never perform, night fell, and a fearful storm of thunder, lightning and rain began. His daughters still refused to let his followers enter, and Lear called for his horses, saying that he would rather face the greatest anger of the storm outside than stay under the same roof as these ungrateful daughters. Reminding him that the actions of foolish men bring their own just punishment, they let him go and shut their doors on him.
The wind was high, and the rain and the storm increased when the old man went out to struggle against them. For many miles there was hardly a bush for shelter. On a stretch of
wasteland, King Lear wandered about, shouting in anger against the wind and the thunder. He commanded the wind to blow the earth into the sea, or to make the waves so big that they drowned the earth, so that no sign remained of such an ungrateful animal as man. The king was now left with no other companion than the fool, who still stayed with him. He tried to cheer the king up with his amusing words: he-said it was a bad night for swimming, and that the king had better go and ask for his daughters' help.
This once great king was found in this condition by his ever- faithful servant the good Earl of Kent, now known as Caius. He said, 'O good sir, are you here? Creatures that love the night do not love such nights as these. This terrible storm has driven the animals to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot bear it.' But Lear reminded him that one does not feel smaller evils when there is a greater illness. When the mind is balanced, the body has time to feel ill, but the storm in his mind took away all other feeling from him. He spoke again of his daughters' disloyalty, and
said it was as if the mouth tore the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were hands and food and everything to children.
Caius still continued to beg the king not to stay out in the open air, and at last persuaded him to enter a miserable little hut that they came to. The fool entered first but ran out in terror saying that he had seen a spirit. The spirit proved to be nothing but a poor beggar, who had gone into this hut for shelter and who had frightened the fool by talking about devils.When the king saw him, with only a cloth around his waist, he was sure that he was a man who had given away everything to his daughters. He believed that nothing could bring a man to such misery except unkind children.
From this, and from many wild speeches which he made, the good Caius saw clearly that Lear was not in his right mind, but that the cruel treatment he had suffered from his daughters had really made him mad.
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The Earl of Kent's faithfulness now showed itself more clearly than it had ever done before. With the help of some of the king's soldiers, he had the king taken to the castle at Dover, where most of his own friends were. Kent himself set sail for France, where he hurried to Cordelia. He told her of her father's pitiful condition and how it had been caused by the cruelty of her sisters. This loving child begged her husband to let her go to England with an army big enough to defeat these cruel daughters and their husbands. The king agreed to this, so she set out with a royal army and landed at Dover.
Lear had escaped from the care ofthe soldiers in whose charge Kent had left him, and he was found by some of Cordelia's soldiers, wandering about the fields near Dover in a sad condition. He was quite mad, and singing aloud to himself, with a crown on his head which he had made ofgrass and other wild plants that he had picked up in the corn fields. Cordelia greatly desired to see her father, but the doctors persuaded her to delay the meeting until sleep and medicine had made him better. With the help of these skilful men, to whom Cordelia promised all her gold and jewels if they helped her father back to good health, Lear was soon in a condition to see his daughter.
It was a moving sight to see the meeting between the father and daughter. Lear was torn between his joy at seeing his child again and his shame at receiving such kindness from the daughter he had sent away in his foolish pride and anger. His half-mad brain sometimes made him unable to remember where he was, or who it was that kissed him so kindly. Then he would beg those who were with him not to laugh at him if he were mistaken in thinking this lady to be his daughter Cordelia. He fell on his knees to ask his daughter's forgiveness, but she, good lady, told him it was not a suitable thing for him to do. She was only doing
her duty as she was his child. She kissed him (as she said) to kiss away all her sisters' unkindness, and said that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for turning their kind old father with his white beard out into the cold air. She would not have turned away her enemy's dog on a night like that, even if it had bitten her; it could have stayed by her fire and warmed itself.
Cordelia told her father that she had come from France to help him. He asked her to forgive and forget, since he was an old man and a foolish one and he did not know what he was doing. She certainly had good reason not to love him, but her sisters had no excuse. To this, Cordelia replied that she had no cause, and neither had they.
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We can leave this old king in the care ofhis loving child.With the help of sleep and medicine, she and her doctors at last succeeded in bringing some peace to that troubled mind, which was so upset by the cruelty of his other daughters. Let us now go back to say a word or two about them.
These ungrateful creatures, who had been so false to their own father, could not be expected to be more faithful to their husbands. They soon grew tired of showing even the appearance of love and duty, and made it clear that they had given their love to another man. And each of them fell in love with the same man. It was Edmund, a natural son of the dead Earl of Gloucester. By his evil actions, he had removed his brother Edgar, the lawful heir, from his possessions, and was now earl himself.
At about this time the Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died. Regan at once declared her intention of marrying this Earl of Gloucester. This excited the jealousy of her sister, to whom the evil earl had spoken of his love, and Goneril killed Regan by giving her poison. But Goneril's husband discovered what she
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had done and put her in prison, where she soon put an end to her own life. In this way the justice of heaven at last claimed these ungrateful daughters.
But a sad end was waiting for Cordelia, whose kindness seemed to deserve better fortune. The armies which Goneril and Regan had sent out under the command of Edmund, the bad Earl of Gloucester, were successful. They caught Cordelia and she was taken to prison and killed there. Lear did not live long after his sweet child's death.
Before the king died, the good Earl of Kent tried to tell him that it was he who had followed him under the name of Caius. Lear's troubled brain could not understand how that could be, or how Kent and Caius could be the same person, so Kent thought it unnecessary to try to explain. This faithful servant to the king died of grief soon after his master.
There is no need here to tell how the bad Earl of Gloucester was killed in a fight with his brother, or how Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany, who had never encouraged his lady in her bad ways, became the King of England. Lear and his three daughters are dead, and our story ends with them.