ENG 208—Baker

Outline & Summary

King Lear

1.1. Lear abdicates the throne, in part from a desire to retire and in part to entice either the prince of France or the Duke of Burgundy to marry his youngest daughter Cordelia. He divides the kingdom according to professions of love he extracts from each of his three daughters. Goneril and Regan comply, but Cordelia refuses on the grounds that true love is displayed through action rather than language. An enraged Lear banishes her from the kingdom despite Kent’s protests, and so she departs, with France, Burgundy wanting nothing to do with her disinherited state.

1.2. Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester, plots to overthrow the legitimate heir Edgar, hinting to their father that Edgar would like to receive the title before the natural end of Gloucester’s life. Edmund manipulates Edgar to give credence to the lie.

1.3. Goneril tires of caring for her father.

1.4. Kent returns in disguise to serve and protect Lear, just in time, as the Fool predicts Goneril’s disrespectful treatment of Lear, although he does not anticipate her conspiracy with her sister.

1.5. Lear, Kent, and the Fool head to Regan.

2.1. Edmund, pretending to protect and defend Edgar, incites Gloucester’s suspicion so that he denounces his true son to Regan and Cornwall.

2.2. Kent meets Goneril’s messenger Owald at Gloucester’s court, where Regan and Cornwall are temporarily residing and abuses him roundly, but Regan takes Oswald’s part and has Kent put in the stockade against Gloucester’s better judgment.

2.3. Edgar resolves to disguise himself as Tom a’ Bedlam, a crazy man.

2.4. Lear and his Fool discover Kent in the stocks and demand of Gloucester to be allowed to speak to Regan and Cornwall. When Lear does confront her, she urges him to beg Goneril’s forgiveness and return to her, claiming she cannot accommodate him and his retinue. Lear loses his patience in a passionate tirade and trades her home for the comfort of the wild English heath on a dark and stormy night.

3.1. A freed Kent discovers Lear’s whereabouts and sends word to Cordelia that all is not well in her homeland.

3.2. Kent meets Lear and the Fool on the heath.

3.3. Gloucester, offended by Regan and Cornwall’s treatment of him, is finally beginning to see the problems in the country’s management.

3.4. Kent and Lear search for shelter and the Fool leads them to Edgar (as Tom). Gloucester seeks them out, but is only able to provide them with a hovel for the night.

3.5. Cornwall reveals that Gloucester’s disagreement with him and Regan has persuaded them to grant his title to Edmund.

3.6. Gloucester and Kent conspire to protect the King as he discourses with Edgar (Tom) and the Fool.

3.7. Goneril joins her sister at Gloucester’s castle and they condemn Gloucester for being a traitor. As he defends himself, Cornwall is incited to plunge out Gloucester’s eyes and chaos ensues.

4.1. Edgar (Tom) finds a blind Gloucester on the heath and leads him to Dover, as requested.

4.2. Goneril returns home to an unsympathetic Albany and therefore plots with Edmund, as his lover, to overthrow her husband.

4.3. France, with Cordelia, has begun to march upon England, but has himself had to return to his country, leaving Cordelia in charge of his army. Kent goes to fetch Lear.

4.4. Cordelia reports that they have discovered Lear and are now trying to recover him into the camp to be nursed back to health.

4.5. Regan musters her army and dsicovers Goneril’s betrayal of her husband.

4.6. Gloucester asks Edgar (Tom) to lead him to the white cliffs of Dover so he may kill himself. Edgar (Tom) fools him and leaves behind the disguise of Poor Tom. They meet Lear and Gloucester’s respect for him aids in his return to sanity. Edgar leads them to Cordelia’s army, kills Goneril’s messenger Oswald on the way (another sign of Lear’s return), and discovers Edmund’s treachery with Goneril.

4.7. The King returns to Cordelia’s camp, and, after expressing her thanks to Kent, she professes her love to her father.

5.1. Regan makes a move for Edmund and while they fight with Goneril, a disguised Edgar persuades Albany to join with the king.

5.2. Battle, with Gloucester in hidden witness.

5.3. Edmund enters triumphant over Lear and Cordelia. When the armies of the sisters enter, they again fight over Edmund, on which grounds Albany arrests his wife and denounces Edmund for a traitor. Edgar supports Albany’s case. The two brothers duel, and the bastard is defeated. Edgar explains the subterfuges, but just as Lear should triumphantly be crowned, he enters with a dead Cordelia in his arms. The deaths of his other daughters and Edmund are anticlimactic preludes to his own demise.