History Theatre / KingLear

## Being blatant about it: The recent Royal Shakespeare Company run with IanMcKellen had a silent execution scene that served to explain his disappearance and emphasise the growing cruelty of England under Regan and Goneril. (Lear does say, "And my poor fool is hanged," in the final scene, but it's not clear exactly what this means.)

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: In one of the oldest and most famous examples of this trope, The Fool abruptly disappears from the play between Acts 3 and 4. Different productions handle this in different manners, e.g.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: How much of Regan and Goneril's machinations are motivated by petty jealousy, and how much are legitimate concerns that their mentally ill father is going to ruin the kingdom? Remember, the army of the "good guys" is actually a foreign invasion from France.

* BrotherChuck: The Fool vanishes from the play between Acts and his whereabouts are never accounted for. Many speculate that the character probably was meant to have died and that the scene explicitly stating or depicting this was lost. His final line about "Going to bed at noon," has been interpreted as {{foreshadowing}} his demise. Another theory is that the Fool and Cordelia may have been depicted by the same actor in the original production, necessitating the disappearance of one when the other reenters the play.
** Interestingly, King Lear refers to Cordelia as his "poor fool", possibly supporting the latter theory.
*** It is unlikely in Shakespeare's time that the young boy who would have played Cordelia would have also been able to successfully pull off the role of the Fool. The reference to the "poor fool" being hanged is likely Shakespeare rapidly trying to tie up loose ends at the climax of the play.

And then the kingdom is attacked by Cordelia's recent husband, the King of France ... [[ItGotWorse hilarity does NOT ensue]] .

The play has been adapted several times for the screen, but no adaptation is more famous than the one that [[RecycledINSPACE moves it to Japan]], [[GenderFlip changes the daughters into sons]], and adds a whole bunch of other stuff. ''{{Ran}}''.

* ItGotWorse: ''King Lear'' starts with a king giving his land away to his daughters after they tell him how much they love him, then one refuses to and he banishes her, then banishes the man who objects to the kings choices, then he gets betrayed by the first, and then second, of his daughters. At the same time Gloucester is being manipulated (and eventually betrayed) by his bastard son [[BastardBastard Edmund]] to cast out his legitimate son Edgar, and has his eyes put out in a rather horrid way. Meanwhile, while Edmund is manipulating his way towards becoming ruler of England, Lear is wandering the countryside slowly going insane, and even when he is reunited with his youngest daughter... [[KillEmAll um,]] [[DownerEnding yeah...]]

* BadassGrandpa / PapaWolf: Lear [[spoiler: despite being canonically in his eighties kills the executioner who was holding him and his daughter when he executed Cordelia]].

* CainAndAbel: Subverted. Since he was born out of wedlock, Edmund is Edgar's half-brother. However, this doesn't stop Edmund trying to do away with and discredit Edgar in the pursuit for his father's title. [[spoiler: Edgar finishes Edmund off in the final act, the religious [[AnAesop Aesop]] being that the true child will always triumph over the bastard.]]

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Gloucester]].

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Edmund uses his last breath to [[spoiler: repeal his death sentence upon Cordelia.]] Naturally, it's too late.

* ItGotWorse: ''King Lear'' starts with a king giving his land away to his daughters after they tell him how much they love him, then one refuses to and he banishes her, then banishes the man who objects to the kings choices, then he gets betrayed by the first, and then second, of his daughters. At the same time Gloucester is being manipulated (and eventually betrayed) by his bastard son [[BastardBastard Edmund]] to cast out his legitimate son Edgar, and [[spoiler:has his eyes put out in a rather horrid way]]. Meanwhile, while Edmund is manipulating his way towards becoming ruler of England, Lear is wandering the countryside slowly going insane, and even when he is [[spoiler:reunited with his youngest daughter]]... [[KillEmAll um,]] [[DownerEnding yeah...]]

* SacredHospitality: [[{{Lampshade}} Lampshaded]] by Gloucester before [[spoiler: Cornwall gouges out his eyes.]] "I am your host:/ With robbers' hands my hospitable favours/ You should not ruffle thus."

** The Fool's final appearance is often given some symbolic overtone. In addition to the example already given, the Drury Lane Theatre's 2005 production had the Fool tap Tom O'Bedlam/[[spoiler: Edgar]] on the shoulder as he walked off the stage for the last time, passing O'Bedlam his Jester's baton. O'Bedlam was left staring at the baton in his hands with a confused look on his face, then he spouted some inane gibberish and followed the rest of the cast. From that point on, every time O'Bedlam appeared on stage ([[spoiler: until he reveals himself as Edgar at the end]]), he carried the baton with him. Many interpret The Fool's disappearance as being due to his redundancy as comic relief and holy fool once O'Bedlam appears - note that the Fool has few lines in his final scenes, starting from when Tom O'Bedlam is first introduced - and this "passing of the baton" acknowledged that.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: How much of Regan and Goneril's machinations are motivated by petty jealousy, and how much are legitimate concerns that their mentally ill father is going to ruin the kingdom?

* BodyMotifs: The play is littered with references to eyes. These explore the nature of truth and our understanding of it - Lear is blind to the love of the only daughter who actually cares for him, Gloucester loses his sight for his loyalty to the crown, while Kent and Old Tom must disguise themselves to aid it.

-->'''Lear:''' Sir, this young fellow's mother could.

* ManipulativeBastard: Quite literally in the case of Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester. Throughout the play, he uses just about every character he meets in order to heighten his own power, no matter what the cost.
* MasterOfDisguise: The Earl of Kent disguises himself as a servant after being banished by King Lear, and Edgar disguises himself as a madman after he is declared an outlaw by his father. Both of them are able to fool close friends and family (and each other).

* TookALevelInBadass: Edgar begins the story a naive, loyal, dutiful son and brother. However, when Edmund makes a fugitive of him, not only does Edgar set out to save his father and godfather (Lear), but he kills Oswald in combat, nurses his father's wounds and tricks him out of suicidal depression, uncovers his brother's treachery, and defeats said brother, fatally wounding him.
** And the Duke of Albany, who is described as "mild" but turns out to be one of the only characters willing to stand up to Regan or Goneril.

''King Lear'' is an extremely powerful play, and for quite some time was unpopular with critics and audiences because it made what was once a traditional HappilyEverAfter FairyTale ending massively depressing instead. Honest children are punished while villains prosper, the good characters suffer through madness and despair and are forced to extreme measures merely to survive, a king is forced to face his own sins, and one character is tortured brutally on-stage. The kingdom is left a shattered mess, and, if done right, so is the audience. The ending is so depressing that it was fully rewritten in 1681, so Cordelia survives and marries Edgar; the revision was more popular than the original for over than a hundred years. After World War II and the horrors people saw in it, the story of Lear made a comeback. Today, it is considered one of Shakespeare's great tragedies, along with ''Hamlet'', ''Macbeth'', and ''Othello''.

* OneSceneWonder: The First Servant, who suddenly [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] and defies Cornwall.

* YouKnowWhatYouDid
* YoungestChildWins: Cordelia is the only one of Lear's daughters who actually loves him enough not to demean him with flattery.
** Subverted with Edgar and Edmund - Edmund is younger than Edgar, [[FridgeLogic so even if he wasn't born out of wedlock he still couldn't inherit Gloucester's land and title.]] Edgar is, however, the one who eventually foils his half-brother's schemes.

-->'''Lear:''' Sir, this young fellow's mother could

** And so also gets into FloweryInsults with stuff like "Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter""

-->-- '''Gloucester''', [[KillEmAll who saw exactly where things were going]]

A {{tragedy}} by WilliamShakespeare, though the story is older than that, first found in the ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae'' (the tragic ending ''isn't'', though).

It doesn't take long before Lear wears out his welcome. His daughters, resentful and wary from the outset, quickly tire of his knights causing trouble, not to mention the vast expense of keeping them in their father's employ. Lear is outraged and, rather than compromising with his daughters, he rails against them. When they refuse to take in his knights, Lear refuses their shelter, and is caught out in a thunderstorm while both his followers and his sanity desert him. He is left with only his Fool and the disguised Earl of Kent to care for him.

It's also been adapted into literature, such as Jane Smiley's 1991 novel ''AThousandAcres'', itself adapted into a movie. A reimagining of the story from the [[PerspectiveFlip perspective]] of the Fool was written by [[{{Literature/Fool}} Christopher Moore]].

-->'''Earl of Kent:''' A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny the least syllable of thy addition.
** And so also gets into {{Flowery Insults}} with stuff like "Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter""

* KillEmAll: [[WilliamShakespeare Obviously.]] This play has one heck of a body count.

* LoveHurts: Pretty much all the conflicts from this play spawn from love that is not understood, expressed, or requited.
* ManipulativeBastard: Quite literally in the case of Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester. Throughout the play, he uses just about every character he meets in order to heighten his own power, no matter what the cost.
* {{Master of Disguise}}: The Earl of Kent disguises himself as a servant after being banished by King Lear, and Edgar disguises himself as a madman after he is declared an outlaw by his father. Both of them are able to fool close friends and family (and each other).

** [[{{SarcasmMode}} Well, color me surprised.]]

## Playing it straight, sticking to the script and offering no explanation.

## Being blatant about it: The recent Royal Shakespeare Company run with {{Ian McKellen}} had a silent execution scene that served to explain his disappearance and emphasise the growing cruelty of England under Regan and Goneril. (Lear does say, "And my poor fool is hanged," in the final scene, but it's not clear exactly what this means.)

* ItGotWorse: ''King Lear'' starts with a king giving his land away to his daughters after they tell him how much they love him, then one refuses to and he banishes her, then banishes the man who objects to the kings choices, then he gets betrayed by the first, and then second, of his daughters. At the same time Gloucester is being manipulated (and eventually betrayed) by his bastard son Edmund to cast out his legitimate son Edgar, and [[spoiler:has his eyes put out in a rather horrid way]]. Meanwhile, while Edmund is manipulating his way towards becoming ruler of England, Lear is wandering the countryside slowly going insane, and even when he is [[spoiler:reunited with his youngest daughter]]... [[KillEmAll um,]] [[DownerEnding yeah...]]

** -->'''Kent:''' I cannot conceive you.
** -->'''Lear:''' Sir, this young fellow's mother could
** It's practically a 'your mum' joke.

* MyRevengeIsMercy: A complete MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment from [[spoiler: Edmund as he dies allows the King to be rescued. However, they were too late to save Cordelia]].

A {{tragedy}} by WilliamShakespeare, though the story is older than that, first found in the ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritannae'' (the tragic ending ''isn't'', though).

A {{tragedy}} by WilliamShakespeare, though the story is older than that, first found in the ''HistoriaRegumBritannae'' (the tragic ending ISN'T, though).

A {{tragedy}} by WilliamShakespeare, though the story is older than that, first found in the HistoriaRegumBritannae (The tragic ending ISN'T, though.)

## Being blatant about it: The recent Royal Shakespeare Company run with {{Ian McKellen}} had a silent execution scene that served to explain his disappearance and emphasise the growing cruelty of England under Regan and Goneril.

A {{tragedy}} by WilliamShakespeare, though the story is older than that. (The tragic ending ISN'T, though.)