SERVANT

King Lear intends to divide his kingdom between his sons-in-law: they will become the effective rulers, while he remains titular king with a retinue of knights, residing with each by monthly turns. His elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, are already married to dukes of the north and west of Britain; his youngest, Cordelia, is being courted by two suitors from mainland Europe. Lear requires that each daughter make a public statement of her love for him, to determine her merit and therefore her share of the kingdom. Goneril and Regan give it their all, but Cordelia refuses to make a self-serving and insincere statement which will encroach on the rights of her future husband. In consequence, she gets nothing, and the Earl of Kent is banished when he tries to intervene; the King of France marries her anyway, without a dowry. Kent stays in the kingdom, disguises himself, and gets himself a place in Lear’s service. Lear proves a difficult house-guest, and Goneril an ungracious hostess. When she asks him to reduce his retinue, he angrily moves on early to stay with Regan. Father and daughter both send letters ahead to explain the situation, carried by Kent and Oswald respectively; Goneril’s messenger meets with a better reception. Kent brawls with Oswald and is put in the stocks, which offends Lear when he arrives, closely followed by Goneril. The two daughters demand progressively greater diminutions in the number of Lear’s knights. Rather than stay with either of them, he furiously goes out into a storm, and goes mad. Meanwhile, Edmund the bastard, envious of his legitimate brother Edgar, uses a forged letter to persuade their father, the Earl of Gloucester, that Edgar is plotting to murder him. He induces Edgar to flee as if he were guilty. Edgar evades the hue and cry, disguises himself as a beggar, Poor Tom, and meets Lear in a hovel. The French army lands in Britain near Dover. Kent sends a gentleman with a message to Cordelia, and Gloucester confides in Edmund that he has received secret information about the invasion. He goes out into the storm to help Lear, disobeying Cornwall’s orders to the contrary, and helps him to escape onto the Dover road to join Cordelia and the French. Edmund betrays his father and is created Earl of Gloucester; Cornwall sends him to liaise with Albany about war preparations. The elder Gloucester is arrested, interrogated, and blinded, despite a servant’s efforts to save him; Cornwall is wounded in the struggle, and…