Play description
ACT I
Scene 1. King Lear of Britain decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, giving the
greater share to the one who most eloquently describes her love for him. Goneril and Regan make
extravagant statements of devotion, but Cordelia, his favorite, speaks with a plainness that infuriates
him. He disowns her and gives his power to her sisters, retaining only his title. He intends to reside
alternately with Goneril and Regan, with a retinue of one hundred men. When the Earl of Kent berates
Lear for ‘This hideous rashness’ he is banished. Cordelia’s two suitors, the Duke of Burgundy and the
King of France, learn that she has lost her dowry. France, impressed by her virtue, resolves to marry
her. Once alone together, Goneril and Regan speak coldly of their father’s declining judgment.
Scene 2. Edmund, the Duke of Gloucester’s bastard son, intends to take his legitimate brother Edgar’s
land. He shows his father a letter, purportedly from Edgar, in which he plans Gloucester’s murder.
Edmund then warns Edgar of their father’s anger, speculating that someone has defamed him.
Scene 3. Goneril instructs her steward Oswald to treat Lear with disrespect.
