King Lear the aging King of Britain, has decided to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. First he puts his daughters through a sort of test, asking each to tell him just how much each daughter loves him. Goneril and Regan, Lear's older daughters, give their father flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear's youngest and favorite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father "Love, and be silent." Lear flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia, "Nothing comes from nothing!" The King of France, who has been courting Cordelia, says that he still wants to marry her even without her land, and she accompanies him to France without her father's blessing.
             Lear quickly learns that he has made a bad decision. His older daughters, Regan and Goneril, swiftly begin to undermine the little authority Lear still upholds. Lear's servants and knights have noticed that Goneril's servants no longer obey their commands. Lear sends a command to Goneril, telling her that he wants to talk with her. When Goneril's steward, Oswald, is rude to Lear, Kent gets into a fight with him and beats him. Lear's Fool arrives, and in the punning double-talk which is his normal manner of speech, seems to tell Lear that he has made a great mistake in handing over his power to Goneril and Regan. After a long delay, Goneril herself arrives to speak with Lear. She tells him that his servants and knights have been so disorderly that she feels it may be necessary to send some of them away--even if Lear is against it. Unable to believe this betrayal by his beloved daughters, Lear slowly goes insane. He leaves his daughters' houses to wander on a plain during a gr!
             eat thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent, a loyal nobleman in disguise.
             Also in the story there is an elderly nobleman named Gloucester, who is also having family prob...