具体描述
King Lear stands alongside Hamlet as one of the most profound expressions of tragic drama in literature. Written between 1604 and 1605, it represents Shakespeare at the height of his dramatic power. Drawing on ancient British history, Shakespeare constructs a plot that reads like a fable in its clear-sighted but terrifying simplicity. The ageing King Lear calls his daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia to witness that he wishes "to shake all cares and business from our age" and divide his kingdom between his three children. When Cordelia refuses to flatter her father with sycophantic words of love, her banishment leads to chaos and civil war as Lear's disastrous "division of the kingdom" gives free reign to the greed and ambition of his two remaining daughters.
As Lear sinks into rage and madness he is deserted by everyone except his "bitter" Fool, the loyal Kent and the exiled Cordelia. The play descends into a nighmarish theatre of cruelty and absurdity as Lear realises he has "ta'en / Too little care" of the poverty and corruption of his kingdom, and his loyal but foolish friend Gloucester has his eyes gouged out. Metaphors of monstrosity and perversions of nature structure the dramatic action, and the play's ending remains one of the most harrowing in all of Shakespeare. Many see a profound despair and nihilism in King Lear, and would agree with Kent's conclusion that "All's cheerless, dark and deadly". Other writers have identified a radical but pessimistic critique of contemporary conceptions of kingship and absolutist authority, yet it remains a remarkable tragedy of public misjudgement and intensely private grief and anguish. --Jerry Brotton
用户评价
##为了S&A第三季（对着nofearshakespeare）看了第一本莎士比亚原文。Text的确艰深，但如果读出声而不是用眼看的话语感真是无与伦比……
评分##虽然没有全部读完不过是目前为止所读过的最喜欢的内容~
评分##加孙大雨译本。"Ripeness is all."
评分##Nothing, subversive nature, illusion, madness. Death as resolution to nothing.
评分##李爾的性格悲劇，可憐之人必有可恨之處。"As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods"
评分##最简单最真实的一段人性
评分##为了S&A第三季（对着nofearshakespeare）看了第一本莎士比亚原文。Text的确艰深，但如果读出声而不是用眼看的话语感真是无与伦比……
评分##莎翁嘛，你知道的，讲这说那的。这本没那么好懂了
评分##加孙大雨译本。"Ripeness is all."
