Timeline

Act 1

Edgar and Edmund

The Earl of Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son Edmund to the Earl of Kent. Gloucester tells Kent that his older, legitimate son Edgar ‘is no dearer in my account’ than Edmund and that he loves them both.

Key Scene

Dividing the kingdom

King Lear announces his plan to divide his kingdom into three and give equal parts of it to each of his three daughters and their husbands to rule over. Before they can have their part of the kingdom, he asks his daughters to publicly declare how much they love him. The youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to make a ‘glib and oily’ speech like her sisters. Lear is so angry he disowns her and gives her portion of the kingdom to her sisters’ husbands Albany and Cornwall.

Investigate the dividing the kingdom scene

Kent is banished

The Earl of Kent steps up to defend Cordelia and tries to tell Lear that ‘Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least’ but Lear grows angry with Kent too and banishes him from the kingdom on pain of death.

Cordelia leaves for France

Cordelia had two suitors at the court who hoped to marry her. Hearing she has been disowned and has lost the portion of the land that would have been her dowry, one of them decides they don’t want to marry her anymore but the King of France says ‘She is herself a dower’ and takes her to France with him.

Edmund reveals his plan

In a soliloquy, Edmund confides in the audience that he feels it is unfair to be treated differently from his brother just because his mother was not married to Gloucester, and because he is younger than Edgar. Edmund is determined to change things and manages to fool his father into believing that Edgar is plotting against him. Gloucester calls Edgar ‘Abhorred villain, unnatural, detested, brutish villain – worse than brutish!’

Edgar believes Edmund

Edmund convinces Edgar that their father is angry with him but that he will try to help. Edmund confides in the audience that if he cannot inherit Gloucester’s wealth ‘by birth’, he will ‘have lands by wit’.

Goneril grows impatient

Goneril confides in her servant Oswald that she is fed up with her father’s behaviour while he is staying in her house and complains that ‘His knights grow riotous’. She tells Oswald not to show respect to Lear and his followers.

Kent disguises himself

Kent disguises himself and goes to King Lear. He promises ‘to serve him truly’ and Lear agrees to take him on. Kent shows his loyalty by punishing Oswald for disrespecting the king.

The Fool appears

Lear asks where his Fool is, having ‘not seen him these two days’. When the Fool arrives, he makes witty remarks and sings songs suggesting that Lear is now the fool for giving away all his ‘other titles’. The Fool tells Lear ‘thou madest thy daughters thy mother’ by retiring and handing power to them and their husbands.

Key Scene

Goneril complains to Lear

Goneril complains to her father that his ‘hundred knights and squires’ are ‘Men so disordered, so debauched and bold’, that they have made her court ‘more like a tavern or a brothel / Than a graced palace.’ Lear is furious with her. He curses her and commands his followers to leave immediately and go to his daughter Regan instead. Goneril sends word to Regan.

Investigate Lear cursing Goneril

Lear fears going mad

After sending Kent as his messenger to Regan, Lear talks with his Fool while he waits for his horses to be ready to leave Goneril’s house. The Fool tells him ‘Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise’ and Lear pleads ‘O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!’

View Act 1 Scene-by-scene breakdown

Act 2

Edmund sets up his brother

Edmund has been spreading lies about his brother Edgar, but Edgar believes Edmund is trying to help him. Edmund stages a fight with Edgar, and then tells Edgar to ‘fly’. He wounds himself to make the fight look convincing and tells his father Gloucester that Edgar hurt him and is plotting to kill Gloucester. Gloucester believes Edmund.

The Cornwalls arrive

Regan and Cornwall have left their home and travelled to see Gloucester. They sympathise with Gloucester over the ‘strange news’ of Edgar’s betrayal and tell Gloucester they have come to seek his advice as ‘Our good old friend’.

Kent is put in the Stocks

On meeting Oswald, Kent again attacks him for his lack of respect towards Lear, calling him ‘A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats’ and adding many more insults. Regan and Cornwall have Kent put in the stocks for his behaviour.

Edgar disguises himself as 'Poor Tom'

In a soliloquy, Edgar declares that since he ran away from Edmund he has been hunted and cannot escape. He decides to disguise himself as a ‘Bedlam beggar’ and call himself ‘Poor Tom’.

Regan and Goneril unite

Lear arrives at Gloucester’s house and cannot believe that Regan and Cornwall would dare to put Kent in the stocks. When Regan finally arrives to speak to him, he tells her that she knows better than Goneril. When Goneril arrives, the sisters stand together to tell their father they will have him in their homes, but not all his followers. Angry at their disrespect, Lear walks off into the storm.

View Act 2 scene-by-scene breakdown

Act 3

Lear against the Storm

Abandoned by everyone except the Fool, Lear stands on open ground and shouts at the skies. He believes he is ‘a man / More sinned against than sinning.’ The Fool tries to persuade Lear to find shelter but he doesn’t listen until Kent finds them and leads Lear away to a nearby hovel.

Gloucester confides in Edmund

Gloucester tells Edmund that he has received letters about French troops landing in England and that he intends to help the king, even though Regan and Cornwall have told him not to. Edmund goes immediately to tell Cornwall what Gloucester has told him.

Key Scene

King Lear meets 'Poor Tom'

Edgar has disguised himself as a ‘Bedlam beggar’ and is living in the hovel that Kent leads Lear and his Fool to. Lear has already begun to think about how the poor people of his kingdom might be coping in this storm with their ‘houseless heads and unfed sides’. He then meets ‘Poor Tom’ and treats him as a ‘Noble philosopher’ to help him learn more about the state of man. Gloucester finds them at the hovel and leads them towards shelter.

Investigate Lear meeting Poor Tom

Lear is taken to Dover

Unaware that Edmund has betrayed him, Gloucester continues to secretly help Lear. He leads Lear, Edgar, the Fool and Kent to food and warmth and returns later to tell them he has ‘o’erheard a plot of death upon’ the king and that he will help them escape to Dover. This is the Fool’s last appearance in the play.

Cornwall gouges out Gloucester's eyes

Goneril, Regan and Cornwall are furious to hear that Gloucester has kept information from them and helped Lear. After Goneril has left with Edmund to prepare for war, Cornwall has Gloucester brought in and tied to a chair. Regan calls him ‘Ingrateful fox’ and ‘filthy traitor’, then Cornwall gouges out his eyes, telling his servants to ‘Turn out that eyeless villain’.

View Act 3 scene-by-scene breakdown

Act 4

Edgar meets his blinded father

Edgar sees an old man, who has lived on Gloucester’s land for years, trying to help his blinded father. Edgar is shocked to see his father ‘parti-eyed’ and talking of his ‘dear son Edgar’. Gloucester asks ‘Poor Tom’ to lead him to the cliff top at Dover and Edgar agrees, saying ‘Give me thy arm: / Poor Tom shall lead thee.’

Albany and Goneril fight

Goneril arrives home with Edmund and comments on ‘the difference of man and man’ between Edmund and her husband’s ‘cowish terror of spirit’. After Edmund leaves, Albany arrives and calls his wife a ‘devil’ for how she has treated Lear. A messenger brings news that Cornwall is dead and ‘Slain by his servant’. Albany is horrified to hear about Gloucester.

Regan intends to marry Edmund

Regan tries to get information about her sister’s intentions towards Edmund. She tells Oswald, ‘My lord is dead: Edmund and I have talked, / And more convenient is he for my hand / Than for your lady’s.’ Oswald reveals nothing. Regan also tells him there would be a reward for killing the ‘blind traitor’ Gloucester.

Key Scene

Gloucester falls

‘Poor Tom’ has led Gloucester to Dover but not to the top of the cliffs as Gloucester believes. Edgar describes the scene to Gloucester as though they are looking down on to the beach. Gloucester sends ‘Poor Tom’ away then falls, believing he will fall off the cliff. Edgar approaches him again, pretending they are now on the beach and that he saw Gloucester fall ‘From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.’

Investigate Gloucester on the cliff

Gloucester meets Lear

As Edgar is persuading Gloucester that his survival is ‘a miracle’, Lear joins them, still acting very strangely and complaining about his daughters. The two old men talk to each other, with Gloucester immediately recognising the king’s voice. Lear eventually says he recognises Gloucester. Lear then runs off, chased by three gentlemen who Cordelia has sent to help her father.

Edgar kills Oswald

Oswald enters and sees his chance to please Regan and his mistress by killing Gloucester as Regan asked him to. Edgar stops him and kills him in a fight. Oswald believes Edgar is nothing more than a ‘bold peasant’ and, as he dies, he gives Edgar his letters and tells him to take them to Edmund. Edgar reads a letter from Goneril telling Edmund to kill her husband so that she can marry Edmund instead.

Cordelia and Lear are reunited

The doctor tells Cordelia that Lear ‘hath slept long’. They wake him up and, although he is still confused, he is calmer and recognises his daughter, saying ‘as I am a man, I think this lady / To be my child Cordelia.’ Cordelia gently leads him away as he asks ‘Pray you now, forget and forgive: I am old and foolish.’

View Act 4 scene-by-scene breakdown

Act 5

The battle begins

Albany and Edmund prepare to lead the British troops into battle against the French forces. Regan and Goneril are starting to argue over Edmund and he admits to the audience that he has sworn his love to both sisters. Edgar appears and gives a letter to Albany, promising to provide ‘a champion’ when the battle is over to prove the truth of what is written.

Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned

The French forces lose the battle and Edmund commands that Lear and Cordelia be taken away to prison. He tells Albany they can be dealt with when the time is right ‘Tomorrow, or at further space’ but he secretly sends an order that Cordelia be hanged in her cell.

Edgar fights Edmund

Albany accuses Edmund of ‘capital treason,’ revealing that he knows all about him and Goneril. Edgar arrives, dressed in full armour, to prove the truth of this accusation through single-handed combat with Edmund. Edgar defeats Edmund and then reveals himself as ‘Edgar, and thy father’s son.’ Edgar then summarises for Albany everything that has happened to him, including the recent death of Gloucester whose heart gave out.

The sisters die

A messenger runs in with news that Goneril and Regan are both dead. Goneril admitted poisoning Regan to stop her marrying Edmund and Goneril then stabbed herself. As Edmund lies dying, he says ‘I was contracted to them both: all three / Now marry in an instant’ but before he dies, he confesses to having ordered the secret hanging of Cordelia. Lear then walks on with the body of Cordelia.

Lear dies

Lear is distraught. Kent tries to talk to him but Lear can hardly focus on anything other than the loss of Cordelia. He asks ‘Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, / And thou no breath at all?’ and then he dies. Kent suggests he too will die soon, leaving Albany and Edgar to consider ‘The weight of this sad time’.

View Act 5 scene-by-scene breakdown

Teacher Notes

The following activity is a great way to explore the story in more detail, looking at the number of letters that change hands in the play and the impact of these.

Using letters to create the missing scenes in the play (2010)

The activity can be found on page 4 and takes approximately 30 minutes.

You can also ask students to create their own timelines of the play, physically arranging themselves in a line down the middle of the room or by creating their own versions as they work through the play.