#yeah canon edmund was just terrible lol

[ladylvck]

Lucia: I'm going to kill my ex-husband. Ex-husband: -shows up looking all pitiful and dying because Admin Hamlet couldn't help stabbing him six times by 'accident'- Lucia: .....well SHIT.

[suits-of-woe]

highlights of the original lear source

answering that question about cordelia yesterday made me realize i’d never read the original source for king lear, the story of leir of britain from geoffrey of monmouth’s history of the kings of britain. if you’re not familiar, it’s a version of most of the lear family plot but without any of the gloucester family plot, and also no kent and no fool. please enjoy some original lear lore:

- instead of regan and goneril we have regau and...gonorilla. yeah i think we can all thank shakespeare for changing that

- none of the sisters are married at the start of the story and in addition to giving goneril and regan part of his kingdom lear also lets them marry any husband of their choosing. i guess goneril's terrible marriage is integral to the edmund plot that shakespeare added but...inch resting

- also the main contrast between goneril and regan's speeches is that goneril says she loves lear more than herself and regan says she loves him more than anyone else. i don't even know but i feel like you could do something with that

- from cordelia's speech: "look how much you have, so, much is your value, and so much do i love you" HHHHHHHHHHH it's REALLY about love being equated with power huh

- lear decides to marry cordelia to "some foreigner" (lol) and france (or rather, aganippus king of the franks) actually begins courting her after she's already been disowned and marries her because he loves her so much

- i guess the whole splitting of the kingdom occurs when lear is still doing pretty well because it's only "a long time after this" that he's "infirm through age." he also initially only gives up half his kingdom and rules the rest "with great power and glory" until albany and cornwall do an insurrection so...okay. definitely very different vibes

- albany's canon name is maglaunus and cornwall's canon name is henuinus. fic writers look no further <3

- also yeah, albany and cornwall do a full insurrection and deprive lear of all his power but somehow he doesn't get mad until goneril and regan start reducing his number of attendants. he also doesn't have a mental breakdown in a storm about this though, he just stays with goneril with only one attendant for a bit before deciding to go stay with cordelia instead

- actually he DOES have a mental breakdown but it's because he's on the ship to gaul and only gets the third nicest place of the lords travelling with him. shakespeare thank you for changing this.

- i'm just picturing lear all "my present calamity [...] has exposed me to the derision of those who were formerly prostrate at my feet" and the duke next to him on the ship is like "okay fine we can swap bunks"

- lear also thinks that cordelia is mostly going to be mad at him for giving her a worse husband than her sisters. i'm still laughing about "some foreigner"

- okay by the time lear arrives he's described as "a father who suffered both hunger and nakedness" so i guess that's where shakespeare gets this but. again. he was just on a ship. he had the third nicest accomodations on the ship was he naked there or ??

- i'm guessing some people already know this but lear gets put on the throne of gaul and then cordelia's forces recapture britain and lear gets to rule britain for three more years before he dies. i guess good for him

- (suicide tw) but! it's actually not happy ending lear like i thought because goneril and regan's sons are mad that there's a woman on the throne so they go to war with cordelia and capture her, and she actually does kill herself from the grief of losing the kingdom. boys come on i know your girlboss mothers did not raise you like this.

- also goneril's son is named margan and regan's son is named cunedagius. which. um

- then goneril's son eventually gets mad because he thinks the whole kingdom is his birthright so he goes to war with regan's son, loses, and gets killed. and regan's son cunedagius and then her grandson rivallo get to rule britain. only true fans know the real lear ending