King Lear

A tragedy of madness, flattery and foolishness, Shakespeare's King Lear tells of the title character, his daughters and the disaster that falls upon them. Based on the legend of the Leir of Britain, a mythological Celtic king, the play was written between 1603 and 1606. The play is among the most analyzed works in Shakespeare's canon, inspiring scholarly works about human nature and insanity. Sigmund Freud famously wrote that Lear's daughter Cordelia symbolized Death, and lauded Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said: "No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear."