King Lear
by: William Shakespeare
King Lear is widely held as the greatest of Shakespeare's tragedies; to some, it is the greatest play ever written. King Lear abdicates the British throne, to divide his kingdom among his three daughters in proportion to their professed love of him. His plan misfires when Cordelia, his youngest and favorite daughter, refuses to flatter her father; she is disinherited and banished.