Treachery abounds as the three daughters of the aging and failing English King contend for his love and his kingdom.  Goneril (husband Duke of Albany) and Reagan (husband Duke of Cornwall) respond to Lear’s request for ‘who  loves me most’ with lies and deceit and are rewarded with half the kingdom while Cordelia is honest and exiled to France.  Kent who tries to reason with Lear is banished and Gloucester is fooled by his bastard son Edmund to disown the loyal Edgar and is ultimately blinded by Cornwall.  The play ends, as do all of Shakespeare’s tragedies with death all around—Cornwall, Reagan, Goneril, Edmund, Cordelia, and Lear—but with Edgar and Kent vindicated and honored.