Colorado Shakespeare Gardens
self-guided tour
lily perfect.JPG

King Lear

Towards the end of the play, when the king is mad, those who seek to rescue him hear that he is

As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;
Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn. [King Lear IV iv]

During his reign his crown was the glory of a wide and rich realm; now, in his madness, his crown is the weeds which, unchecked, will choke the harvest.

King Lear

 

Perhaps Shakespeare’s most difficult family tragedy, this is about a prideful, older king who tests his three daughters to decide how to divide his kingdom. He dislikes the youngest one's answer, and gives the kingdom to the other two. These daughters plot his destruction. A subplot explores another misplaced inheritance, and the rightful heir of that family accompanies Lear and his truth-telling fool as they wander a wild moorland in a storm.

 

Enjoy this slideshow of plants from the play in our garden.