King Lear and Proverbs (11:29)

There are those who find Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, immensely troubling. For me, however, it is totally an exposition of this beautiful proverb. Shakespeare himself believed that he was cuckolded by his brother (and even left his wife his “second-best bed.”) Many of his plays – including Hamlet – hit this theme of familial adultery. Yet what may have been the consequences of these obsessions in Shakespeare’s own life? We can only wonder. Perhaps Voltaire was not so far off in Candide by suggesting that we focus on “cultivating our own garden.”