An old king divides his kingdom among his daughters based on their declarations of love, and the world falls apart. Shakespeare wrote this around 1606, and it is his most overwhelming tragedy, the one that refuses any consolation. The Fool vanishes; Cordelia is hanged; Lear dies broken. The storm scenes are theater at its most elemental. For centuries the play was performed with a happy ending; we have recovered Shakespeare's version, and it is harder to take. Tolstoy hated it. The rest of us find it inescapable.