The point is not insisted on; but some passages in the play suggest that when Shakespeare began to write it he was minded to make the action the falling of a judgment upon Desdemona for her treachery to her father. The treachery caused the old man's death. The too passionate and hasty things always bring death in these plays. Violent delights have violent ends and bring violent ends to others. The poetry of _Othello_ is nearly as well known as that of _Hamlet_. Many quotations from the play have passed into the speech of the people. A play of intrigue does not give the fullest opportunity for great poetry; but supreme things are spoken throughout the action. Othello's cry-- "It is the very error of the moon. She comes more near the earth than she was wont And drives men mad," is one of the most perfect of all the perfect things in the tragedies. _King Lear._ _Written._ 1605-6. _Published._ 1608. _Source of the Plot._ The story of Lear is told in Holinshed's _Chronicles_, in a play by an unknown hand, _The True Chronicle History of King Leir_, and in a few stanzas of the tenth canto of the second Book of Spenser's _Faerie Queene_. The character of Gloucester seems to have been suggested by the character of a blind king in Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_. _The Fable._ King Lear, in his old age, determines to give up his kingdom to his three daughters. Before he does so, he tries to assure himself of their love for him. The two elder women, Goneril and Regan, vow that they love him intensely; the youngest, Cordelia, can only tell him that she cares for him as a daughter should. He curses and casts off Cordelia, who is taken to wife by the King of France. Gloucester, deceived by his bastard Edmund, casts off Edgar his son. King Lear, thwarted and flouted by Goneril and Regan, goes mad, and wanders away with his Fool. Gloucester, trying to comfort him against the wishes of Goneril and Regan, is betrayed by his bastard Edmund, and blinded. He wanders away with Edgar, who has disguised himself as a madman. Regan's husband is killed. Seeking to take Edmund in his stead, she rouses the jealousy of Goneril, who has already made advances to him. Cordelia lands with French troops to repossess Lear of his kingdom. She finds Lear, and comforts him. In an engagement with the sisters' armies, she and Lear are captured. Edmund's baseness is exposed. He is attainted and struck down. Goneril poisons Regan, and kills herself. Edmund, before he dies, reveals that he has given order for Lear and Cordelia to be killed. His news comes too late to save Cordelia. She is brought in dead. Lear dies over her body. Albany, Goneril's husband, Kent, Lear's faithful servant, and Edgar, Edmund's slayer, are left to set the kingdom in order.