King Lear

Lear is a king who gives away his kingdom but tries to keep his title. He wants the crown without the responsibility. It doesn't work. Everything dies.

When Cordelia's servants find him wandering the countryside, mad and broken, he's wearing a new crown:

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.

His first crown was the glory of a wide realm. His second crown is weeds that choke the harvest. That's the whole play—a king reduced to the chaos he created.

The plants mark each stage of the collapse. Nettles sting. Hemlock poisons. Darnel was a weed that looked like wheat but made you sick.

In a functioning kingdom, you pull the weeds so the wheat can grow. But when authority cuts itself loose from the land, when power floats free of responsibility, the garden becomes unrecognizable. What's weed? What's wheat? Who's loyal? Who's betraying? Lear can't tell anymore.

The oak appears late in the play, but by then it's too late—Edgar hides in a hollow oak, taking shelter in what remains. The tree that should have been the kingdom's strength is now just a place to hide from the storm.

Lear tried to be a king without being rooted. He learned what happens when you pull up the oak and expect the kingdom to stand.

Special thanks to longtime CSF supporter and thespian Chuck Wilcox for voicing the part of The Bard in our video series. Full production credits available here. All photos copyright Colorado Shakespeare Group except those in the public domain, published under Creative Commons (CC) licensing. For more information on (CC) artwork in this video, click here.

Enjoy this slideshow of the plants we have in our King Lear garden: