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.
The Story, Told in Plants
King Lear is crowned with weeds — burdock, hemlock, nettles, darnel — the plants that choke a harvest, now choking a king. The Fool sees it clearly: both daughters are crab-apples, and neither one is sweet.
This video was created by members of the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens and narrated by longtime CSF actor Chuck Wilcox.
For more information on (CC) artwork in this video, click here.
Not every plant Shakespeare mentioned will grow in Colorado.
These are the ones that do; currently growing in our King Lear garden.
Curious about a specific plant? Visit our Plant Library for the full story.
