Regan (King Lear)
| Regan | |
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| King Lear character | |
Goneril and Regan by Edwin Austin Abbey
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| Created by | William Shakespeare |
Regan is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragic play, King Lear, named after a King of the Britons recorded by the medieval scribe Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Shakespeare based the character on Regan, a personage described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical chronicle Historia regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1138) as one of the British king Lear's three daughters, alongside Goneril and Cordeilla (the source for Cordelia), and the mother of Cunedagius.
She is the middle child of King Lear's daughters and is married to the Duke of Cornwall. Similarly to her older sister, Goneril, Regan is attracted to Edmund. Both sisters are eager for power and even convince their father with false flattery to hand over his kingdom.
"Sir, I am made
Of the self same metal that my sister is,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart,
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short, that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses,
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness' love."
-Regan's falsely flattering speech to King Lear, King Lear 1.1.67–74.
Later in the play, Lear leaves his kingdom to live with Goneril. She rejects him. After Lear leaves Goneril's house, he asks Regan to take him in. She tells him he has too many servants and knights, just as Goneril had. Unwilling to budge, Regan drives Lear out into the storm.
In Act 3, Scene 7, after learning that the Earl of Gloucester has helped Lear escape to Dover, Regan, Goneril, and the Duke of Cornwall discuss what Gloucester's fate should be. While Regan suggests that they "hang him instantly," (3.7. 4), Goneril orders that his eyes be plucked out. After Goneril and Edmund leave, Regan watches as her husband plucks out Gloucester's eyes. When a servant attempts to stop the Duke of Cornwall, Regan kills him. She then leads her wounded husband offstage, where he dies.
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