King Lear is a play about what comes next. Will the next generation transform the work of the previous generation and bring greater glory to the kingdom? Or will the next generation squander its inheritance and lose everything the older generation gained?
The play’s final lines offer an answer.
The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
Edgar and Albany rule a world in decline. Their lives will be shorter. Consequently, they will lack the experience necessary to gain wisdom, the hallmark of old age. Edgar is a substitute king, and Albany is his makeshift prophetic fool. Kent, the priest or guarder of boundaries, departs for new lands.
William Elton argues compellingly for King Lear’s ultimate skepticism. Elton contends that the structure of the play reinforces Lear’s theological ambivalence. “No future!” Lear despairs. His skepticism is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But we need not equate Lear’s view with Shakespeare’s.
The play dramatizes the connection between worldview and succession. Nothing will come from nihilism, Shakespeare warns. Speak again.
Experiments in Criticism 