Two noblemen, Kent and Gloucester, discuss a mysterious political change: the King plans to relinquish his power and divide his kingdom. Gloucester introduces Kent to his illegitimate son Edmund, making a few rude jokes about Edmund’s birth.

King Lear arrives and welcomes his family members: his eldest daughter Goneril and her husband Albany, his middle daughter Regan and her husband Cornwall, and his youngest unmarried daughter Cordelia. Lear announces he will “shake all cares and business from our age,/Conferring them on younger strengths while we/Unburdened crawl toward death” (39-41). He intends to divide his kingdom between his daughters and to marry Cordelia to one of two suitors, the King of France or the Duke of Burgundy.

Before relinquishing his kingdom, Lear insists that his daughters tell him: “Which of you shall we say doth love us most,/That we our largest bounty may extend/Where nature doth with merit challenge” (51-53).

The two eldest daughters take turns lavishly praising their father. Goneril goes first and shamelessly flatters him; Regan follows, saying that she loves her father as Goneril does, only even more. The youngest daughter, Cordelia, listens in horror to this insincere display.