Albany

Play

King Lear

Summary

Albany is Goneril's husband, initially a peripheral and somewhat passive figure whom Goneril despises as milk-livered. As the play darkens, however, he grows into moral seriousness — confronting Goneril's cruelty, opposing the treatment of Lear, and ultimately commanding the British forces against the French. He is one of the survivors at the play's end, left to help restore order to a devastated kingdom, and in many editions speaks the final lines.

Notable Quotations

"Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; / Filths savour but themselves." *(IV.2)*

"She that herself will sliver and disbranch / From her material sap, perforce must wither / And come to deadly use." *(IV.2)*

Cross-references

• King Lear — the play
• Tragedies
• character_goneril — his wife, whose villainy he comes to oppose
• character_lear — the king whose wrongs he eventually resists