Regan (King Lear) Regan (King Lear) 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", ) 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
The History of King Lear altogether, and played Lear from a shortened and rearranged version of Shakespeare's text, with which he was later to tour New York, and which included the Fool and the tragic ending. The production was successful, and marked the end of Tate's reign in the English theatre, though it was not until 1845 that Samuel Phelps restored the complete, original Shakespearean text. In spite of Macready's visit to New York with his production of a restored Shakespeare version, Tate remained the standard version in the United States until 1875, when Edwin Booth became the first notable American actor to play Lear