Regan (King Lear) measure of pain that others are prepared to inflict; her mind itself is a lynch mob" (291). 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
King Lear in "King Lear". Other possible sources are the anonymous play "King Leir" (published in 1605); "The Mirror for Magistrates" (1574), by John Higgins; "The Malcontent" (1604), by John Marston; "The London Prodigal" (1605); Montaigne's "Essays", which were translated into English by John Florio in 1603; "An Historical Description of Iland of Britaine" (1577), by William Harrison; "Remaines Concerning Britaine" (1606), by William Camden; "Albion's England" (1589), by William Warner; and "A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures" (1603), by Samuel Harsnett, which provided some of the language used by Edgar while he feigns madness. "King Lear" is also a literary variant