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La conclusione tragica trae la sua forza proprio da una di queste discrepanze. La leggenda tradizionale e tutte le versioni precedenti a Shakespeare raccontano che Re Lear, riottenuto il trono, lo conserva finché "maturo per la morte" ([[Edmund Spencer]]). Cordelia, morte anche le sorelle, sale al trono come erede legittima, ma dopo pochi anni è spodestata e imprigionata dai nipoti, e finisce con l'uccidersi.
Shakespeare colpisce il pubblico portando in scena il Re smarrito ed esausto, con in braccio la figlia minore, morta. L'autore provoca il pubblico con la possibilità che ella sia ancora in vita, quando Lear dice "Questa piuma si muove; è viva!" Ma Cordelia è morta.
Questo era davvero troppo desolato perché alcuni potessero accettarlo, anche molti anni dopo. "Re Lear" all'inizio non ebbe successo nel teatro della [[Restaurazione inglese]] e solo con la versione a lieto fine di [[Nahum Tate]] del 1681 entrò a far parte del repertorio.
Questa versione, in cui Lear sopravvive e trionfa, e Cordelia sposa Edgar, fu rappresentata fino al 1838. [[Samuel Johnson]] sostenne questa versione nella sua edizione dei drammi shakespeariani (1875): "Cordelia, dal tempo di Tate, ha sempre concluso la sua vicenda felicemente. E, se il mio parere può aggiungere qualcosa al generale consenso, posso riferire che molti anni fa fui così turbato dalla morte di Cordelia che non so se ho mai più avuto la forza di leggere le ultime scene del dramma finché mi sono accinto a lavorare al'edizione critica".
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===Tragic ending===
[[Image:James Barry 002.jpg|thumb|''King Lear mourns Cordelia's death'', [[James Barry (painter)|James Barry]], 1786-1788]]
The [[adaptation]]s that Shakespeare made to the legend of King Lear to produce his tragic version are quite telling of the effect they would have had on his contemporary audience. The story of King Lear (or [[King Leir|Leir]]) was familiar to the average [[Elizabethan theatre]] goer (as were many of Shakespeare's sources) and any discrepancies between versions would have been immediately apparent.
Shakespeare's tragic conclusion gains its sting from such a discrepancy. The traditional legend and all [[adaptation]]s preceding Shakespeare's have it that after Lear is restored to the throne, he remains there until "made ripe for death" ([[Edmund Spencer]]). Cordelia, her sisters also deceased, takes the throne as rightful heir, but after a few years is overthrown and imprisoned by nephews, leading to her [[suicide]].
Shakespeare shocks his audience by bringing the worn and haggard Lear onto the stage, carrying his dead youngest daughter. He taunts them with the possibility that she may live yet with Lear saying, "This feather stirs; she lives!" But Cordelia is dead.
This was indeed too bleak for some to take, even many years later. ''King Lear'' was at first unsuccessful on the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] stage, and it was only with [[Nahum Tate]]'s happy-ending version of [[1681]] that it became part of the repertory. Tate's ''Lear'', where Lear survives and triumphs, and Edgar and Cordelia get married, held the stage until [[1838]]. [[Samuel Johnson]] endorsed the use of Tate's version in his edition of Shakespeare's plays ([[1765]]): "Cordelia, from the time of Tate, has always retired with victory and felicity. And, if my sensations could add anything to the general suffrage, I might relate that I was many years ago so shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not whether I ever endured to read again the last scenes of the play till I undertook to revise them as an editor".
===Cordelia and the Fool===
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