*     When King Lear proposes “our darker purpose” as the 
subdivision of his kingdom, he is expressing a politically daring 
and avant-garde intent for the early seventeenth century:

                                         Only we still retain
     The name, and all th’ additions to a king. The sway,
     Revenue, execution of the rest,
     Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm, 
     This coronet part betwixt you. (1)

Lear is proposing an extremely modern idea of delegation of 
authority from centre to margins. His “darker purpose” would 
have been recognized at once as left-wing Machiavellianism by 
an Elizabethan audience. The new patterns of power and 
organization which had been discussed during the preceding 
century were now, in the early seventeenth century, being felt