Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires,
Men so disordered, so debauched and bold,
That this our court, infected with their manners,
Shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism and lust
Makes it more like a tavern or a brothel
Than a graced palace.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4. Goneril uses some colorful similes to complain about Lear’s knights and squires turning her home into something like an inn or a brothel. Her complaints about the faults in others will later appear very ironic in view of her own serious character flaws. Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Shakespearean actor Corin Redgrave said: "Lear, I decided, surrounds himself with a retinue of 100 knights in order to form a shield of masculinity around himself. Goneril instinctively recognises this. Both Goneril and Regan know that this protection must be torn away if they are to establish their ascendancy over their father."