Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon ‘s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies: and we’ll wear out,
In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by the moon.
– William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. Lear while in prison with Cordelia paints a fantasy vision of a blissful life far removed from political pressures. They will talk together about court gossip, who’s losing and winning, who’s in and out. They will ponder the mysteries of the universe as if they were God’s spies. In their prison they will outlive the great rulers and politicians whose power ebbs and flows like the tide, Lear says. The sad irony is that neither of them have very long to live. In the circumstances who would begrudge Lear his little flight from reality.