"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive". Sir Walter Scott may not have intended to describe the tangled web of secrets that fuels Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear", but it certainly applies. Secrets come in many shapes and sizes, and in works of literature they can be categorized as either secrets that are unknown to the reader or secrets that unknown to the characters. In "King Lear", the secrets are kept from the characters. As in many great tragedies, it is the secrets in Shakespeare's "King Lear" that cause the tragedy to occur. In the first scene of "King Lear", Lear tells his youngest daughter that "nothing will come of nothing", referring to her