King Lear in Gilead

The last line of Gilead is ‘I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.’ I discovered this week that King Lear has exactly this line (including the comma). Ames is the anti-Lear though: old but sane; loving his family unconditionally but too poor to give them anything. For Ames the line sums up his life – putting religious work before physical comfort, and a life of prayer followed by the sleep of death. It works so poignantly as a last line for Ames because we know he’s close to death. Lear is one of the few who doesn’t die. Robinson did her PhD on Shakespeare. I’ve not noticed any other references to the bard in the novel (my ignorance) so I’m not sure this allusion could be pushed much further. (I’m hopeful somewhere there’s a novel that quotes Edgar from Lear ‘Now, gods, stand up for bastards’.)