King LearBroadview Press, 2010 M07 10 - 240 pages The text of the play included here, prepared by Craig Walker for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, has been acclaimed for its outstanding introductory material and annotations, and for its inclusion of parellel text versions of key scenes for which the texts of the Quarto and the Folio versions of the play are substantially different. Also included in this edition are excerpts from a variety of literary source materials (including Geoffrey on Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, the anonymous True Chronicle Historie of King Leir, and Samuel Harsnett’s A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures); material on the historical Annesley case that raised many of the same issues as does Shakespeare’s play; and the happy ending from Nahum Tate’s version of the play, which held the stage for 150 years after its first performance in 1681. |
From inside the book
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... Gloucester is blinded but spared death. Cordelia loves not the King of France but Edgar, whom she marries at the end of the play, the pair becoming the new monarchs of Britain while Lear goes off into a happy retirement with his friends ...
... Gloucester, Edmund, and Edgar (which is based on that of the King of Paphlagonia and his sons, Plexirtus and Leonatus, in Philip Sidney's Arcadia) was added by Shakespeare to the plot of King Leir. It is the most highly developed ...
... Gloucester's case, for example, adds to our understanding of Lear's. Gloucester's loss of sight and Lear's loss of reason each gain in force for being juxtaposed with one another. The bleak vision that Lear gives voice to is echoed by ...
... Gloucester, but in the Folio it is assigned to Cordelia. Whoever says the line, the same information is given to Lear, but it makes a difference to the way in which we may interpret the character of Cordelia whether the announcement is ...
... , and for the scenes in which the degree of divergence between the two is greatest both versions are provided on facing pages. Earl of Kent Earl of Gloucester Edgar, Gloucester's elder son, 20 william shakespeare King Lear.