A Routledge literary sourcebook on William Shakespeare's King Lear / edited by Grace Ioppolo.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ioppolo, Grace, 1956-

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Routledge literary sourcebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear.

Shakespeare, William.

Lear, King of England (Legendary character)--In literature.

Lear.

Tragedy.

Physical Description:

xii, 192 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

This Sourcebook discusses and examines "King Lear" within its literary and cultural contexts, bringing together material on: contemporary documents surrounding "King Lear"; performance history; early critical reception from major critics; twentieth-century criticism and key passages. All documents are discussed and explained. The volume also offers carefully annotated key passages from the novel itself and concludes with a list of recommended editions and further reading, to allow readers to pursue their study in the areas that interest them most.

Contents:

1 Contexts

Sources of King Lear 19

Primary Sources 19

From Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1135) 19

From Raphael Holinshed, The Historie of England (1587) 23

From Anonymous, The True Chronicle Historie of King Leir and his three daughters (1605) 25

Secondary Sources 32

From John Higgins, The First Parte of the Mirour for Magistrates (1574) 32

From Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1596) 36

From Sir Philip Sidney, The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia (1590) 38

From Samuel Harsnett, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603) 40

From James I, The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598) 40

From James I, Basilikon Doron (1603) 41

2 Interpretations

Critical History 45

Early Critical Reception 48

From Charles Gildon, 'Remarks on the Plays of Shakespear' (1710) 48

From Lewis Theobald, Notes on King Lear (1733) 48

From Samuel Johnson, Notes on King Lear (1765) 49

From Charles Lamb, 'On the Tragedies of Shakespeare' (1810) 50

From William Hazlitt, 'Characters of Shakespear's Plays: King Lear' (1817) 51

From Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Records of his Lecture on King Lear (1819) 53

John Keats, 'On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again' (1818) 53

Modern Criticism 55

From A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth (1904) 55

From Jan Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1967) 56

From Peter Brook, The Empty Space (1968) 58

From R. A. Foakes, Hamlet versus Lear: Cultural Politics and Shakespeare's Art (1993) 59

From Kathleen McLuskie, 'The Patriarchal Bard' (1985) 60

From Coppelia Kahn, 'The Absent Mother in King Lear' (1986) 62

From Michael Warren, 'General Introduction', William Shakespeare: The Complete King Lear 1608-1623 (1989) 64

From Terence Hawkes, William Shakespeare: King Lear (1995) 65

The Work in Performance 67

King Lear on Stage 67

King Lear on Screen 70

1681-1834: Tate's King Lear in Performance 75

From Nahum Tate, The History of King Lear (1681) 75

From Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies (1784) 76

From Elizabeth Inchbald, Comments on King Lear; a Tragedy in Five Acts (1807) 77

From George Daniel, King Lear: A Tragedy in Five Acts, by William Shakespeare (1830) 78

The Nineteenth Century: The Return of Shakespeare's King Lear to the Stage 79

From [William] Macready's Reminiscences, and Selections from his Diaries and Letters (1876) 79

Henry Irving, Preface to King Lear: A Tragedy in Five Acts (1892) 81

Modern Performance: Traditional and Radical King Lear 81

From Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare (1927) 81

From John Gielgud, An Actor and His Time (1981) 82

From Ivor Brown, 'The Old Vic King Lear' (1946) 84

From Richard Eyre and Nicholas Wright, Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century (2000) 85

From Dennis Kennedy, 'King Lear and the Theatre' (1976) 85

From Grigori Kozintsev, King Lear: The Space of Tragedy. The Diary of a Film Director (1973) 88

From Edward Bond, Lear (1971) 89

From Antony Sher, Beside Myself: An Autobiography (2001) 90

From Alastair Macaulay, Review of the Royal National Theatre's production of King Lear (1997) 92

3 Key Passages

Synopsis of the Play 96

Key Passages 102

Act 1, Scene 1: Lear tests the love of his daughters 102

Act 1, Scene 1: Lear tests Cordelia 105

Act 1, Scene 1: Lear bargains with Cordelia's suitors 110

Act 1, Scene 1: Cordelia confronts Goneril and Regan 113

Act 1, Scene 2: Edmund deceives Gloucester 115

Act 1, Scene 2: Edmund deceives Edgar 119

Act 1, Scene 4: Lear meets the disguised Kent 121

Act 1, Scene 4: Lear is reunited with the Fool 123

Act 1, Scene 4: Goneril confronts Lear 126

Act 2, Scene 2: Kent insults Oswald and is stocked 129

Act 2, Scene 2: Lear finds Kent in the stocks 133

Act 2, Scene 2: Lear confronts Regan and Cornwall 135

Act 2, Scene 2: Goneril and Regan reject Lear 137

Act 3, Scene 2: Lear goes mad on the health 141

Act 3, Scene 4: Lear meets Tom of Bedlam 144

Act 3, Scene 6: Lear's mock-trial of Goneril and Regan 147

Act 3, Scene 7: Gloucester's blinding 149

Act 4, Scene 1: Edgar finds his father 154

Act 4, Scene 2: Albany confronts Goneril 157

Act 4, Scene 6: Gloucester and Edgar reach Dover 158

Act 4, Scene 6: Gloucester and Edgar find Lear 162

Act 4, Scene 7: Lear is reunited with Cordelia 165

Act 5, Scene 3: Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned 168

Act 5, Scene 3: The death of Edmund, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and Lear 173

General studies of the play 184

On the play in performance 185

On textual matters including authorial revision and printing history 185.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [183]-187) and index.

ISBN:

0415234719

0415234727

OCLC:

50960700