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King Lear

Written: 1605/06; Texts: Quartos 1608, 1619, First Folio 1623 (Tragedy)
SourcesThe True Chronicle History of King Leir (c. 1590); Holinshed, Raphael (c. 1528-c. 1580). The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. (2nd ed., 1587); Sidney, Philip (1554-86). The Arcadia (1590); Spenser, Edmund (c.1552-99). The Faerie Queene (1590)
Characters: King Lear, Edgar, Earl of Kent, Earl of Gloucester, Edmund, Regan, Goneril, Fool, Cordelia, Duke of Albany
Setting: England
Time: c. Eighth Century


Like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, the texts of King Lear differ in the First Folio from what was written in the previous quartos. The first quarto of Lear contains about 300 lines not in the First Folio. And the Fool's prophesy in Act 3, Scene 2 of the Folio does not appear in the quarto. Even the endings of the two editions are different.

Scholars point to a couple of bits of evidence to date Shakespeare's authorship of the play. First, the play was recorded in the Stationers' Register on November 26, 1607. The entry mentions, “…as yt was played before the Kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon Sainct Stephens night at Christmas Last.” That would have been December 26, 1606. The first quarto edition was not published however until 1608. The latter part of 1606 then is the latest date it may have been written. Another piece of evidence scholars point to is the reference in Act 1, Scene 2, “…these late eclipses in the sun and moon.” Such eclipses actually occurred in September and October, 1605. Shakespeare occasionally inserted contemporary references into his plays. Henry V and Romeo and Juliet contain similar allusions. So the latter months of 1605 appear to be the earliest dates King Lear may have been written, especially when one of the sources is taken into account.

The sources of Shakespeare's Lear give clues to the dating of his writing. The legends and folk tales of an ancient king and three daughters go back centuries to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae in the twelfth century and later to Holinshed's Chronicles. But the most immediate source of Shakespeare's Lear would have been the play The True Chronicle History of King Leir. This play whose author is unknown was entered in the Stationers' Register in 1594 and performed by Philip Henslowe's company that same year. It was not printed until 1605 when Shakespeare might have read it. Shakespeare, like his contemporaries, was not above stealing other authors' materials but to his credit he always improved them.

For example, Shakespeare brilliantly interweaves into his Lear the story of Gloucester and his sons Edgar and Edmund, which did not appear in the former Leir. Instead, Shakespeare stole that piece from Philip Sidney's The Arcadia. In addition, Shakespeare added the business about Lear's madness, which Lear's daughters attributed to his old age. Some scholars suggest that Lear's condition may be a form of dementia. That interpretation suffers from the fact that in the play Lear is cured of his madness. Finally, Shakespeare gives his Lear a tragic, not a happy, ending, which adds depth and poignancy to the play. And of course the poetry of Shakespeare's language and the complexity of his characters transcend the previous play.

Lear: Act One Scene One

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King Lear’s first scene is notable in its length and structure. At over 300 lines, with more characters on stage than in all but the last scene of the play, and being divided into three sub-scenes, this first scene is almost a play in itself.

It begins, as do so many of Shakespeare’s plays,
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Demons & Madness

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Passages with obscure references send scholars on treasure hunts in search of the influences on Shakespeare’s works. In King Lear, Act 3 Scene 6, one such hunt starts with the question, “Who were Frateretto and Hoppedance, or Purr the cat for that matter?” Turns out that in 1603, Samuel Harsnett, the Vicar of Chigwell, wrote a short tract titled, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures,
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I thought the King had more affected the Duke

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Kent
I thought the King had more affected the Duke
of Albany than Cornwall.
Gloucester
It did always seem so to us, but now in
the division of the kingdom, it appears not which
of the dukes he values most, for equalities are so
weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice
of either’s moiety.
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Act 1
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Lear: Act One Scene One

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose

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Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.—
Give me the map there. He is handed a map.
Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom, and ’tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
Unburdened crawl toward death.

Which of you shall we say doth love us most,
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Act 1
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Lear: Act One Scene One

Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first

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King Lear
Goneril,
Our eldest born, speak first.
Goneril
Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty,
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare,
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;
As much as child e’er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor,
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Act 1
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Now, our joy, Although our last and least

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King Lear
Now, our joy,
Although our last and least, to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interessed, what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters’? Speak.

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

Cordelia
Nothing, my lord.
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Royal Lear, Whom I have ever honored as my king

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Kent
Royal Lear,
Whom I have ever honored as my king,
Loved as my father, as my master followed,
As my great patron thought on in my prayers—
King Lear
The bow is bent and drawn. Make from the shaft.

Be Kent unmannerly
When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
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Act 1
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For you, great king, I would not from your love make such a stray

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Lear
For you, great king,
I would not from your love make such a stray
To match you where I hate. Therefore beseech you
T’ avert your liking a more worthier way
Than on a wretch whom Nature is ashamed
Almost t’ acknowledge hers.

Love’s not love
When it is mingled with regards that stands
Aloof from th’ entire point.
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Act 1
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Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor

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France
Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor;
Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised,
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon,
Be it lawful I take up what’s cast away.

Gods, gods! ‘Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect
My love should kindle to enflamed respect.

Gods, gods! ‘Tis strange that from their cold’st neglect
My love should kindle to enflamed respect.—
Thy dowerless daughter,
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Bid farewell to your sisters

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France
Bid farewell to your sisters.
Cordelia
The jewels of our father, with washed eyes
Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are,
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named. Love well our father.

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides,
Who covers faults at last with shame derides.
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Lear: Act One Scene One

Thou, Nature, art my goddess

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Thou, Nature, art my goddess. To thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? why “bastard”? Wherefore “base,”
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue?
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Edmund, how now? What news?

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Gloucester
Edmund, how now? What news?
Edmund
So please your Lordship, none.
He puts a paper in his pocket.
Gloucester
Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter?
Edmund
I know no news, my lord.
Gloucester
What paper were you reading?
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Act 1
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