King Lear

Written: 1605/06; Texts: Quartos 1608, 1619, First Folio 1623 (Tragedy)
Sources: The 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.