The Tragedy of King Lear

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
1 The title page of the 1605 quarto of King Leir, as reproduced in the Malone Society reprint (1907)
2 The title page of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1590), as reproduced in the edition by Albert Feuillerat (1939)
3 A possible staging of Act 3, Scene 4: Edgar as Tom o'Bedlam. Drawing by C. Walter Hodges
4 A possible staging of Act 4, Scene 5: Gloucester's 'suicide' leap. Drawing by C. Walter Hodges
5 'Hark in thine ear' (4.5.146): Paul Scofield as King Lear and Alan Webb as Gloucester in the production directed by Peter Brook, 1962
6 Lear and Cordelia: 'Is this the promised end?' Painting by Maciek Swieszewski
7 A possible staging of Act 1, Scene 1, and of Act 5, Scene 3: Lear and his daughters. Drawing by C. Walter Hodges
8 Susanna Maria Cibber as Cordelia in the storm saved by Edgar from Edmond's ruffians (Tate's adaptation), c. 1743
9 Garrick as King Lear, with Kent and Edgar in the storm and no Fool, as portrayed in the painting by Benjamin Wilson, 1761
10 John Gielgud as Lear and Alan Badel as the Fool, in Anthony Quayle's production, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1950 (Angus McBean)
11 Act 1, Scene 1: Peter Brook's Royal Shakespeare Company production, with Paul Scofield as Lear, 1962 (Angus McBean)
12 Antony Sher as the Fool in the oil drum (left) and Michael Gambon as Lear, in the Royal Shakespeare Company production, 1982
13 Linda Kerr Scott as the Fool and John Wood as King Lear, in Nicholas Hytner's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1990
14 David Calder as Kent, Ian Hughes as the Fool, Simon Russell Beale as Edgar, Robert Stephens as King Lear, in the 1993 Royal Shakespeare Company production, directed by Adrian Noble. Malcolm Davies Collection.
15 Monique Holt as Cordelia and Floyd King as Lear's Fool in the Shakespeare Theatre's 1999 production of King Lear, directed by Michael Kahn.
16 A page from the original typescript of The Rose Tattoo, by Tennessee Williams
17 A page from The Rose Tattoo, Act 1
Preface
Abbreviations and Conventions
1. Shakespeare's plays
2. Other works cited and general references
Introduction
Date and sources of Shakespeare's King Lear
King Lear: Date of Composition and First Performance
The Playwright's Reading
The True Chronicle History
Foolish Fond Old Man: Fathers and Daughters
Foolish Fond Old Man: Fathers and Sons
The Theatre of Folly
The Theatre of Exorcism
The Theatre of the Blind
Salt and Cinderella
The Tragedy of King Lear
Fragmentary Recollections
The Theatre of the Bible
The play
Act I, Scene I and Its Aftermath
The Gloucester Plot
The Mad Scenes in Act 3
Gloucester's Despair and Edgar's Ministry
King Lear and Gloucester at Dover
Revelation, Reconciliation, and Death
Shakespeare's Evolving Vision
Promised and Disappointed Endings
Conclusion
King Lear on stage and screen
Finding the Text: King Lear from the Restoration to the Nineteenth Century
Finding the Set Design
Finding the Characters and the Overall Interpretation
King Lear Abroad
King Lear on Screens Large and Small
Edward Bond's Lear
Recent stage, film, and critical interpretations
Textual analysis, part 1
The Q Text
The F Text
The Copy for F
F and Q Transmission
The Nature of Interventions
Omissions and Cuts
Amplifications and Additions
Rewriting, Substitution, and Recasting
The Timing of Interventions
Pre-performance alterations
Playhouse adaptations
Preparation for publication
The Textual Data and Editorial Procedure
Quarto and Folio compared: some parallel passages
Note on the text
List of characters
THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR
Act 1
1
2
3
4
5
Act 2
1
2
3
4
Act 3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Act 4
1
2
3
4
5
6
Act 5
1
2
3
Textual analysis, part 2
Q-only passages
F-only passages
Conclusions
Appendix: Passages unique to the first quarto
Reading List