Interesting facts about "King Lear"

Hi, everyone! I would like to share some interesting facts that I found about King Lear with you. I am only posting the most appealing ones, so if you want to read the others, you can check the references.

First of all, King Lear was written between 1603 and 1606—and rewritten many times. In the article 5 Interesting Facts about Shakespeare's King Lear, Makham states that it is known that there were four versions of this play: the 1608 First Quarto; the 1608 Second Quarto; the 1623 First Folio; and the 1632 Second Folio. It is important to define the words quarto and folio because I have never seen them before. Oxford Dictionary defines quarto as “a book with pages in quarto—a size of page made by folding a standard sheet of paper twice to make eight pages—size. In addition, folio is defined as “a book made with large sheets of paper, especially as used in early printing.”

Going back to the previous point, the modern text of King Lear is a combination of the two quartos and the first folio. This combination was made by early editors, such as Alexander Pope, and every version differs from the others.

Moreover, Nahum Tate—an Irish poet—thought that Shakespeare’s interpretation of the play was too catastrophic, so he created a happier ending. In this version, Lear and Cordelia survive, and Cordelia marries Edgar. Interestingly, Tate’s King Lear was THE version during a century and a half.

Another fact is that like many other Shakespeare’s plays, this plot is based on other stories. As Makham reveals, the basis of King Lear came from the “semi-legendary Celtic tale of Leir of Britain.”

Now, in the article Did you know…?, Bradley and Worthington tell that King George III—king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 until 1820—suffered from insanity; as a consequence, all performances of King Lear, in which the king was also insane, were banned from the stage. The authors also add that during the Renaissance period, the King was seen as a “God on Earth,” and it was the Court Jester—the fool—who was in charge of entertaining him and reminding him of his humanity. In this play, things happen just like that: the Fool is the person who cautions the King about the results of his actions.

Finally, I would like to tell you that the fact that really caught my attention was the one about King George III since I had never thought about the consequences of a play. In this case, it would have been disrespectful to show the king a play about what he was actually living. It could have seen as an offense against King George III.

Classmates, what do you think about these “interesting facts”? Do you know any other?

Javiera Francisca Ramírez Cornejo.

References:

Bradley, Kathleen, and Suzanne Worthington. “Did you know…?” Royal Shakespeare Company. n.d. Web. 19 November 2014.

Markham, S.A. “5 Interesting Facts About Shakespeare's King Lear.” What’s it all about, Shakespeare? 19 May 2014. Web. 18 November 2014.