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.
Hi Javi
ResponderEliminarI really enjoyed your post it is very interesting, what caught my attention was fact number 3.
I think William Shakespeare wrote the end because of a reason and do not need a happy ending at all, maybe that is the main idea, but anyway it is good to know that you have the chance to smile at the end of a Shakespeare's play.
To be honest, king liar is not my favourite book but after you have started reading it you can't stop, it caught me and it is good to know interesting facts about it.