| Description | | - Selling points:
- King Lear is a play that Shakespeare himself radically revised: returning to the earlier, Quarto text this edition presents the play in the form closest to Shakespeare's original conception, and to the original performances of the play.
- Edited by Stanley Wells, one of the world's foremost Shakespeare scholars and editors.
- Supplies not only an account of the play's sources and performance history but fascinating information on the wealth of other works, from ballads to ballets, derived from it.
| King Lear
, widely considered Shakespeare's most deeply moving, passionately expressed, and intellectually ambitious play, has almost always been edited from the revised version printed in the First Folio of 1623, with additions from the quarto of 1608. Acting on recent discoveries, this volume presents the first full, scholarly edition to be based firmly on the quarto, now recognized as the
base text from which all others derive. A thorough, attractively written introduction suggests how the work grew slowly in Shakespeare's imagination, fed by years of reading, thinking, and experience as a practical dramatist. Analysis of the great range of literary and other sources from which he shaped the tragedy, and of its critical and theatrical history, indicates that the play felt as
shocking and original to early audiences as it does now. Its challenges have often been evaded, notably in Nahum Tate's notorious adaptation. During the twentieth century, however, deeper understanding of the conventions of Shakespeare's theatre restored confidence in the theatrical viability of his original text, while the play has also generated a remarkable range of offshoots in film,
television, the visual arts, music, and literature.
The commentary to this edition offers detailed help in understanding the language and dramaturgy in relation to the theatres in which King Lear was first performed. Additional sections reprint the early ballad, ignored by all modern editors, which was among its earliest derivatives, and provide additional guides to understanding and
appreciating one of the greatest masterworks of Western civilization.
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Readership: Undergraduates, scholars, teachers of Shakespeare, theatregoers and all interested in reading and watching Shakespeare plays.
| Contents |
List of Illustrations
Introduction
What Shakespeare Wrote
When Shakespeare Wrote King Lear
Where the Play Came From: Legend, King Leir, Arcadia, Other Sources
Shaping the Play
The Play's Language
Early Performance
King Lear as a Text for Readers
Performance Texts of King Lear
Nahum Tate's Adaptation
Return to Shakespeare
Interpretation in Performance
Textual Introduction and Editorial Procedures
Abbreviations and References
KING LEAR
The Ballad of King Lear
Offshoots of King Lear
Alterations to Lineation
Index
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
William Shakespeare
Edited by Stanley Wells, Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Professor, University of Birmingham (Emeritus)
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The specification in this catalogue, including without
limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations,
and month of publication, was as accurate as
possible at the time the catalogue was compiled.
Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we
are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory.
Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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