"King Lear"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines textual and historical connections in William Shakespeare's "King Lear", including a look at the "happy ending" version of 1681, connecting the play to some of Shakespeare's other tragedies and evaluating its significance in a modern context. It looks at how much has also been made of the fact that King Lear can be read as either a tragedy or a comedy and why Shakespeare chose to let Cordelia die giving "King Lear" a tragic ending, and not as in Nahum Tate's revisionist version a happy one.

From the Paper:

"King Lear, as G.B. Harrison notes, is "well known. It was one of many fables which old chroniclers inserted in the dark background of the times before the recorded history of England begins." (Harrison 17) The story concerns King Lear (or Leir, in many of the versions) and his three daughters. An earlier version of the play, The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, Gonorill, Ragan and Cordella, was staged at the Rose Theatre in April 1594, and published in book form in 1605 (Harrison 18)."

More papers on "King Lear":

• Analytical Essay # 119804 : "The Destruction of the Body Politic in "King Lear"
• Persuasive Essay # 142304 : "Editing King Lear"
• Analytical Essay # 36062 : "King Lear"
• Analytical Essay # 4576 : "Madness in "King Lear"

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