Dec 26, 2009

King Lear | A Brief Critical History of King Lear

In this essay, P. Pick discusses the major critical assessments of King Lear over the centuries, from Nahum Tate through A. C. Bradley, Samuel Johnson, G. Wilson Knight, and more. What did these giants of literary criticism think of King Lear?

King Lear was written in 1604 or 1605, as far as can be established. It certainly incorporates material from Samuel Harsnett's A Declaration of Several Popish Impostures, London, (1603), an exposure of a fraudulent case of spirit possession, and it was registered with the Company of Stationers on 26th November 1607. The Quarto was published by Nathaniel Butler at the sign of the Pied Bull in 1608, and a significantly different version included in the Folio of 1623.

King Lear was rewritten in 1681, twenty-one years after the re-introduction of the Monarchy. The...