Hierarchical collection of pages (posts) for King Lear, including material for McKellen film, the play itself, background on the play, creative engagement with the play, educational material for teaching the play, and ways to have fun with the play.
Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100—c. 1155), an English bishop and scholar, wrote what he called a translation of an ancient history of English kings which told largely legendary stories of English kings from the original Brutus, held to be a descendant of ...
Shakespeare borrowed plots and ideas from other material for the bulk of his writing. His two long poems tell old tales, and only four of the commonly recognized 38 plays have no known single-organizing precedent (Love’s Labor Lost, Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale, Tempest). ...
This full text version of King Lear is divided into 40 short scenes or scene segments. Each segment includes the corresponding clip from the Ian McKellen film. Any scene or segment may be linked from the table below. Segment Description Notation How this edition of ...
Kent encounters the knight or gentleman to whom he entrusted messages in Act III, who discloses that the King of France has returned to France to cure some imperfection in the state, leaving his army in the hands of the Marshal of France (about whom ...
Organization This web edition of King Lear uses primarily the Folio (F) text of 1623 as a basis, but it adds several longer passages and one entire scene from the Quarto (Q) text of 1608. It also adds or substitutes several individual words or phrases ...
King Lear Goneril His eldest daughter Regan His middle daughter Cordelia His youngest daughter Albany, Duke of Goneril’s husband Cornwall, Duke of Regan’s husband Gloucester, Duke of (pronounced “Gloster”) Edgar His legitimate son Edmund His bastard son (later called “Gloucester” himself after he usurps his ...
Act IV has been relatively static. Except for the swordfight between Edgar and Oswald, the act is devoted to mental recovery, reconciliation, and preparation for the end. By comparison, Act V moves along at a swift and violent pace. The rivalry between Goneril and Regan ...
All the forces that play themselves out in Acts IV and V have been put in place and complicated to some degree by the end of Act III. While Lear’s problems have occupied the foreground until the blinding of Gloucester ending the act, we have ...
ACT I Shakespeare’s four most famous tragedies each have radically different dramatic structures compared to the others. Othello, perhaps the most perfectly structured of the group, or any group, goes together like a jeweler’s watch, each microscopic part building to the one climatic moment when ...
The Two Texts of King Lear--The Quarto of 1608 and the Folio of 1623 An aging King Lear decides to abdicate and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. He seeks a kind of oath of love before doing so, with which Goneril and Regan ...
