Background and Summary of King Lear :: Essays Papers

Background and Summary of King Lear Background of King LearKing Lear was written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered to be Shakespeares greatest tragedy. The main plot was drawn from an sometime(a) chronicle chat up called The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his trine Daughters, supple workforceted by treatments of that story in Raphael Holinsheds Chronicle of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Spensers The Faerie Queen, and perhaps others. The subplot of Gloucester and his twain sons comes from Sir Philip Sidneys popular romance The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia. Shakespeare also makes considerable use of Samuel Harsnetts Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures (1603) for Edgars language of demonic possession as Poor tomcat and the mock exorcism he cogitations to cure the blinded Gloucesters despair. The mash was performed December 26, 1606, for King James, as part of the courts Christmastide celebrations, as well as on the public stage at the Globe. Recoiling from the bleakness of the plays tragic vision, Naham Tate revise it in 1681, providing interpolated love scenes between Edgar and Cordelia and a happy ending in which Lear and Cordelia survive his version held the stage for a century and a half. Dr. Samuel Johnson and the romanticistic poets testified to the original plays greatness--Shelley terming it the most perfect specimen of dramatic poetry be in the world--but they also began a critical tradition that judged the work too large and sublime for the stage. Lear has, however, proved notably successful in the modern theatre, accustomed to nonrealistic stage techniques and Samuel Becketts apocalyptic dramas as well as to the contemporary horrors of concentration camp and Gulag. - Norton, 888Summary of King LearACT IThis tragedy play tells of the downfall of King Lear and the death of his daughter Cordelia. The play begins with the previous(a) Lear, deciding to retire, plans to divide his kingdom between his three daughters Goner il, Regan, and Cordelia.. With his daughters and men gathered around him, Lear asks his daughters, Which of you shall we say doth love us most? (Act I, image 1. 43). Both Goneril and Regan reply with flattering words of love which satisfied their old father, in turn he gave each of them a third of his kingdom. Cordelia, Lears favorite(a) daughter, answers with words from her heart, saying that she loves him as much as he love her and as she should. However, Lear sees her words as disrespectful and demands Cordelia to reply again same(p) how her sisters did, with flattering words.