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"Ay,
every inch a king."
The following books will introduce you to King Lear, who said
these words in Shakespeare's King Lear, Act IV, scene
vi.
To order a book, or for more information, visit Amazon.com,
or return home to browse other
characters.
- Shakespeare, William. The
Tragedy of King Lear (New Folger Shakespeare
Library). New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.
- Authoritative, paperback text with helpful notes
on facing pages.
- Hazlitt, William. Characters of Shakespeare's Plays.
Oxford University Press, 1971.
- First appearing in 1817, these essays are classic
analyses of Shakespeare's major characters. He
pronounced Lear "the best of all
Shakespeare's plays." (See also A. C.
Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy under Othello.)
- Bloom, Harold (Ed.). William
Shakespeare's King Lear (Modern Critical
Interpretations). Chelsea House, 1987.
- Critical extracts and essays offer the best of
modern Lear criticism.
- Kishi, T., Pringle, R., and Wells, S. (Eds.). Shakespeare
and Cultural Traditions. Newark: University of
Delaware Press, 1994.
- Adaptations of Shakespeare's plays continue to
surface in various forms (e.g., opera, film,
literature) around the world.
- Parsons, K. and Mason, P. (Eds.). Shakespeare in
Performance. London: Salamander Books, 1995.
- Lavishly illustrated performance history of how,
when, and who in performance of the Bard.
Delightful, perplexing tidbits such as the
appalling fact that Shakespeare's Lear was
supplanted on the stage for 150 years by an
inferior adaptation by Nahum Tate (see next
ref.).
- Tate, Nahum. The History of King Lear (J. Black,
Ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
- Samuel Johnson, wise in most other matters,
endorsed Tate's 1681 revision, which provided King
Lear with a mawkish happy ending in which
Cordelia and Edgar marry and rule together, while
Lear enjoys a contented retirement!
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