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Sites about King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s tragedy in which a king divides his kingdom between his scheming two oldest daughters and estranges himselffrom Cordelia, the daughter who actually loves him. The king andmany of the characters pay for their shortcomings — madness, murder, and forgiveness that arrives too late combine to make this an all-embracing tragedy of evil and suffering.

Characters: King Lear, Cordelia, Goneril, Regan, Fool

Critical sites about King Lear

Edgar and Kingship in the Three King Lears

http://www.marshall.edu/english/OVSC/SR1999.html#_Edgar_and_Kingship

Compares three King Lear texts (Folio, Quatro &Tate) in order to formulate “a picture of what Shakespeare�s Edgar struggles to achieve: the controlled but creative histionicsnecessary to Seventeenth Century kingship. “

Contains: Character Analysis, Content Analysis,

Author: Abraham Stoll

From: Selected Papers of the West Virginia Shakespeare and Renaissance Association Volume 22,1999

Keywords:

 

King Lear in Its Own Time: The Difference that Death Makes

http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/01-1/schnlear.html

This paper discusses the relationship between Shakespeare’s work and the living conditions and moral codes of his time, arguing that modern readers must understand these conditions as necessary to his work.

Contains: Historical Context

Author: Ben Ross Schneider, Jr.

From: Early Modern Literary Studies 1.1 (1995): 3.1-49

Keywords: New Historicist Criticism

 

The Lunar Calendar of Shakespeare’s King Lear

http://chass.utoronto.ca/emls/05-2/sohmlear.htm

“From his reading of Hall, William Shakespeare knew the historical King Leir hadflourished before the founding of Rome.This paper suggests that the playwrightconformed the action of his King Lear to a pre-Roman lunar calendar which he foundin Plutarch. Further, the writer demonstrates that Shakespeare drew upon hisknowledge of Ovid’s Fasti to memorialize several important Roman festivals in text ofLear. Finally, the paper detects a connection between the Roman Terminalia and SaintStephen’s night, and suggests that Shakespeare wrote (or extensively revised) the Q1Lear for performance before King James on 26 December 1606.”

Contains: Historical Context,

Author: Steve Sohmer

From: Early Modern Literary Studies 5.2 (September, 1999): 2.1-17

Keywords:

 

 
Other (non-critical) sites about King Lear

King Lear Plot Synopsis – Shakespeare Online

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plots/learps.html

Contains: Plot Summary

Author: Amanda Mabillard

From: Shakespeare Online

Author: Amanda Mabillard

From: Shakespeare Online

Keywords:

 

Last Updated Apr 29, 2013