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- Title
The History of King Lear and the Problem of Belief.
- Authors
Davidson, Clifford
- Abstract
The article analyzes William Shakespeare's play "King Lear." Since the presuppositions of currently fashionable Marxist criticism would deny the expression of the transcendental in Shakespeare's dramas, interpretations of this school tend to see the events of the plays from the limited perspective of materialist ideology. Shakespeare's "King Lear," particularly in the quarto text of 1608 (first Quarto, Q1) upon which this article focuses, may be seen as having a direct connection to the political and social condition of England in the earliest years of King James's reign. Significantly, this quarto advertised on its title page that a performance of the play, by the King's Men, had been staged before their patron, King James, at Whitehall on the Feast of St. Stephen in 1606; the Q1 text appears to represent the play as it existed at this time. Bad political judgment, for which this ruling monarch was already famous, was feared because of its capacity to jeopardize social stability in the entire national community. Moreover, nervousness about the quality of rule was nothing new and was an inheritance from the Tudor period. This same nervousness seems to be very deeply embedded in "King Lear," on which Shakespeare had apparently been at work in the months immediately prior to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in November 1605 though the play probably was not completed until after this historically memorable event.
- Subjects
KING Lear (Play : Shakespeare); SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616 -- Bibliographies -- Quartos; SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616; CRITICISM &; interpretation of Shakespeare's works; ENGLISH drama (Tragedy); ENGLISH drama
- Publication
Christianity & Literature, 1996, Vol 45, Issue 3/4, p285
- ISSN
0148-3331
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1177/014833319604500301