Introduction & Overview of King Lear by William Shakespeare

King Lear Introduction

The earliest possible composition date for King Lear is 1604, but most scholars believe it was written in 1605 or 1606. The first recorded performance of the play was in December 1606. Two of the earliest printed editions of the play-the First Quarto in 1608 and the First Folio in 1623-differ remarkably in the number of lines and whole passages included or omitted, as well as in assignment of speeches to specific characters. The tale of a legendary king Lyr, or Ler, and his three daughters appears in many English fairytale or folklore versions, as well as in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1577, 1587) and John Higgins's Mirror for Magistrates (1574). In addition to these sources, Shakespeare was likely familiar with an anonymous play, The Chronicle History of King Leir, written sometime in the 1500s and published in 1605. Critics generally agree that Shakespeare derived the Gloucester subplot from Philip Sidney'sArcadia...
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