The First Quarto of King Lear (The New Cambridge Shakespeare: The Early Quartos) [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Jay L. Halio (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The New Cambridge Shakespeare: The Early Quartos | Publication Date: January 28, 1997

This edition of Shakespeare's King Lear is based on the first (1608) quarto and represents a significantly different version from that published in the folio of 1623, which forms the basis of the standard New Cambridge Shakespeare edition. Each has numerous unique passages and hundreds of variant readings, creating differences that affect the structure, characterization and overall impact of the play. This volume contains a substantial introduction, the text of the first quarto, a collation of variant readings and an appendix of passages unique to the Folio.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...it provides editorial assistance of every imaginable kind, textual variants, glossing of unfamiliar language." Studies in English Literature

Book Description

This edition of Shakespeare's King Lear is based on the first (1608) quarto and represents a significantly different version from that published in the Folio of 1623. Each has numerous unique passages and hundreds of variant readings, creating differences which affect the structure, characterisation and overall impact of the play.

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521587077
• ISBN-13: 978-0521587075
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.