William Shakespeare: 'King Lear‪'‬

A theatre-based study guide to Shakespeare's

greatest play, emphasising the conditions of

Jacobethan production, textual variations, and

aspects of modern performance, rather than the

background of ideas or critical interpretations.

This book aims to introduce students (including

those with little or no prior experience of the field) to

the worlds of Shakespeare and his theatre revealed

in King Lear. It begins by ‘Approaching

Shakespeare’ as utterly a man of the theatre, a

professional actor before he was a playwright and a

resident dramatist who knew intimately the actors for

whom he wrote. It continues by discussing ‘King

Lear’ in that light.The middle chapters look in detail

at the ‘Actors and Players’ of the drama, and at

Shakespeare’s favourite ‘Acts and Devices’ as

deployed within it. A final chapter considers the

concept of 'comedic agony'. The annotated

Bibliography includes the current major editions,

major film-adaptations, and a selection of both the

best criticism and the most useful websites.