King Lear: Parallel Text Edition

361 Pages·2009·3.342 MB·English

by  Rene Weis

KING
LEAR
A PArAllel TexT ediTion
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Second edition AI
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edited by René Weis AL
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E
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General Editors: TL
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford E
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H.R. Woudhuysen, University College London
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Daniel Karlin, University of Sheffield EA
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King Lear, Shakespeare’s supremely powerful exploration of kingship, T
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family and madness, has long been acknowledged as one of his O
N
greatest works. However, the existence of the play in two distinct
KING
versions – the Quarto of 1608 and the Folio of 1623 – has also
provided a fascinating puzzle for generations of scholars. How do
ES
differences in Quarto and Folio alter our understanding of the play de
and affect the way it is performed? Did censorship lie behind major itiocon LEAR
textual absences in Folio? And what can we infer about Shakespeare’s nd
working practices from the two versions?
This edition of King Lear provides fully annotated, modern-spelling versions of the Quarto and
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Folio texts of the play, printed in parallel on facing pages. By highlighting the differences between d
the two versions, the reader can engage directly with the problems raised by them and consider eit
ne
current thinking about the play. éd

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In a closely argued introduction, René Weis re-examines the continuing textual and Wy
bibliographical debate on the relationship between The History of King Lear (Q) and The Tragedy of e
i
King Lear (F) and considers the case for and against revision. This revised and updated edition also s
contains an illuminating new essay in which Weis subjects a number of key Q / F variants to close A PArAllel TexT
palaeographic analyses, arguing that they reflect different guesses at Shakespeare’s foul papers.
ediTion
René Weis
is Professor of English at University College London. His most recent book
Second edition
is Shakespeare Revealed: A Biography (2007). He is currently editing Romeo and Juliet for the Arden
Shakespeare.

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KING LEAR
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LONGMAN ANNOTATED TEXTS
GENERAL EDITORS
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford
H.R. Woudhuysen, University College London
Daniel Karlin, University of Sheffield
PUBLISHED TITLES
Chaucer’s Dream Poetry Helen Phillips and Nick Havely
Women’s Writing in Middle English Alexandra Barratt
Women Writers in Renaissance England Randall Martin
Alexander Pope: The Dunciad in Four Books Valerie Rumbold
William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose David Fuller
Victorian Women Poets Virginia Blain
Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems Tim Armstrong
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KING LEAR
A Parallel Text Edition
Second edition
Edited by
RENÉ WEIS
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PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow CM20 2JE
United Kingdom
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk
First published in 1993
Second edition published in Great Britain in 2010
© Pearson Education Limited 1993, 2010
ISBN: 978–1–4082–0412–2
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the Library of Congress
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior
written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying
in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may
not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published,
without the prior consent of the Publishers.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
13 12 11 10 09
Set by 35 in 9/12 pt Stone Serif Roman
Printed and bound in Malaysia (CTP-KHL)
The Publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.
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To
George Walton Williams
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CONTENTS
List of plates viii
Acknowledgements ix
Publisher’s acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
The integral King Lear: its war and variants of convergence 36
Note on the text and annotations 73
THE TEXTS 77
Quarto Dramatis Personae 78
Folio Dramatis Personae 79
Quarto Text 80
Folio Text 81
Bibliography 340
Index 344

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LIST OF PLATES
Plate 1 Title page of the First Quarto (‘Pied Bull’) of 1608 4
Plate 2 1608 Quarto text of Lear 3.1.15–42 26
Plate 3 1623 Folio text of Lear 3.1.7–29 27
Plate 4 A London printing-house from Shakespeare’s time 45
Plate 5 Sir Thomas More, Addition II D 48
Plate 6 Sir Thomas More, Hand D transcript 49
Plate 7 The secretary alphabet, the hand used by Shakespeare 51
Plate 8 Uncorrected proof of page 352 of 1623 Folio Antony
and Cleopatra, with proof-reader’s marks indicating
corrections 54
Plate 9 1608 Quarto text of Lear 4.6.83–161 64
Plate 10 1623 Folio text of Lear 4.5.83–149 65

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a pleasure to pay tribute to my predecessors. While my indebtedness to the texts
of King Lear by Kenneth Muir (New Arden), G.K. Hunter (New Penguin), and the
important Alexander, Bevington, and Riverside Complete Shakespeares is signific-
ant, my task would have been far more arduous without the labours of the editors
of the Oxford Shakespeare (1986/87), and the achievement of Michael Warren’s
The Parallel King Lear (1989). It is their pioneering work on the ‘two texts’ of King
Lear which rendered a modern, parallel text edition of the play such as this one
both possible and desirable. Jay L. Halio’s New Cambridge The Tragedy of King Lear
(1992), which is based on the Folio, arrived too late for me to consult.
Among the many who have helped and advised, I would like to thank particularly
Dr Bas Aarts, Professor David Bindman, Dr Daniel Karlin, Mrs Kathy Metzenthin,
Dr Charlotte Mitchell, and Dr Alison Thorne. I am grateful to Mrs Oonagh McCarthy
for her valuable advice and assistance during the early stages of this edition. My
greatest debt is to my friend and colleague Dr Henry Woudhuysen of University
College London, who preserved me from many infelicities and provided detailed
guidance throughout this project. I owe much to his peerless expertise in the field
of editing. At Longman I must thank Alysoun Owen for her encouragement and
assistance during the later stages of this project, and Francis Dodds and Christine
Firth for their advice. I also wish to thank the staff at the British Library, the
University of London library, and University College London library for their help.
My indebtedness to Professor Karl Miller of University College London, and to
Professor Ross Woodman of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, goes
back a number of years, as does my gratitude to several generations of students
from the Shakespeare seminar at University College London. I wish to thank
Professor John Sutherland and Professor David Trotter for granting me sabbatical
leave for the final lap of this project. I must thank Professor Tjasˇa Miklicˇ for her
generosity towards me over many years, and for her enthusiasm for King Lear. I am
grateful to Maryse for her warm and affectionate welcomes in LaCelle St Cloud. Above
all I want to thank Jean. Her sweet nature and rare intelligence have been an unfail-
ing source of strength and inspiration. This is for her.
René Weis
Department of English
University College London
January 1993
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