First performed about 1605, King Lear is one of the most relentlessly bleak of Shakespeare's tragedres Probably wirtten between Othello and Macbeth, when the play wright was at the peak of his tragic power, Lerar's themes of filial ingratitude, injustice and the meaning lessness of life in a seemingly indiferent universe are explored with unsurpased power and depth
The plot concerns monrch betrayed by his daughters, robbed of his kingdom, descending into madness Greed, treachery and cruelty are rife and the denouenment of the paly is both brutal and heartbreakin In fact, so troubling is its vision of man's life that, until the mid-19th century, the play was performed most often with a non-Shakespearean happy ending, with lear back on his throne and Cordelia, the daguhter nearest his heart, happily married to the noble Edgar But there is a dark magificence to Shakespeare's original vision of the Lear story, and the play is performed today essentiall as he worte ti, uncompromised by later "improvenments" King Lear is reprinted here from an authoritative British edition, complete with explanatory footnotes.