KING LEAR A PArAllel TexT ediTion AK P Second edition AI RN edited by René Weis AL G L E L General Editors: TL Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford E XE H.R. Woudhuysen, University College London T Daniel Karlin, University of Sheffield EA D R I King Lear, Shakespeare’s supremely powerful exploration of kingship, T I 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 Re 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 b 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. L O N G X E T M T S A D N E A TN AN T O CTdSRForhehoalepvgewlere fhoimrrn e diSgaamu,hrd ckaca e oagkAd.fee R :1sbL pG7Tyee 7a peaF3roer.-ler ra7Bg mt5Le lab.ii sbRc5skr ionao mcrnohy. n.6aoel.fky .t he www.pearson-books.com L O N G X E T M T S A D N E A TN AN T O eRdeitnedé bWy eis L O N G X E T M T S A D N E A TN AN T O CVR_WEIS4122_01_SE_CVR.indd 1 4/8/09 10:20:15 A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page i KING LEAR A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page ii 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 A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page iii KING LEAR A Parallel Text Edition Second edition Edited by RENÉ WEIS A01_WEIS4122_02_SE_FM1.QXD 12/15/09 4:38 PM Page iv PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED Edinburgh Gate Harlow CM20 2JE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1279 623623 Fax: +44 (0)1279 431059 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. A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page v To George Walton Williams A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page vi A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM1.QXD 7/29/09 10:27 AM Page vii 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 vii A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page viii 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 viii A01_LIPC4122_02_SE_FM.qxd 7/23/09 3:36 PM Page ix 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 ix