The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, Vol. 10: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators; Comprehending a Life of the Poet, ... History of the Stage (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, Vol. 10: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators; Comprehending a Life of the Poet, and an Enlarged History of the StageThe story of this tragedy had found its way into many ballads and other metrical pieces; yet Shakspeare seems to have been more indebted to The Chronicle History of King Leir and his Three Daughters, Gonorill Ragan, and Cordella, 1605, (which I have already published at the end of a collection of the quarto copies) than to all the other performances together. It appears from the books at Stationers' Hall, that some play on this subject was entered by Edward White, May 14, 1594. "A booke entituled, The moste famous Chronicle Hystorie of Leire King of England, and his Three Daughters." A piece with the same title is entered again, May 8, 1605; and again Nov. 26, 1607. See the extracts from these Entries at the end of the Preface, &c. vol. iii. From The Mirror of Magistrates, 1587, Shakspeare has, however, taken the hint foe the behaviour of the Steward, and the reply of Cordelia to her father concerning her future marriage. The episode of Gloster and his sons must have been borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, as I have not found the least trace of it in any other work. I have referred to these pieces, wherever our author seems more immediately to have followed them, in the course of my notes o n the play. For the first King Lear, see likewise Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published for S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross.The reader will also find the victory of K. Lear, in the second book and 10th canto of Spenser's Fairy Queen, and in the 15th chapter of the third book of Warner's Albion's England, 1602.The whole of this play, however, could not have been written till after 1603. Harsnet's pamphlet to which it contains so many reference, (as will appear in the notes,) was not published til that year. Steevens.Camden, in his Remains, (p. 306, ed. 1674,) tells a similar story to this of Leir or Lear, of Ina king of the West Saxons; which, if the thing ever happened, probably was the real origin of the fable. See under the head of Wise Speeches. Percy.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.