The RSC Shakespeare
Edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen
Chief Associate Editor: Héloïse Sénéchal
Associate Editors: Trey Jansen, Eleanor Lowe, Lucy Munro,
Dee Anna Phares, Jan Sewell
King Lear
Textual editing: Eric Rasmussen and Trey Jansen
Introduction and Shakespeare’s Career in the Theater: Jonathan Bate
Commentary: Penelope Freedman and Héloïse Sénéchal
Scene-by-Scene Analysis: Esme Miskimmin
In Performance: Karin Brown (RSC stagings), Jan Sewell (overview),
Jonathan Bate (captions)
The Director’s Cut (interviews by Jonathan Bate and Kevin Wright):
Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, Trevor Nunn
Editorial Advisory Board
Gregory Doran, Chief Associate Director,
Royal Shakespeare Company
Jim Davis, Professor of Theatre Studies, University of Warwick, UK
Charles Edelman, Senior Lecturer, Edith Cowan University,
Western Australia
Lukas Erne, Professor of Modern English Literature,
Université de Genève, Switzerland
Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Education, Royal Shakespeare Company
Akiko Kusunoki, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, Japan
Ron Rosenbaum, author and journalist, New York, USA
James Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia University, USA
Tiffany Stern, Professor and Tutor in English, University of Oxford, UK
2009 Modern Library Paperback Edition
Copyright © 2007, 2009 by The Royal Shakespeare Company
Interview responses by Deborah Warner in “Director’s Cut”
copyright © 2009 by Deborah Warner
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The
Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc. , New York.
MODERN LIBRARY and the TORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
“Royal Shakespeare Company,” “RSC,” and the RSC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
The version of
eISBN: 978-1-58836-828-7
v3. 1_r1
CONTENTS
Introduction
An Old Man Tottering About the Stage?
The Division of the Kingdom
Ripeness Is All?
This Great Stage of Fools
About the Text
Key Facts
Act 1
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act 2
Scene 1
Scene 2
Act 3
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Act 4
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Act 5
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Textual Notes
Quarto Passages That Do Not Appear in the Folio
Scene-by-Scene Analysis
Four Centuries of
At the RSC
The Director’s Cut: Interviews with Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, and Trevor Nunn
Shakespeare’s Career in the Theater
Beginnings