Shakespeare's Revision of KING LEAR

Of the three texts of King Lear—the Quarto version printed in 1608, the Folio edition of 1623, and the modern composite of these two early texts—it has been assumed that both the Quarto and Folio versions arc distortions of an unblemished original” now lost and that only the modern text accurately approaches Shakespeare’s lost original manuscript. Steven Urkowitz argues to the contrary that the Quarto and Folio are simply different stages of Shakespear’s writing—an early draft and a final revision—and that they reveal much about his process of composition.

Originally published in 1980.

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