![]() ![]() As you view some of the artwork and read on, notice what is lost when the Fool is removed and the tragedy averted, and how these changes affect meaning in the play. Lear’s intriguing jester, known as the Fool, is entirely absent from Tate’s play. Instead of the deaths of Cordelia and Lear, Lear’s sanity appears restored and Cordelia and Edgar marry. In Tate’s Lear, impending tragedy is resolved in the end. As Lear lives outside his court, his mental state deteriorates to the point of insanity. When his youngest, Cordelia, refuses to give him the praise he wants, he becomes enraged and perhaps mad, and is cast out of his own home by his elder daughters. The basic plot holds for both versions: at the outset, King Lear has abdicated his throne, dividing his power among his three daughters. Written by Nahum Tate, The History of King Lear makes substantial changes to Shakespeare’s play, the most notable being the infamous “happy ending.” ![]() From 1681 to 1838, however, the primary version performed on stage was something rather different. ![]() The original is a famously grandiose bloodbath, so ambitious that many have thought it unsuitable for the stage. King Lear’s stage history presents a curious case of reinterpretation. ![]()
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