Get even more from the Folger

1 Get even more from the FolgerYou can get your own copy of this text to keep. Purchase a full copyto get the text, plus explanatory notes, illustrations, and more . Buy a copyFolger Shakespeare the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryTextual IntroductionSynopsisCharacters in the PlayACT 1 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 Scene 5 ACT 2 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 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 Scene 7 ACT 5 Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 3 ContentsMichael WitmoreDirector, Folger Shakespeare LibraryIt is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since theircomposition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare s plays and poemshave traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works tomake them their of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing processof taking up Shakespeare, finding our own thoughts and feelingsin language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason,new.

2 We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think amile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resourcefor study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classictexts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as TheFolger Shakespeare (formerly Folger Digital Texts), we place atrusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants New Folger Editions of Shakespeare s plays, which are the basisfor the texts realized here in digital form , are special because of theirorigin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is thesingle greatest documentary source of Shakespeare s works. Anunparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, andartwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger s holdings have beenconsulted extensively in the preparation of these texts.

3 The Editionsalso reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance ofShakespeare s works in the Folger s Elizabethan want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and PaulWerstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare sworks, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with arichness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readerswho want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can followthe paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting theFolger either in-person or online, where a range of physical anddigital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. Icommend to you these words, and hope that they the Director of the Folger ShakespeareLibraryUntil now, with the release of The Folger Shakespeare (formerlyFolger Digital Texts), readers in search of a free online text ofShakespeare s plays had to be content primarily with using theMoby Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version ofthe plays.

4 What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume thatthere is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. ButShakespeare s plays were not published the way modern novels orplays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In somecases, the plays have come down to us in multiple publishedversions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the greatcollection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the FirstFolio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions ofHamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and choose which version to use as their base text, and thenamend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the otherversions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more editorial decisions involve choices about whether anunfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of theperiod or whether it should be changed; decisions about words thatmade it into Shakespeare s text by accident through four hundredyears of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based oncultural preference and taste.

5 When the Moby Text was created,for example, it was deemed improper and indecent for Mirandato chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See TheTempest, : Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt nottake,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied ). All Shakespeareeditors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to herfather, editors of the Moby Shakespeare produced their text longbefore scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which tomake the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. TheFolger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the FolgerShakespeare texts depend, make this editorial process as nearlytransparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby ,which hide editorial interventions.

6 The reader of the FolgerShakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorialinterventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, fromOthello: If she in chains of magic were not bound, ), half-squarebrackets (for example, from Henry V: With blood and sword andfire to win your right, ), or angle brackets (for example, fromTextual IntroductionBy Barbara Mowat and Paul WerstineHamlet: O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you? ). Atany point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket formore the Folger Shakespeare texts are edited in accord withtwenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare s texts, the Folgerhere provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors,and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of theplays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the studyand enjoyment of Lear dramatizes the story of an aged king of ancient Britain,whose plan to divide his kingdom among his three daughters endstragically.

7 When he tests each by asking how much she loves him,the older daughters, Goneril and Regan, flatter him. The youngest,Cordelia, does not, and Lear disowns and banishes her. She marriesthe king of France. Goneril and Regan turn on Lear, leaving him towander madly in a furious , the Earl of Gloucester s illegitimate son Edmund turnsGloucester against his legitimate son, Edgar. Gloucester, appalled atthe daughters treatment of Lear, gets news that a French army iscoming to help Lear. Edmund betrays Gloucester to Regan and herhusband, Cornwall, who puts out Gloucester s eyes and makesEdmund the Earl of and the French army save Lear, but the army is imprisons Cordelia and Lear. Edgar then mortally woundsEdmund in a trial by combat.

8 Dying, Edmund confesses that he hasordered the deaths of Cordelia and Lear. Before they can be rescued,Lear brings in Cordelia s body and then he himself , king of BritainGONERIL, Lear s eldest daughterDUKE OF ALBANY, her husbandOSWALD, her stewardREGAN, Lear s second daughterDUKE OF CORNWALL, her husbandCORDELIA, Lear s youngest daughterKING OF FRANCE, her suitor and then husbandDUKE OF BURGUNDY, her suitorEARL OF KENTFOOLEARL OF GLOUCESTEREDGAR, his elder sonEDMUND, his younger and illegitimate sonCURAN, gentleman of Gloucester s householdOLD MAN, a tenant of Gloucester sKNIGHT, serving LearGENTLEMENT hree SERVANTSMESSENGERSDOCTORCAPTAINSHERALDK nights in Lear s train, Servants, Officers, Soldiers, Attendants,GentlemenCharacters in the PlayKENTGLOUCESTERKENTGLOUCESTERKENTGLOU CESTERKENTGLOUCESTERE nter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund.

9 I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall. It did always seem so to us, but now in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most, for equalities are so weighed that curiosity in neither can make choice of either s moiety. Is not this your son, my lord? His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him that now I am brazed to t. I cannot conceive you. Sir, this young fellow s mother could, whereupon she grew round-wombed and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper. But I have a son, sir, by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account.

10 Though this knave came something saucily to the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making,7 ACT 1 Scene 1 FTLN 0001 FTLN 0002 FTLN 0003 FTLN 0004 FTLN 00055 FTLN 0006 FTLN 0007 FTLN 0008 FTLN 0009 FTLN 001010 FTLN 0011 FTLN 0012 FTLN 0013 FTLN 0014 FTLN 001515 FTLN 0016 FTLN 0017 FTLN 0018 FTLN 0019 FTLN 002020 FTLN 0021 FTLN 0022 FTLN 00239 King LearACT 1. SC. 1 EDMUNDGLOUCESTEREDMUNDKENTEDMUNDGLOUCEST ERLEARGLOUCESTERHe is handed a map. and the whoreson must be acknowledged. Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? No, my lord. My lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honorable friend. My services to your Lordship. I must love you and sue to know you better. Sir, I shall study deserving.