Understanding King Lear: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical DocumentsConsidered one of Shakespeare's most powerful dramas, King Lear, with its combined elements of political and domestic tragedy, is as interesting to today's readers as it was to Elizabethan audiences. While the play's intricate plot and timely themes can be challenging to students, studying the play in its historical contexts sheds a great deal of light on important dramatic elements and topical references. This casebook was prepared to help students understand the literary and historic issues in King Lear, as well as its contemporary applications. Readers are introduced to the work with a Dramatic Analysis focusing on genre, character archetypes, themes, and sources. Excerpts from actual historical and literary sources demonstrate how King Lear incorporates elements of fairy tale, legend, and history as it alludes to the political controversies of Shakespeare's day. The final chapter in the casebook helps readers appreciate the thematic relatedness of King Lear to contemporary issues by focusing on the treatment of the elderly in our own society. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
Geoffrey of Monmouth The History of the King of Britain c 1135 in The British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth Ed J A Giles Trans A Thompson | 4 |
Raphael Holinshed Chronicles of England Scotland and Ireland Vol 1 1587 | 5 |
Sir John Wildgoose letter to Lord Cecil 1603 in Historical Manuscripts Commission Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honorable The Marques... | 8 |
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm The Goose Girl at the Well in Grimms Household Tales Trans Margaret Hunt 1892 | 9 |
The True Chronicle History of King Leir and His Three Daughters Gonorill Ragan and Cordella c 1594 Ed A F Hopkinson | 12 |
Sir Philip Sidney The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia 1590 Ed Oskar Sommer | 13 |
Aristotle The Poetics c 330 BC in Aristotles Theory of Poetry and Fine Art Trans S H Butcher | 15 |
A Midsummer Nights Dream | 92 |
The Two Gentlemen of Verona | 93 |
The Geneva Bible | 94 |
Juan Luis Vives The Instruction of a Christian Woman Trans Richard Hyrde 1529 | 96 |
Bartholomew Batty A Christian Mans Closet Trans William Lowth 1581 | 99 |
Eight Treatises 1622 Treatise 5 Duties of Children | 101 |
Eight Treatises 1622 Treatise 6 Duties of Parents | 103 |
Henry Swinburne Treatise of Testaments Part 5 1635 | 105 |
Samuel Johnson Afterword to King Lear 1765 in Johnson on Shakespeare Ed Walter Raleigh | 18 |
That way madness lies Insanity in Shakespeares Time | 29 |
Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Ed A R Shilleto Vol 1 1893 | 35 |
Anonymous TomABedlam 1682 | 38 |
Thomas Dekker The Belman of London 1608 in The NonDramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Vol 3 Ed Alexander B Grosart | 41 |
Sir Thomas More The apologye of Syr T More Knyght chapter 36 1533 | 43 |
Sir Thomas Elyot The Castle of Health 1541 | 45 |
John Case The Praise of Musicke 1586 | 48 |
Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton The Honest Whore part 1 1605 | 50 |
Thomas Tryon a treatise of dreams and visions To which is added a Discourse of the Causes Natures and Cure of Phrensie Madness or Distraction | 53 |
15351860 A History presented in Selected English Texts Ed Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine | 55 |
Kingship The Responsibilities and Weaknesses of a Ruler | 59 |
Or the Reciprocal and Mutual Duty Betwixt a Free King and His Natural Subjects 1598 in The Political Works of James I Ed Charles Howard McIlwain | 64 |
Basilicon Doron 1599 in The Political Works of James I Ed Charles Howard McIlwain | 65 |
King James A Speech to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament March 21 1609 in The Political Works of James I Ed Charles Howard McIlwain | 66 |
King James I A Speech to the Upper House of Parliament Monday March 19 1603 in The Political Works of James I Ed Charles Howard McIlwain | 69 |
King James I A Speech to Both Houses of Parliament March 31 1607 in The Political Works of James I Ed Charles Howard McIlwain | 71 |
Sir Roger Wilbraham The Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham in The Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham 15131616 Together with Notes in Another Hand ... | 74 |
Francis Osborne Esq Some Traditional Memoirs on the Reign of King James I 1658 in The Secret History of The Court of James the First Vol 1 | 77 |
Sir Anthony Weldon The Character of King James 1650 in The Secret History of The Court of James the First Vol 2 | 79 |
Nicolo Molin Report on England presented to the Government of Venice 1607 in Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affai... | 81 |
According to my bond Family Ties in Shakespeares Time | 85 |
Othello | 91 |
Henry Smith A Preparative to Marriage and Two Other Sermons 1591 | 107 |
Eight Treatises 1622 Treatise 7 Duties of Servants | 108 |
Adaptations A Tale Retold | 113 |
Nahum Tate letter to Thomas Boteler in Nahum Tate The History of King Lear 1681 | 115 |
Nahum Tate The Final Scene in Nahum Tate The History of King Lear 1681 | 116 |
Ron Carlson King Lear in Zebulon County 1991 | 123 |
Russell Smith Film Review of A Thousand Acres 1997 | 128 |
David Ng Review of Ran 2001 | 132 |
Contemporary Application Treatment of the Elderly | 137 |
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke NINDS Alzheimers Information Page | 139 |
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke NINDS MultiInfarct Dementia Information Page | 141 |
President Ronald Reagan letter to the American people 1994 | 142 |
Former First Lady Isnt Sure Former President Even Recognizes Her 2002 | 143 |
Part I | 144 |
Beth Witrogen McLeod Caring for a Parent Did I Do Enough? 2000 | 151 |
Part II | 153 |
Stephanie Smith Musician Helps Alzheimers Patients 2001 | 162 |
Home Away from Home Relocating Your Parents 2003 | 165 |
Lori Burling Health Care Facility Takes New Approach for Dementia Patients 2003 | 166 |
Part III | 168 |
An Alzheimers Journal Ed Jack Henderson Main Ruth D Henderson and Nancy Andrews Photographs by Nancy Andrews 1998 | 173 |
Index | 177 |
Common terms and phrases
able according Alzheimer's behavior body called caregivers caring cause changes chapter character Compare consider Cordelia course court daughters death disease documents duty early Edgar England English fact father fear feel final fool give Gloucester Goneril hath head heart Hidetora History hope humors husband inheritance issues James Joyce keep Kent King Lear kingdom Lear's leave less letter living London look Lord madness married master mean melancholy mind mother nature never notes parents patients person play poor Press questions responsibilities scene Scotland seems servants Shakespeare's Shakespeare's day similar sisters speech story subjects suffer suggests symptoms tell things thou thought told tragedy tragic understand unto
Popular passages
Page 32 - This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, — often the surfeit of our own behaviour, — we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars...
Page 19 - A play, in which the wicked prosper and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good, because it is a just representation of the common events of human life: but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse ; or, that if other excellences are equal, the audience will not always rise better pleased from the final triumph of persecuted virtue.
Page 66 - The State of Monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth. For Kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods.
Page 41 - With a heart of furious fancies, Whereof I am commander : With a burning spear, And a horse of air, To the wilderness I wander ; With a knight of ghosts and shadows, I summoned am to Tourney : Ten leagues beyond The wide world's end ; Methinks it is no journey...
Page 15 - ... pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves.
Page 18 - So powerful is the current of the poet's imagination, that the mind, which once ventures within it, is hurried irresistibly along.
Page 25 - Is man no more than this ? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha ! here's three on's are sophisticated ! Thou art the thing itself : unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Page 38 - From the hag and hungry goblin That into rags would rend ye, All the spirits that stand By the naked man, In the book of moons defend ye! That of your five sound senses ~ You never be forsaken; Nor travel from Yourselves with Tom Abroad, to beg your bacon.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Understanding King Lear: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents Literature in context series The Greenwood Press "Literature in context" series, ISSN 1074-598X The Greenwood Press |
| Author | Donna Woodford |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 |
| ISBN | 0313319367, 9780313319365 |
| Length | 183 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |