King Lear is probably Shakespeare` s most powerful tragedy. It encompasses the horrific and the grotesque, the appalling and the poignant. Love and hate, loyalty and treachery, cruelty and self-sacrifice, are all interwoven in a tempestuous drama which has become one of the classics of the world` s literature. Its meaning is still a matter of contention for interpreters. Is it Christian or anti-Christian? Does it suggest a providential pattern, or does it anticipate the theatre of the Absurd?
The text of this edition is taken from the Cambridge University Press `New Shakespeare`. The glossary is based on John Dover Wilson` s.