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King Lear

Shakespeare and Folktales
Shakespeare Unlimited

Shakespeare and Folktales

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 138 You probably know where Shakespeare got the ideas for his plays. His Histories come from Holinshed’s Chronicles. Caesar and other Roman plays depend on Plutarch’s Lives. The Comedy of Errors is based on Plautus’s Menaechmi. But what…

The madness of Hamlet and King Lear: When psychiatrists used Shakespeare to argue legal definitions of insanity in the courtroom
King Lear, III, 2. Johann Heinrich Ramberg. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

The madness of Hamlet and King Lear: When psychiatrists used Shakespeare to argue legal definitions of insanity in the courtroom

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Shakespeare & Beyond

King Lear, III, 2. Johann Heinrich Ramberg. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. Well-known Shakespeare characters such as King Lear and Hamlet suffer (or appear to suffer) from madness — and early American psychiatrists took note. Observations drawn from literature began…

Glenda Jackson
Shakespeare Unlimited

Glenda Jackson

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 121 The great Glenda Jackson is back on the stage. In 1992, the Emmy and two-time Academy Award winner was elected to Parliament. She spent the next 23 years in Britain’s House of Commons. Since returning to…

Drawing Shakespeare: King Lear
King Lear by Paul Glenshaw
Shakespeare and Beyond

Drawing Shakespeare: King Lear

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Paul Glenshaw

Artist Paul Glenshaw writes about drawing the bas-relief of King Lear by sculptor John Gregory on the front of the Folger Shakespeare Library building.

Excerpt: 'Year of the Mad King' by Antony Sher
Antony Sher
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt: 'Year of the Mad King' by Antony Sher

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Shakespeare & Beyond

What’s it like to play the role of Lear onstage? In this excerpt from Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries, actor Antony Sher gives us a window into the rehearsal process for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of King…

Edward St. Aubyn: Dunbar
Shakespeare Unlimited

Edward St. Aubyn: Dunbar

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 84 The title character of King Lear becomes a media mogul in Edward St. Aubyn’s new novel, Dunbar, which retells the story of one of Shakespeare’s most dysfunctional families for the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Edward St. Aubyn…

Excerpt from Dunbar: Edward St. Aubyn retells King Lear
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt from Dunbar: Edward St. Aubyn retells King Lear

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Shakespeare & Beyond

In “Dunbar,” a new novel by Edward St. Aubyn that retells the Shakespeare play “King Lear,” Henry Dunbar makes the mistake of handing over control of his global corporation to his eldest daughters, who bribe a doctor to declare him…

How 'King Lear' Inspired 'Empire'
Shakespeare Unlimited

How 'King Lear' Inspired 'Empire'

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 69 You can find Shakespeare in all sorts of places, including the Fox TV series Empire. The story of an aging ruler – in this case the head of a hip-hop music dynasty – who sets his…

'Sweetly Writ': King Lear and the First Folio in Oregon
Shakespeare and Beyond

'Sweetly Writ': King Lear and the First Folio in Oregon

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Author
Esther French

Barry Kraft as Lear in King Lear, produced by Southern Oregon University, Oregon Center for the Arts. (Credit: Prechtel photo) What can we learn from Shakespeare’s revisions to his plays, and what does that mean for the actors and directors…

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
Folger Spotlight

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

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Author
Katharine Pitt

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 Author James Shapiro’s new book The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 considers the period when the playwright wrote three of his greatest tragedies, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. Dr. Shapiro…

James Shapiro: The Year of Lear
Shakespeare Unlimited

James Shapiro: The Year of Lear

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 32 1606 was a critical year for Shakespeare’s creative career. It was the year in which he wrote King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. It was also a time in which the king of England, James…

"I see it feelingly": a raised-type King Lear
Collation

"I see it feelingly": a raised-type King Lear

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Author
Sarah Hovde

For many of the books in our collection, an unassuming cover can turn out to protect a fascinating text block. What makes this one unusual is the discovery, upon opening the cover, that this book is meant to be read not with the…

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