King LearABC-CLIO, LLC, 1995 - 125 pages "King Lear, one of Shakespeare's darkest and most savage plays, tells the story of the foolish and purblind Lear, who divides his kingdom, as he does his affections, according to vanity and whim. Lear's failure as a father engulfs himself and his world in turmoil and tragedy." "Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary, pronunciation, and prosody and provides alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page annotations give readers all the tools they need to comprehend the play and begin to explore its many possible interpretations. Raffel provides an introductory essay, and in a concluding essay Harold Bloom examines Lear, who, though possessed of Jobean dignity, is rather unlike Job, since Lear so determinedly brings about his own suffering."--BOOK JACKET. |
Common terms and phrases
acting actor Albany Antony and Cleopatra asks audience beginning better blind Bradley Cæsar character convention Cordelia Cornwall costume Cymbeline dialogue disguise dost dramatic dramatist Edgar Edmund effect Elizabethan Elizabethan stage emotional eyes father follow Fool gain give Gloucester Gloucester's Goneril and Regan Granville Barker Hamlet heart human Iago illusion imagination Jan Kott Julius Cæsar Kent Kent's King Lear later Lear's lines look Love's Labour's Lost matter means mind modern nature never Oswald Othello pass passage peare phrase play play's action play's end playwright poetry Poor Poor Tom Prefaces producer prose Quarto question Regan and Goneril Richard II scene scenery sense servant Shakes Shakespeare Shakespeare's stagecraft sight simplicity Sir Herbert Tree soliloquy sort sound speak speech stand storm storm-scenes strength subplot theatre thee thing thou thought tragedy tragic turn verse