King Lear: A Study of Shakspere's Dramatic Method

Extract

As, during these Christmas days,¹ I have sunk myself in the study of King Lear, I have felt that in the time itself, which you have given me, there is some fitness of coincidence. It was in the Christmas days of 1606 that Shakspere was busy with the preparation of his play for the stage. It was on the night after Christmas that the poet saw his play produced for the first time, produced before King and Court, in the palace of Whitehall. That night marks, at all events, an important epoch in the life of Shakspere. And, if Shelley was right when he called King Lear “the most perfect specimen of dramatic poetry existing in the world,” then that evening in Whitehall, 287 years ago, marks not only the culminating point of Shakspere's career but also the culminating point in the poetical achievement of mankind.