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Burbage’s King Lear: A Critical Comparison between Q and F

Burbage’s King Lear
A Critical Comparison between Q1 and F1

Takuo Yoneda

A critical change occurred in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men around 1600. The famous clown William kemp (?-1603) left the company, and the new clown Robert Armin (1568?-1615) took over his role. With Kemp gone, the balance of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men changed. Richard Burbage (ca.1571-1619) was now both the star actor and the landlord. Before Kemp’s exit, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men had been an ensemble company, with dominant roles shared by several different actors. After Kemp left, it became Burbage’s Men. Burbage’s role was consistently the largest role in Shakespeare’s plays over the next decade. Under the circumstances, King Lear was composed in 1605-6.

King Lear has two substantive texts: the First Quarto (Q1) (1608) and the First Folio (F1) (1623). The prolonged scholarly debate over the texts of King Lear has led to little agreement. Lewis Theobald thought that there was one true text of King Lear, and that theatrical corruption was the major source of variants in Q1 and F1. This assumption was generally taken for granted by editors of the play until the 1980s. It was only in 1978 that Michael Warren argued that the Q1 and F1 ‘must be treated as separate versions of King Lear.’ Followed by him, Stanley Wells argued that Q1 and F1 of King Lear are ‘distinct,’ and then, in collaboration with Gary Taylor, he published the one-volume edition of Shakespeare’s plays (Oxf, 1986) for the first time included two modernized texts of the play, based respectively on Q1 and F1.

Scholars like Steven Urkowitz think that Q1 was printed from Shakespeare’s foul papers, and F1 was printed from the official promptbook based on Shakespeare’s own revisions, including additions, cuts, substitutions, and rearrangements. On the contrary, scholars like Kenneth Muir are against them. I approve of Urkowitz. I assume that King Lear was revised through the performances. Shakespeare himself revised King Lear, seeing the performance acted by his companions, and also acting with them. In this presentation, I will discuss the actors’ influence on supposed revision of King Lear.

Presentation