Essay on William Shakespeares Plagiarism of King Lear -- Biography Bi

Shakespeares Plagiarism of magnate Lear In creating the tragedy play pansy Lear, William Shakespeare steal many sources in getting the base-line story, but it required his genius and rationality to place them together to create the true tragedy with its multiple biz lines that his play turned out to be in the end. The story of mightiness Lear (or as it started, King Leir) is first seen in literature in the category 1135, contained in Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae. Other authors placed King Leir into their stories including John Higgins in A Mirror for Magistrates (1574), by Warner in Albions England (1586), by Holinshed in The Second turn in got of the Historie of England (1577), and by Spencer in The Faerie Queen (1590). The most influential of whole was probably The True Chronicle History of King Leir, which was anonymous. This play was performed as early as 1594, which is when it showed up in the Stationers Register. Kenneth Muir even suggested that Sh akespeare may have acted in it (Muir 141). Shakespeare took the best of all the sources of King Leir, added his touches and personality, and created the masterpiece we enjoy today. Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae, gave us the description of King Lear and his three daughters, and also the basis for the honey test. One major difference is that unlike Shakespeares Lear, Geoffreys Leir does not appear to be insane and has not lost harbor of his mind. In fact, he regains control of the kingdom, with the help of the King of France. According to Geoffrey Bullough, This is no senile man (Bullough 273). Whether Shakespeare truly read this account of the daughters and the love test or read it in a later version cannot be proven, but... ...ly continuous was masterful. Despite the phthisis of all the sources, the additions of the Fool, the earlier death of Cordelia, the plot of Edmund to take over the kingdom, and the blindness of Gloucester (literally) and Lear (emoti onally) was pure genius of Shakespeare. The blending of both the sources and his genius led to a complete and amazing story of redemption, the same way that Jane Smiley used Shakespeares King Lear as a source to help create her Pulitzer Prize victorious A Thousand Acres about a twentieth-century farm. Works Cited Bullough, Geoffrey. King Lear. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. capital of the United Kingdom Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. Muir, Kenneth. Great Tragedies I King Lear. Shakespeares Sources. London Methuen & Co Ltd, 1957. Satin, Joseph. King Lear. Shakespeare and His Sources. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966.