The Tragedy of King Lear

Lois Potter, Ned B. Allen Professor Emerita of the University of Delaware, has a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. from Cambridge, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She has taught at the Universities of Aberdeen, Leicester, Paris III-Sorbonne-Nouvelle, and Tsuda College, Tokyo. She edited The Two Noble Kinsmen for the Arden Shakespeare and Pericles for the 3rd edition of the Norton Complete Works, and has published monographs on Milton, English Civil War literature, the theatrical history of Twelfth Night and Othello, and The Life of William Shakespeare, as well as editing two essay collections on Robin Hood.

'Only Lois Potter is capable of writing an introduction like this: she combines her vast experience of performance history with her unparalleled ability to read plays dramaturgically. As a result the introduction is as penetratingly astute on theme and structure as it is stimulating and eye-opening about theatre. No mere performance history, the introduction uses moments from production choices across the centuries to illustrate precise critical points, from the play's tragic crises to its general tone, from individual character to political atmosphere. Using her encyclopaedic knowledge of drama in performance, Lois Potter provides a brilliant hands-on guide to the play and an effortless introduction to theatre history.' Professor Laurie Maguire, University of Oxford

• Introduction; Textual Analysis; Preface by Brian Gibbons; Textual Analysis, Part 1; A Note on the Text; List of Characters; The Play; Textual Analysis, Part 2; Appendix: Passages Unique to the First Quarto; Reading List.