King Lear: The Division of the Critics

The standard text of King Lear has, since the 18th century, been the result of the conflation of Quarto and Folio texts. Only in the last thirty years have some editors chosen to present two different texts of the play. The article examines the differences between the texts and analyses the positions of major shakespearian critics around this issue trying to establish whether it is possible with any certainty to attribute the alterations to Shakespare or to Shakespeare alone.