INTRODUCTION 1. HISTORY OF THE PLAY King Lear was first printed, in quarto form, in 1608. Two editions of it appeared in that year. Their relationship and order of publication were for long doubtful, but it is now certain that the earlier is that which bears the following title-page: The Quartos. M. William Shak-speare: | His | True Chronicle Historic of the life and death of King Lear and his three | Daughters. With the unfortunate life of Edgar, sonne | and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his | sullen and assumed humor of Tom of Bedlam: | As it was played before the Kings Maiestie at Whitehall vpon | S. Stephans night in Christmas Hollidayes. | By his Maiesties seruants playing usually at the Gloabe on the Bancke-side. | London, Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls | Church-yard at the signe of the Pide Bull neere | St Austins Gate. 1608. Of this edition six copies are known to be extant. But these copies are not uniform. All, besides being carelessly printed, are composed indiscriminately of corrected and uncorrected sheets, with the result that only two of the six copies are identical, and that not one of them contains a fully revised text. The second quarto edition has the same title, but it omits all mention of the place of sale, having merely "Printed for Nathaniel Butter. | 1608", a circumstance which gives the other the distinctive title of the "Pide Bull edition". Careful investigation has definitely established that the second Quarto was based on |