Editing King Lear (section)

=== 17th century ===
[[File:LearTate.jpg|thumb|right|Cover of [[Nahum Tate|Tate]]'s ''The History of King Lear'']]
Shakespeare wrote the role of Lear for his company's chief tragedian, [[Richard Burbage]], for whom Shakespeare was writing incrementally older characters as their careers progressed.{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=5}} It has been speculated either that the role of the Fool was written for the company's clown [[Robert Armin]], or that it was written for performance by one of the company's [[Boy player|boys]], doubling the role of Cordelia.{{sfn|Thomson|2002|p=143}}{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=6}} Only one specific performance of the play during Shakespeare's lifetime is known: before the court of [[James I of England|King James I]] at Whitehall on 26 December 1606.{{sfn|Hunter|1972|p=45}}{{sfn|Taylor|2002|pp=18–19}} Its original performances would have been at [[Globe Theatre|The Globe]], where there were no sets in the modern sense, and characters would have signified their roles visually with props and costumes: Lear's costume, for example, would have changed in the course of the play as his status diminished: commencing in crown and regalia; then as a huntsman; raging bareheaded in the storm scene; and finally crowned with flowers in parody of his original status.{{sfn|Gurr|Ichikawa|2000|pp=53–54}}

All theatres were closed down by the [[Puritan]] government on 6 September 1642. Upon the [[English Restoration|restoration]] of the monarchy in 1660, two patent companies (the [[King's Company]] and the [[Duke's Company]]) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=21}} And from the restoration until the mid-19th century the performance history of ''King Lear'' is not the story of Shakespeare's version, but instead of ''[[The History of King Lear]]'', a popular adaptation by [[Nahum Tate]]. Its most significant deviations from Shakespeare were to omit the Fool entirely, to introduce a happy ending in which Lear and Cordelia survive, and to develop a love story between Cordelia and Edgar (two characters who never interact in Shakespeare) which ends with their marriage.{{sfn|Taylor|2003|pp=324–325}} Like most Restoration adapters of Shakespeare, Tate admired Shakespeare's natural genius but saw fit to augment his work with contemporary standards of art (which were largely guided by the neoclassical [[unities]] of time, place, and action).{{sfn|Bradley|2010|p=43}} Tate's struggle to strike a balance between raw nature and refined art is apparent in his description of the tragedy: "a heap of jewels, unstrung and unpolish't; yet so dazzling in their disorder, that I soon perceiv'd I had seiz'd a treasure."{{sfn|Armstrong|2003|p=312}}{{sfn|Jackson|1986|p=190}} Other changes included giving Cordelia a ''confidante'' named Arante, bringing the play closer to contemporary notions of [[poetic justice]], and adding titilating material such as amorous encounters between Edmund and both Regan and Goneril, a scene in which Edgar rescues Cordelia from Edmund's attempted kidnapping and rape,{{sfn|Potter|2001|p=186}}{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=28}} and a scene in which Cordelia wears men's pants that would reveal the actress's ankles.{{sfn|Bradley|2010|p=47}} The play ends with a celebration of "the King's blest Restauration",<!-- sic --> an obvious reference to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].{{efn|Jean I. Marsden cites Tate's ''Lear'' line 5.6.119.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=28}}}}