Editing King Lear (section)

=== 18th century ===
In the early 18th century, some writers began to express objections to this (and other) Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare. For example, in ''[[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]]'' on 16 April 1711 [[Joseph Addison]] wrote "''King Lear'' is an admirable Tragedy ... as ''Shakespeare'' wrote it; but as it is reformed according to the chymerical Notion of poetical Justice in my humble Opinion it hath lost half its Beauty."<!-- sic, as regards italics and capitalisation throughout, and the spelling of "chymerical" --> Yet on the stage, Tate's version prevailed.{{efn|Quoted by Jean I. Marsden.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=30}}}}

[[David Garrick]] was the first actor-manager to begin to cut back on elements of Tate's adaptation in favour of Shakespeare's original: he retained Tate's major changes, including the happy ending, but removed many of Tate's lines, including Edgar's closing speech.{{sfn|Tatspaugh|2003|p=528}} He also reduced the prominence of the Edgar-Cordelia love story, in order to focus more on the relationship between Lear and his daughters.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=33}} His version had a powerful emotional impact: Lear driven to madness by his daughters was (in the words of one spectator, Arthur Murphy) "the finest tragic distress ever seen on any stage" and, in contrast, the devotion shown to Lear by Cordelia (a mix of Shakespeare's, Tate's and Garrick's contributions to the part) moved the audience to tears.{{efn|Jean I. Marsden cites ''Gray's Inn Journal'' 12 January 1754.{{sfn|Marsden|2002|p=33}}}}

The first professional performances of ''King Lear'' in North America are likely to have been those of the [[American Company|Hallam Company]] (later the American Company) which arrived in Virginia in 1752 and who counted the play among their repertoire by the time of their departure for Jamaica in 1774.{{sfn|Morrison|2002|p=232}}