Editing Lear: Shade and Shadow Don’t Cover the Same Ground

           There are many differences between the Folio text of Shakespeare’s King Lear (1623) and the Quarto text (1608). These variations make for two enormously different plays, one titled The History of King Lear (1608) and the other The Tragedy of King Lear (1623). Basically, we have the same plot but it is played out in two different genres. The idea of the play as a History or Tragedy is brought to light in one variation of Leer’s speech from Act I. In the First Quarto (1608), Shakespeare uses the word shady (1.1.57). The Folio edition (1623) deviates from the former by using the word shadowy instead (1.1.63). This change in word choice may indicate a kind of unforseen danger to Lear, one that will have tragic consequences; whereas, the first word, shady, perhaps indicated that Lear was suspicious of his elder children.

                              When Lear asks his daughters to tell him how much they love him, Goneril replies with excessive and insincere flattery. If we look at Lear’s response to her answer in the 1623 “re-write,” we can see that the word shadowy brings with it connotations of danger and uncertainty. Lear describes the forests as shadowy, dark, inaccessible. It is not clear what lurks there because the dark space is enveloped by shadows. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a shadowy place or object as “faintly perceptible, indistinct, vague” (1.c). Lear cannot quite see his daughter’s dishonesty. This failure to see, this blindness, is his tragic flaw. He is unable to save his kingdom, his family, and his own life because he cannot see the danger hidden behind the shadows.

           The word shadowy in King Lear’s speech lends to the play a feeling of tragedy, of unforseen, unstoppable events. The Quarto edition, however, uses a similar word but with very different significance. In the 1608 text, Lear describes the forests as shady. The term still indicates that something is hidden or concealed by darkness, but it also implies a kind of suspicion or wariness about that which is unseen. By using the word shady in his response to Goneril’s speech, Lear may be subtly informing or even warning her that he suspects her of treason. His word choice indicates mistrust. Shady, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, describes a person or thing “of questionable merit or prospects of success, uncertain, unreliable” (5a). By using this word, rather than shadowy, the idea of the unforseen is gone. Lear suspects Goneril and thus has a choice to prevent her from committing treason or not. Shady, is a less “tragic” word choice. Murder and war and chaos may escalate, but as this line indicates (1608), the events are not unstoppable or unseen as the Folio perhaps suggests (1623).

           Editing this line depends on how one would interpret King Lear. The play can be read many different ways. A conflated text might go with the word shady because the editor chose to give Lear a measure of foresight, or at least suspicion. This might make the play a bit more suspenseful (if that’s possible). However, if I had the chance to edit Lear myself, I would go with the word shadowy. Like the 1623 Folio, my text would portray Lear as tragic– the danger is indicated, i.e. dark forest, but it is unseen and unthwarted. Whether you choose shady or shadowy depends considerably on how you interpret Lear’s character and essentially on whether you choose to write King Lear as a history or tragedy.