Page:King Lear (1917) Yale.djvu/154



There are two tragic stories in this play; the sorrows of Lear and the subordinate tragedy of Gloucester. The former is one of the oldest and most familiar tales in English literature, given in its general outlines by many of the old romancers. Holinshed, in his Chronicles (Chapters V. and VI. of the Second Book of the History of England, 1577), has nearly all the main facts. He gives the names of the King, the three daughters, and their husbands; the answers of the three, saying how much they loved Lear, with Cordelia's consequent disgrace; the cruelty of the two dukes and duchesses to the King. But in his version, France defeats the two antagonists, restores Lear to the throne, and after his death, Cordelia becomes Queen. There was also an old play, entered in the Stationers' Register, 14 May, 1594, The moste famous Chronicle history of Leire kinge of England and his Three Daughters. On 8 May, 1605, possibly as a result of the popularity of Shakespeare's play, although this is doubtful, there was entered on the Register the Tragecall historie of kinge Leir and his Three Daughters. Furness thinks the direct source was in this play rather than in Holinshed, and he mentions a number of minor similarities that certainly help to establish his point.

The Gloucester story was probably taken from Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, 1590. In the second book, there is a narrative called The pitifull state, and story of the Paphlagonian vnkinde king, and his kinde sonne, first related by the son, then by the blind