EIL 4.4 King Lear Context

British Literature Module 4.4

Study Guide: British Literature (Excellence in Literature, English 4)

Focus Text: King Lear by William Shakespeare
You will need the text (Ignatius Critical Edition recommended), as well as a video of this play.

Honors Text: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

King Lear Context Resources

Readings

http://www.pathguy.com/kinglear.htm

https://www.bardweb.net/content/grammar/grammar.html

Tales from Shakespeare

https://www.excellence-in-literature.com/tales-from-shakespeare-by-charles-and-mary-lamb-king-lear

http://soupsong.com/qbardo.html

http://soupsong.com/qbardc.html

https://www.penguin.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/kinglear.pdf

The Author’s Life

Shakespeare by Peter Chrisp

https://www.bardweb.net/index.html

https://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/timeline/timeline.htm

https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/index.html

http://www.shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/discover-shakespeare/

https://oxfraud.com

Shakespeare Biography from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica 

Poetry

https://www.excellence-in-literature.com/poetry-by-shakespeare-contemporaries

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poets/shakespeare-william

Audio

http://amzn.to/2qdxE7b

https://librivox.org/king-lear-by-william-shakespeare/

Music

http://www.curtisclark.org/emusic/renaissa.html

King Lear Overture by Hector Berlioz:

• https://www.excellence-in-literature.com/shakespeare-resources/

https://musopen.org/music/8741-grande-ouverture-du-roi-lear-h-53/

Video

King Lear (a BBC production with Laurence Olivier as Lear) on the Amazon website

• Short clip: https://www.excellence-in-literature.com/king-lear-excerpt/

Visual Arts

http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/visit-the-houses/shakespeares-birthplace.html

Painting: King Lear and the Fool in the Storm by William Dyce

Painting: King Lear and Cordelia by Benjamin West

https://www.folger.edu/painting-shakespeare/robert-smirke-awakening-of-king-lear

http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/Brown%27sLear.html

https://absoluteshakespeare.com/pictures/king_lear.htm

http://english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/LearPaintings.html

Historical Context

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Elizabethan_life.htm

http://www.localhistories.org/tudor.html

https://www.nps.gov/fora/learn/education/unit-1-the-church-of-england-in-the-sixteenth-century.htm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/znjnb9q/revision/1

https://www.shakespearesglobe.com

https://www.excellence-in-literature.com/renaissance/

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Index of British Literature context link pages

Note: All Amazon links are affiliate links provided for your convenience; full information in footer.

British Literature Texts (recommended editions)

British Lit study guide, and links to focus and honors texts (opens in a new tab at the author’s Everyday Education site)