SOURCE: Massai, Sonia. “Nahum Tate's Revision of Shakespeare's King Lears.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 40, no. 3 (summer 2000): 435-50.

In the following essay, Massai examines Tate's use of different versions of Shakespeare's King Lear in his revision of the play.

In his 1975 edition of The History of King Lear (1681), James Black could still claim that Nahum Tate's notorious adaptation was “one of the most famous unread plays in English.”¹ Since then, mainly as a result of an unprecedented interest in the afterlife of the Shakespearean text,² The History of King Lear has been studied both in relation to the changed stage and dramatic conventions of Restoration theaters and for its historical and political significance.³ Despite this revival of critical interest in Shakespearean adaptations and Christopher Spencer's advocacy of Tate,⁴ the stigma of mediocrity which was first associated with Tate in the nineteenth century still discourages critics and editors...