Paratextuality in Shakespeares King Lear Essay example -- William Sha

Pitching Mad son How Paratextuality Mediates the Distance Between Spectators, Adaptations, and radical Texts.A touristy anecdote used to introduce students and spectators to baron Lear tells how, for clyears, the stage was dominated by Nahum Tates adaptation, in which Lear and Cordelia are jubilantly reconciled, and Cordelia is married off to Edgar. Here is what N.H. Hudson had to sayabout TateThis shameless, this execrable theatrical role of demendation. Tate improveLear? Set a tailor at work, rather, to improve Niagara shrivel up be thehand, palsied be the arm, that ever dares to touch one of Shakespearesplays again. (quoted in Massai 247)Of course, such sophisticated and erudite commentators as are assembled present today will bequick to point out a couple of ironies about Hudsons condemnation of Shakespeare adaptation.First, Shakespeare himself was an adaptor. Most if not every last(predicate) of his plays are adapted fromextant plays, renaissance romance novels, or even, as in the case I will be discussing today, old Norse sagas. King Lear was adapted from an earlier play, which was itself based on Holinshedschronicles.Second, popular adaptations by Tate and Colley Cibber, among others, by makingShakespeare accessible and tasteful to Restoration and erudition audiences, played no smallpart in establishing Shakespeare at the center of attention of the literary canon (Massai 247). And as anafterthought, it might be worth noting that Tates adaptation does not so much ruin the originalKing Lear as restore it Tates happy ending is more closemouthed than Shakespeare toShakespeares sources, The True news report History of King Leir and Holinsheds Chronicles.I mention this by way of introducing Michael OBriens Mad boy Chronic... ...eares.ca/Massai, Sonia. Stage Over Study Charles Marowitz, Edward Bond, and Recent MaterialistApproaches to Shakespeare. New Theatre quarterly 15, no. 3 59 (1999) 247-55.Morrow, Martin. A Viking Free for All. Rpt. in OBri en, Michael. Mad Boy Chronicle FromGesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, c. 1200 A.D. and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark byWilliam Shakespeare, c. 1600 A.D. 1st ed. Toronto Playwrights Canada Press, 1996. Pp.152-54.OBrien, Michael. Mad Boy Chronicle From Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, c. 1200A.D. and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, c. 1600 A.D. 1st ed. TorontoPlaywrights Canada Press, 1996.Shaner, Madeleine. Rev. of Mad Boy Chronicle, by Michael OBrien. 2001. backstage West 28Sept. 2003. http//www.canadianshakespeares.ca/Stam, Robert. Film Theory An Introduction. Malden, Mass. Blackwell, 2000.