But the Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted...the play is beyond all art, as the tamperings with it show: it is too hard and stony; it must have love scenes and a happy ending.
Attributed to Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834)
British essayist.
Referring to Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, and the late 17th-century and 18th-century trend to revise Shakespeare's tragedies by giving them happy endings. The most distinguished proponent of this was poet laureate Nahum Tate, whose widely performed Tate's Lear (a revision of King Lear), ended with Cordelia marrying Edgar.
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