不列顛的國王李爾已經八十多歲了，每天仍為國事操勞，身體也因此衰弱了下來，老國王想在過世之前將國事交給孩子去治理，他決定將三個女兒叫來，從她們嘴裡聽出誰最愛他，然後再依她們愛他的程度，分配國土的大小，故事就在國王與女兒間的對話中拉開了序幕，虛偽諂媚的大女兒與二女兒，以花言巧語騙得了李爾王的所國土，年老昏庸的國王李爾將餘生寄託在兩位虛情假意的女兒身上，卻將真心孝順的小女兒趕離身邊，萬沒想到悲慘的命運即將來臨。《李爾王》是莎士比亞的悲劇之一，這部作品中將人性的孝道，以及兒女的貪婪完全表現，是一部充滿諷刺的悲劇經典。
The first edition of "King Lear" developed by and for the RSC, with unique material including a new introduction from Jonathan Bate and interviews with important RSC directors. This is the first edition of "King Lear" to be developed by and for the RSC, the world's leading Shakespeare theater company and it includes unique material to help the reader understand and enjoy Shakespeare on the stage as well as on the page. It is illustrated with photographs of classic and unusual performances. It features outstanding on-page notes which explain words and phrases unfamiliar to a modern audience, including the slang, political references and bawdy humor often ignored or censored in competing editions. It includes scene-by-scene summary, offering an easily understandable way into the play new introduction by Jonathan Bate, exploring the text and critical debates around it.This book features: summary of the play's performance history, at the RSC and elsewhere; and, interviews with important Shakespearean directors Adrian Noble, Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner discussing key productions at the RSC.From the Royal Shakespeare Company, this fresh edition offers new insight into Shakespeare's dark tragedy through interviews with leading directors Adrian Noble, Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner, outstanding scene-by-scene analysis and on-page notes, and a thought-provoking new introduction from celebrated scholar Jonathan Bate.
作者簡介：
About the Author
JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.