Tate's Perceptive Lear

This essay argues that, despite the contempt in which it is normally held, Nahum Tate's adaptation of King Lear (1681) is worth our attention on a number of grounds: (1) as leading us to ask questions about the Shakespeare versions that we would not otherwise have asked; (2) as leading us to consider solutions to some long-standing critical problems; (3) as developing, in more than competent poetry, some themes and motifs hinted at but left undeveloped in the Shakespearean originals; and (4) as recognizing some dramatic opportunities untaken but fully plausible within the Shakespearean context. The essay shows that there is much more in the play than its sentimentality. It shows that Tate was not only, as the essay's title suggests, a perceptive reader of Shakespeare but also a talented extender of the imaginative territory of Shakespeare's Lears.