Sometimes directors staging the play invent a scene in which the Fool himself is hanged, to explain this line, but the tradition of doubling the characters is the better explanation.

More famously, in 5.3, upon learning of Cordelia's death, Lear remarks 'And my poor fool is hanged' (5.3.369). It is based on an account of an ancient British king called Leir, which was recorded by Geoffrey. The first time that Lear summons the Fool, in 1.4, both he and his Knight observe that the Fool has been melancholy ever since Cordelia was sent to France. The Bard churned out King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra as London reeled from the foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and an outbreak of the bubonic plague the following year. As one of Shakespeares most famous tragedies, King Lear follows a king and his three daughters. A not-so-accomplished writer, Nahum Tate, took Shakespeare’s play and rewrote it to soften the tragic scenes and themes of the play. Shakespeare alludes to this fact at several points in the play. The Early Controversy Over William Shakespeare’s Tragedy King Lear Host Dennis Leap discusses the controversy caused by Shakespeare’s play King Lear. Lear himself rages until his sanity cracks. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the suffering of others. In Shakespeare's day, the roles of Cordelia and the Fool were often 'doubled'-played by the same actor-since the two characters are never on stage at the same time. Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents.

In recent times, some editors have started focusing on the 'original' 1608 edition. Before the 1990s, editors usually 'blended' the two texts, taking what they believed were the best versions of each scene. There are actually two different versions of King Lear- The History of King Lear published in quarto form in 1608 and The Tragedy of King Lear, which was published in the First Folio (1623) and is very substantially revised from the play published in 1608. 'Bedlam' was a slang word for 'Bethlehem,' which was the name of a mental institution in London. The character of Poor Tom or the Bedlam Beggar, as which Edgar disguises himself, is based on vagabonds or madmen considered dangerous in England at the time.

Lear william shakespeare