David Garrick as King Lear (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 3, Scene 1)

David Garrick|Benjamin Wilson|James McArdell|William Shakespeare

1761 · Mezzotint; first state of two, proof before letters · Drawings and Prints

Garrick, who spearheaded the eighteenth-century Shakespeare revival, appears here as King Lear. In the play, the king is cast out by his power-hungry daughters, and wanders on a stormy heath attended by the faithful duke of Kent, and by Edgar, disguised as Poor Tom. The image reflects Nahum Tate's revised version of the play, staged in London between 1681 and the early nineteenth century, where the role of the Fool is removed, Lear and Cordelia do not die, and the princess marries Edgar.

Artist

David Garrick|Benjamin Wilson|James McArdell|William Shakespeare

Date

1761

Medium

Mezzotint; first state of two, proof before letters

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917