21/04/2020
Day 28 COVID19 Lockdown Diary: King Lear���Will Shakespeare was no stranger to social distancing. Plague followed him through his life. As an infant he survived an outbreak that carried off a hefty chunk of his home town, Stratford-on-Avon. Later, as a playwright he faced theatre closures each time plague swept through London.
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Scholars love to speculate about the effects of these plague outbreaks on Will. Theatre closures certainly affected his income, but also gave him time to write.
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Some scholars believe that King Lear, one of Will's darkest plays, was written during the London outbreak of 1606. Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra date from the same period.
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It's also possible that Measure for Measure, Othello, and All’s Well that Ends Well were written dur outbreak that closed theatres in 1603–4.
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This illustration of King Lear was painted by Michael Foreman and post-processed by me.
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Michael is one of the best-known and most prolific creators and illustrators of children's books with more than 300 titles for both adults and children. He grew up in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, where his mother kept the village shop. His father died a month before he was born and at the age of three, the family home was hit by bomb. He survived along with his mother and two older brothers. Not surprisingly, Michael's own stories often focus on conflict and war. https://bit.ly/2VJug57
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