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date: 16 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter discusses the influence of Holinshed's Chronicles on two of Shakespeare's plays – King Lear and Cymbeline – both of which follow the spirit of Holinshed's Chronicles, even as they ignore or redirect their historical narratives. The chronicle history strangeness of Shakespeare's Lear is in direct proportion to its remoteness from the Holinshed original. There is also much more evidence of Shakespeare's use of Holinshed in writing Cymbeline than there is in his writing King Lear.

Keywords: King Lear, Cymbeline, English history, history plays

Richard Dutton

Richard Dutton is a Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University and chair of its English department. He has published widely on early modern drama, especially on censorship and authorship. His most recent publications are Ben Jonson, ‘Volpone’, and the Gunpowder Plot (2008) and A Handbook of Early Modern Theatre (2009). He is working on a book on Shakespeare's adaptation of his plays for court performance.

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