Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T12:33:37.456Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Bible

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

By
William J. Kennedy
Edited by
Calum Carmichael
Calum Carmichael
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

One of the great Reformation debates during Shakespeare’s lifetime focused on the nature of “repentance” as represented in the Bible. The Biblical concept embraced the idea of a turn away from error and a return to righteousness (mostly as interpreted in later translations of the Hebrew Testament) and the idea of an interior change of mind or revision of one’s attitude toward patterns of behavior (mostly in the Christian Testament likewise as interpreted in later translations). Shakespeare dramatized these ideas in histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances throughout his career. This essay focuses on the dynamics of repentance in King Lear, where turning away and changes of mind engage with competing – but also sometimes complementing and mutually reinforcing – claims of ancient pagan Stoicism and Epicureanism in regard to fate, destiny, free will, and random change.

Keywords

charityEpicureanismGeneva BibleGreek New TestamentLatin Vulgatepenance redemptionReformationrepentanceStoicism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature , pp. 181 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Anonymous, The True Chronicle History of King Leir (London, 1605).Google Scholar
Beckwith, Sarah, Shakespeare and the Grammar of Forgiveness (Ithaca, NY, 2011).Google Scholar
Berry, Lloyd E., ed., The Geneva Bible: A Facsimile of the 1560 Edition (Madison, WI, 1969).Google Scholar
Boitani, Pietro, The Gospel According to Shakespeare, trans. Montemaggi, Vittorio and Jacoff, Rachel (Notre Dame, IN, 2013).Google Scholar
Halio, Jay L., ed., William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of King Lear, The New Cambridge Shakespeare, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2005).Google Scholar
Hamlin, Hannibal, The Bible in Shakespeare (Oxford, 2012).Google Scholar
Irwin, Terence, Classical Thought (Oxford, 1989).Google Scholar
Jones, John, Shakespeare at Work (Oxford, 1995).Google Scholar
Nestle, Erwin and Aland, Kurt, Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, 18th ed. (Stuttgart, 1958).Google Scholar
Passannante, Gerard, The Lucretian Renaissance: Philology and the Afterlife of Tradition (Chicago, 2011).Google Scholar
Shaheen, Naseeb, Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays (Newark, NJ, 1999).Google Scholar
Shapiro, James, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (New York, 2015).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×