The Year of Lear

Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare in a Divided America , shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies written that year— King Lear , Macbeth , and Antony and Cleopatra. “ The Year of Lear is irresistible—a banquet of wisdom” ( The New York Times Book Review ). In the years leading up to 1606, Shakespeare’s great productivity had ebbed. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he