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King Lear
also: Король Лир, Лир
The title character of Shakespeare's tragedy, a stock trophy role for a tragedian of the old school. The noble father recalls playing Lear in his youth ("rosining up" for King Lear one morning and Coverley -- see -- that same evening) as proof of his own vanished theatrical seriousness.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Lazarev, 1 November 1889. Moscow. §5 Lear
Shakespeare's tragic king; Chekhov has Gorshkov burst into a parody storm-monologue from the play as a final comic flourish for his suggested rewrite.