An argument to support the view that 'everything
about the play [King Lear] hangs on the first two scenes not
just the plot but the values as well.'
'King Lear, as I see it, confronts the perplexity and mystery of human
action.' (Shakespeare's Middle Tragedies, 169) As the previous quotation
from the scriptures of Maynard Mack implies, King Lear is a very complex
and intricate play which happens to be surrounded by a lot of debate. 'The
folio of 1623, which was, as is well known, edited by two of Shakespeare's
fellow actors' (Notes and Essays on Shakespeare, 242), contains not only…