How King Lear drew on The Complete Essays
A documented line of influence: William Shakespeare demonstrably engaged Michel de Montaigne’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Complete Essays
Michel de Montaigne · 1580
RenaissanceThe influenced
King Lear
William Shakespeare · c. 1605
ShakespeareRelevance
8/10
On King Lear’s page
- The skeptical, self-interrogating mind of King Lear is mined from Montaigne — 100-plus words new to Shakespeare here come straight out of Florio's 1603 translation
- Edmund's amoral reasoning and Lear's doubt are the Essays dramatized; even Edmund's "essay or taste of my virtue" is a wink at the source
- Read Montaigne first and you meet the thinking behind the play — Nietzsche called Shakespeare "Montaigne's best reader"
On The Complete Essays’s page
- Shakespeare read Florio's 1603 translation closely — King Lear introduces 100-plus words he had never used before that all appear in it
- Greenblatt traces Edmund's speeches and Lear's skeptical core straight to the Essays; Edmund even calls his forged letter "an essay or taste of my virtue," a wink at the book
- Nietzsche put it flatly: "Shakespeare was Montaigne's best reader"