Page "King Lear" Paragraph 38

Although an exact date of composition cannot be given, many academic editors of the play date King Lear between 1603 and 1606.

The latest it could have been written is 1606, because the Stationers ' Register notes a performance on 26 December 1606.

The 1603 date originates from words in Edgar's speeches which may derive from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures ( 1603 ).

In his Arden edition, R. A. Foakes argues for a date of 1605 – 6, because one of Shakespeare's sources, The True Chronicle History of King Leir, was not published until 1605 ; close correspondences between that play and Shakespeare's suggest that he may have been working from a text ( rather than from recollections of a performance ).

Conversely, Frank Kermode, in the Riverside Shakespeare, considers the publication of Leir to have been a response to performances of Shakespeare's already-written play ; noting a sonnet by William Strachey that may have verbal resemblances with Lear, Kermode concludes that " 1604-5 seems the best compromise ".