I actually liked the piece up to that point, having gone through a few King Lear-ish moments of reflection and teeth-gnashing on my own kids.
This is vastly different from the political imagery in Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, written just a few years earlier: "King Lear," "Hamlet," "Macbeth," even "Anthony and Cleopatra".
Start reading King Leir, written a few years before King Lear and you will instantly recognise the plot and the characters but Shakespeare turned a run-of-the mill play into an enduring masterpiece.
Cessna, Beech and Lear are a few whose names still grace planes made here.
After a silent few minutes, Lear remarked, of the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, "Seth's a friend".
There were a few more last-minute skirmishes, since Lear was determined to set a precedent for network non-coöperation: in an industry that liked to sand down the pointy, he wanted to provoke viewers.
Scrambling Shakespeare lost its radical buzz long ago, but there are a few new productions (including Young Jean Lee's "Lear" in January) that have the potential really to challenge our notions of what an adaptation looks like.
A few years ago I saw a staggering four "King Lears" — or was it five?
A few years later, in Shakespeare's English, Hamlet dies, Lear dies, and Prospero dies.
WHILE just a few years ago it might have been akin to owning a Lear jet, having your own Web page these days is about as exciting as having your own e-mail address.
