King Lear 80, was deemed ideal for the role and "at home with Lear's skin" by critic Sam Wollaston. The first recording of the Argo Shakespeare for Argo Records was "King Lear" in 1957, directed and produced by George Rylands with William Devlin in the title role, Jill Balcon as Goneril and Prunella Scales as Cordelia. The Shakespeare Recording Society recorded a full-length unabridged audio productions on LP in 1965 (SRS-M-232) directed by Howard Sackler, with Paul Scofield as Lear, Cyril Cusack as Gloucester. Robert Stephens as Edmund, Rachel Roberts, Pamela Brown and John Stride. "King Lear" was broadcast live on the
The History of King Lear a melancholy one for hard-hearted spectators, and a happy one for souls of a softer mould. After surviving so many sufferings, Lear can only die, and what more truly tragic end for him than to die from grief for the death of Cordelia? and if he is also to be saved and to pass the remainder of his days in happiness, the whole loses its signification. In a letter to the editor of "The Spectator" in 1828, Charles Lamb expressed his "indignation at the sickly stuff interpolated by Tate in the genuine play of "King Lear"" and his disgust at