Author: jamesshapiro

Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies written that year–King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. “The Year of Lear is irresistible–a banquet of wisdom” (The New York Times Book Review). In the years leading up to 1606, Shakespeare’s great productivity had ebbed. But that year, at age … had ebbed. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn–King Lear–then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. It was a memorable year in England…