Science, Internationalism & War: An Original Anthology (History, Philosophy & Sociology of S... Book

This play is not famous for being (an older) alternate version of the Leir story (and virtually all the Chronicle sources material calls him Leir, as opposed to Shakespeare's innovation, Lear).

And comparison with Shakespeare doesn't help the play. This Leir comes off a petulant, which works against any sense of tragedy, and like later rewrites of Shakespeare will, it has a happy ending. It has crudely comedic moments, too, that stand out, which may have pleased a groundling audience, but would probably cause period polemicists and poets given to strict decorum to go into a passion.

It's quaint, at some points a little interesting, but little more than a sidenote to the grand drama of King Lear.