King Lear and Cordelia (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7)

Various artists/makers

Not on view

West painted several versions of this subject, showing Lear regaining consciousness in the French camp following his ordeal on the heath. This related stipple engraving is closest to a painting at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, and shows Kent, or a doctor, supporting the traumatized king. When Cordelia asks if her father knows her, Lear replies:
"You are a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that my own tears
Do scald like molten lead."

King Lear and Cordelia (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7), (?) Francesco Bartolozzi (Italian, Florence 1728–1815 Lisbon), Stipple engraving, printed in brown ink

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