King Lear and Cordelia (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7)
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."
"You are a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that my own tears
Do scald like molten lead."
Artwork Details
- Title: King Lear and Cordelia (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7)
- Engraver: (?) Francesco Bartolozzi (Italian, Florence 1728–1815 Lisbon)
- Artist: After Benjamin West (American, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 1738–1820 London)
- Publisher: Benjamin Beale Evans (British, ca. 1765–1824)
- Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
- Date: ca. 1783
- Medium: Stipple engraving, printed in brown ink
- Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed within plate): 12 5/8 × 17 3/16 in. (32.1 × 43.7 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Olga Sichel and Max Philippson, 1962
- Object Number: 62.557.175
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
More Artwork
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Francesco Bartolozzi
Hans Holbein the Younger
ca. 1794–1802
Francesco Bartolozzi
Hans Holbein the Younger
ca. 1794–1802
Francesco Bartolozzi
n.d.
Multiple artists/makers
1765–1800
Francesco Bartolozzi
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
1750–1815
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