King Lear: Samuel Phelps (1804-78) as Lear: mid to late 19th century.

Shakespeare's version of King Lear had been replaced on stage for over a hundred and fifty years by Tate's happy ending adaptation: The History of King Lear. Phelps was generally considered the finest King Lear of his generation, and in 1845 he staged the first production of the original version since the Restoration. Bell's Weekly Messenger wrote "The majesty, as well as the paternal tenderness of Lear, is preserved throughout; the grief, despair, and madness are kingly; and the business which the action inspires is heightened by the consciousness of the greatness of the mind that is suffering." Some data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia). Lithograph by Louis Vert for Verlag von Eduard Bloch, Berlin: courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library.