King Lear: Everything About the Play Hangs on First Two Scenes An argument to support the view that "everything about the play [King Lear] hangs on the first two scenes not just the plot but the values as well." "King Lear, as I see it, confronts the perplexity and mystery of human action." (Shakespeare's Middle Tragedies, 169) As the previous quotation from the scriptures of Maynard Mack implies, King Lear is a very complex and intricate play which happens to be surrounded by a lot of debate. "The folio of 1623, which was, as is well known, edited by two of Shakespeare's fellow actors" (Notes and Essays on Shakespeare, 242), con