The Shakespeare Story-Book

The Shakespeare Story-Book

Literary critics have many times during the past two thousand years waged battle with one another over the question whether drama owes its excellence chiefly to plot or chiefly to character. Is it the business of the dramatist, critics ask successively through the ages, to inspire the playgoer with a deeper interest in the external circumstances which mould the fortunes of his heroes and heroines than in their individual temperaments and the inner workings of their minds and hearts? But critics commonly count it a bondage to fix a belief, and after clothing their question in the complexity of disquisition, they rarely stay for a clear and decisive answer. The glimmering light of dialectics usually involves in shadow one or other commanding [Pg viii] phase of the problem. To the plain observer it would seem that both plot and character are essential constituents of perfect drama; that the strength of the one depends on the strength of the other; and that, except to the questioning critic, it is a matter of small practical consequence to which the greater importance be attached by the refinements of theory. In the best plays of Shakespeare the interest evoked respectively by plot and character is so evenly balanced that he must be exceptionally short-sighted who would set the value of the one above the value of the other. The external circumstances that mould the fortunes of Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello, rivet the playgoers and the readers attention in no less a degree than the individual temperaments of these great dramatic personages or the inner workings of their minds and hearts. It is the perfectly harmonious co-operation of plot and character that is responsible for Shakespeares noblest triumphs. Close and constant study of the great plays of Shakespeare must ultimately rouse in the student a more absorbing interest in their characters than in their plots. That is the final effect of supreme dramatic genius. But the full appreciation of Shakespeares sure and illimitable insight into character can never be reached until we have made ourselves thoroughly familiar with the plot in which the character has its substantive being. It follows, therefore, that if one would realise completely in due time the whole eminence of Shakespeares dramatic achievement, one should be encouraged at the outset to study closely the stories of the plays rather than the characters apart from their settings. When the youthful mind has grasped the manner and matter of the plots, it will in adult age be in [Pg ix] a far better position than it could be otherwise to comprehend all the excellences, all the subtleties of the characters. Only when plot and character have received equally full attention will Shakespeare stand revealed to the mature student in his manifold glory. It was this point of view that led Charles Lamb and his sister Mary to prepare their Tales from Shakespeare, designed for the use of young persons. Their volume was first published in 1807. The two writers narrated, in simple language for the most part, the plots of twenty of Shakespeares plays, fourteen comedies and six tragedies. None of the historical dramas, whether English or Roman, were included, nor was a place found for the comedies of Loves Labours Lost, and the Merry Wives of Windsor, nor for the tragedies of Troilus and Cressida, and Titus Andronicus. The greater part of the volume was the work of Mary Lamb. Although Charles Lambs name alone appeared upon the title-page, he was responsible for no more than six of the talesthose of the six tragedies. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 49146
Author: Macleod, Mary
Release Date: Jun 6, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616

Illustrator: Browne, Gordon, 1858-1932