{"product_id":"notes-to-shakespeare-volume-iii-the-tragedies-gb-15566","title":"Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNotes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDr. Johnson's reaction to Shakespeare's tragedies is a curious\r\none, compounded as it is of deep emotional involvement in a few\r\nscenes in some plays and a strange dispassionateness toward most of\r\nthe others. I suspect that his emotional involvement took root when\r\nhe read Shakespeare as a boyone remembers the terror he\r\nexperienced in reading of the Ghost in Hamlet, and it was\r\nprobably also as a boy that he suffered that shock of horrified\r\noutrage and grief at the death of Cordelia that prevented him from\r\nrereading the scene until be came to edit the play. Johnson's\r\ndeepest feelings and convictions, Professor Clifford has recently\r\nreminded us, can be traced back to his childhood and adolescence.\r\nBut it is surprising to learn, as one does from his commentary,\r\nthat other scenes in these very plays (Hamlet and King\r\nLear, and in Macbeth, too) leave him unmoved, if one can\r\nso interpret the absence of any but an explanatory note on, say,\r\nLear's speech beginning \"Pray, do not mock me;\/I am a very foolish\r\nfond old man.\" Besides this negative evidence there is also the\r\npositive evidence of many notes which display the dispassionate\r\neditorial mind at work where one might expect from Johnson an\r\noutburst of personal feeling. There are enough of these outbursts\r\nto warrant our expecting others, but we are too frequently\r\ndisappointed. Perhaps Johnson thought of most of Shakespeare's\r\ntragedies as \"imperial tragedies\" and that is why he could maintain\r\na stance of aloofness; conversely, \"the play of Timon is a\r\ndomestick Tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention\r\nof the reader.\" But the \"tragedy\" of Timon does not capture the\r\nattention of the modern reader, and perhaps all attempts to fix\r\nJohnson's likes and dislikes, and the reasons for them, in the\r\ncanon of Shakespeare's plays must circle endlessly without ever\r\ngetting to their destination.\n(392) Most of the notes which the present editor has subjoined\r\nto this play were published by him in a small pamphlet in 1745.\nI.i (393,*) Enter three Witches] In order to make a true\r\nestimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it it always\r\nnecessary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his\r\ncontemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his\r\ntragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by\r\nthe assistance of supernatural agents, would be censured as\r\ntransgressing the bounds of probability, be banished from the\r\ntheatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead\r\nof tragedies; but a survey of the notions that prevailed at the\r\ntime when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in\r\nno danger of such censures, since he only turned the system that\r\nwas then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from\r\noverburthening the credulity of his audience.\n\u003cb\u003e ......Buy Now (To Read More)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct details\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEbook Number\u003c\/b\u003e: 15566 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor\u003c\/b\u003e: Johnson, Samuel \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelease Date\u003c\/b\u003e: Apr 6, 2005 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat\u003c\/b\u003e: eBook \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage\u003c\/b\u003e: English \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eContributors\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEditor\u003c\/b\u003e: Sherbo, Arthur, 1918-2010 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Johnson, Samuel,1709-1784 \/ eBook \/ English","offer_id":43217264640157,"sku":"gb-15566-ebook","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/products\/15566.jpg?v=1671422326","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/notes-to-shakespeare-volume-iii-the-tragedies-gb-15566","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}