This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII Sbafteepeare's tmmlet Shakespeaee was not a ready inventor of incident. He took full advantage of the Elizabethan license of borrowing, and adopted ready-made plots wherever he found them. He made alterations, of course; but they were usually slight. In the story of Silvia, and again in ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII Sbafteepeare's tmmlet Shakespeaee was not a ready inventor of incident. He took full advantage of the Elizabethan license of borrowing, and adopted ready-made plots wherever he found them. He made alterations, of course; but they were usually slight. In the story of Silvia, and again in the story of Hermione, he twisted tragedy into comedy, while in King Lear he turned a happy ending into wholesale tragedy; but in general his changes were less revolutionary. The making of plot-material was not his business. What he did feel to be his business was the realization of character. His original provided him with a good story, but the characters were often no more than puppets. Stirring deeds were done, but as to what manner of men did them the older writers were apt to be noncommittal. Giraldi's Iago and Holinshed's Macbeth are men of straw. Shakespeare's task was to retell Giraldi's story and Holinshed's history, and in the retelling to make Macbeth and Iago live. Perhaps he consciously put the question to himself, "What kind of men must these have been, to do as they did?" At any rate, it is by imagining him to put such a question that we can most easily revive in our own minds his processes of creation. By these processes he made new and original characters; but the materials of which he made them were his borrowed plots. In Hamlet, therefore, it does not surprise us to discover that almost all the plot was old. Shakespeare would be especially sparing of invention when he was not newly dramatizing fiction or history, but only remodeling material already dramatized. In such cases he always retained the main outlines of his original, sometimes even minute details of the scenario. He was content to put new wine in the old bottles....
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Seller's Description:
Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. pp. 133. Minor edge and corner wear; no dj; lightly scuffed and scratched; corners are gently bumped and rubbed; some writing in light pencil throughout the book; some light shelf wear; ex-library with the usual library markings; overall a nice used copy! Yellow boards with brown lettering on the spine. 133 historical and informative pages! "This essay presents the chief new results of a prolonged study of Hamlet with a succession of college classes. I became convinced long ago that the only hope of solving the Hamlet problem lay in a clear discrimination between Shakespeare's original contributions to the story and the legendary materials that he inherited. This plan has never been fairly tried, because it has heretofore been thought impossible to distinguish these heterogeneous elements......"---from the Preface.
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Seller's Description:
Good. No Jacket. 5 x 7 1/2. 122 pages. Foreword by Tucker Brooke. Blue cloth exterior with title in gold on front-title block and gold crest slightly chipped. Prior owner name on front free endpaper otherwise interior is unmarked, tight and clean.
