An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare

INTRODUCTION

TO THE STUDY OF

SHAKESPEARE.

HIRAM CORSON, LL.D.,

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE CORNELL
UNIVERSITY.

BOSTON:

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS.

1890.

Harvard University
Hajash D., artment Library
Gift of

ALBERT MATTHEWS,
H. U. 1882,

Dec. 22, 1896,

Harvard University,
Child Memorial Library.

TRANSFERRED TO

***VARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
1940

-TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., Boston.

PREFACE.

THE present work is an attempt to indicate to the student some lines of Shakespearian study which may serve to introduce him. to the study of the Plays as plays. No one line is carried out to any extent; but enough is presented, it is hoped, to enable the student, with the additional aid of such easily accessible sources as are noted, to extend the several lines of study indicated.

The commentaries presented on Romeo and Juliet, King John, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra, aim chiefly to present the points of view which are demanded, me judice, for a proper appreciation of Shakespeare's general attitude toward things, and his resultant dramatic art. The moral spirit with which he worked, as distinguished from a moralizing spirit, it is all-important to appreciate. His Plays surpass all those of the contemporary dramatists in their moral proportion in the harmony which they exhibit with the eternal fitness of things—in their truthfulness in respect to the fatalism of overmastering passion. Herein consists their transcendent educating value. To come into the fullest possible sympathy with this moral proportion, with this harmony and truthfulness, should be the highest aim of Shakespearian culture.

The textual study of the Plays is abundantly provided for by numerous annotated editions, such as Rolfe's, Hudson's, the Clarendon Press, etc. These scholarly editions will not soon be superseded by others having the same general purpose.

HIRAM CORSON.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION (Shakespeare in general: his personal history; his

contemporary reputation; features of his dramatic art; etc.)

THE SHAKESPEARE-BACON CONTROVERSY

THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE FIRST FOLIO (the dedicatees, the Earl
of Pembroke and the Earl of Montgomery; the dedicators, John
Heminge and Henry Condell; the authors of the Commenda-
tory Verses, etc.) .

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PLAYS.

SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE.

DISTINCTIVE USE OF VERSE AND PROSE IN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS

THE LATIN AND THE ANGLO-SAXON ELEMENTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S

ENGLISH, AND THE MONOSYLLABIC VOCABULARY, IN THEIR

RELATIONS TO THE INTELLECTUAL, THE EMOTIONAL, AND THE

DRAMATIC