The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 20 (Paperback)

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: ... the stage, these scenes scarcely come short of boring the average spectator. Although it is not unusual to discover in these more or less lyrical elements of the tragedy something that is akin in nature and function to the Greek choric ode, it is possible to wish that Shakespeare had exchanged his bereaved women, who utter so many ejaculations, for the page who serves as a sort of chorus in the old "True Tragedy of Richard III," -- a play which is generally thought to have aided Shakespeare little if at all. Again, while students with a psychological bent have made much of the fact that in the Shakesperean play the ghosts of his victims visit Richard in his sleep, when his powerful nature is relaxed, others, like Lowell, standing in less reverential awe of the master, have not hesitated to declare that the spiritual visitants introduced by Shakespeare form "a childish procession." Perhaps no one has gone so far as to prefer Richard's account, hi the "True Tragedy," of the ghosts that tormented him to the mechanically balanced denunciations and incitements that play such an important part at the close of "Richard III"; yet if any critic or reader should dare to express such a preference, there would be no occasion for wonder. From what has just been said it ought to be obvious that perhaps the most difficult and important task confronting the critical reader of "Richard III" is to endeavour to determine why such varying views have been taken of the drama and to find, if possible, a safe position between the two ranks of critics -- between those who hold it to be an inferior production, and those who hold it to be a carefully wrought work of art. It is almost needless to say that here, as nearly always in matters of criticism, both classes...