Shakespeare in Fact and in Criticism (Classic Reprint)

Download or read book Shakespeare in Fact and in Criticism (Classic Reprint) written by Appleton Morgan and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Shakespeare in Fact and in Criticism These Papers have been indexed in a common table because, if there is anything of value in them, it will not he less valuable when made of easy reference. But principally they are so identified because, although written at differing intervals, there runs through them all a sort of common purpose. That purpose is to protest, as far as one voice can, against what seems to me the cruel and unusual punishment which Shakespeare is just now meeting at the hands of the esthetic critics. These esthetes, divigating their processes from simple demonstration of Shakespeare's beauties, have fallen to counting his lines, his syllables and endings; from this numeration to conceive a certain algebra, and from this algebra to demonstrate the period and the chronology of this or that play or poem. Nay, more. They even write his William Shakespeare's personal history from the impressions they themselves receive from this treatment of particular passages in the Plays, until there are as many William Shakespeares as there are commentators! My own idea has been that William Shakespeare was a man of like passion with ourselves, whose moods and veins were influenced just as are ours by his surroundings, employments, vocations; that his works are for all times that love him, but not (as is shown by the Davenant episode) for those that do not; and that, great as he teas and oceanic as teas his genius, we can read him all the better because he was, after all, a man. I admit to having modified in the course of time and study a good many of the opinions expressed in these Papers, as well as in my earlier Shakespearean Myth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.