1st Edition

Shakespearean Tragedy

By D. F. Bratchell Copyright 1990

    This volume reflects changing critical perceptions of Shakespeare's works from Renaissance to modern times and celebrates the power of Shakespearean tragedy. The selection of critical reaction covers both the general concept of Shakespearean tragedy and its expression in the major plays, illustrating the main directions of critical approaches to Shakespearean tragedy and enabling the reader to develop an informed response to Shakespeare's dramatic works.
    An introductory chapter traces the development of the concept of tragedy from classical times, and its dramatic expression in the time of Shakespeare. Each of Shakespeare's great tragedies - Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello - is considered in turn, and a final chapter summarizes contemporary critical approaches so that the reader can link the best of the critical past with the present critical scene.

    Acknowledgements, 1: The development of tragedy, 2: Critics and Shakespearean tragedy, Poetics (c.330 BC, printed 1536), An Apology for Poetry (1595), The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy (1679), An Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome and England (1710), An Essay upon English Tragedy (1747), Preface to The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765), Remarks on Some of the Characters of Shakespeare (1785), ‘An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff’ (1777), On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811), Biographia Literaria (1817), Lectures on Shakespeare (1818), ‘On Poetry in General’ (1818), ‘On Shakespeare and Milton’ (1818), ‘A Summary Survey’ (1838), Shakspere: A Critical Study of his Mind and Art (1875), Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), Shakespeare (1907), Character Problems in Shakespeare’s Plays (1922), Art and Artifice in Shakespeare (1933), The Wheel of Fire (1930), Shakespeare’s Imagery and What it Tells Us (1935), Character and Motive in Shakespeare (1949), Shakespeare’s Tragedies (1950), 3: Critics and the ‘great’ tragedies, Hamlet ( 1600–1601), The Plays of Shakespeare (1765), On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811), ‘Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays’ (1817), Lectures on Shakespeare (1818), Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), What Happens in Hamlet (1935), Othello ( 1604–1605), The Plays of Shakespeare (1765), On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811), ‘Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays’ (1817), Lectures on Shakespeare (1818), Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), Art and Artifice in Shakespeare (1933), King Lear ( 1605–1606), The Plays of Shakespeare (1765), On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811), ‘Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays’ (1817), Lectures on Shakespeare (1818), Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), The Wheel of Fire (1930), Macbeth ( 1605–1606), The Plays of Shakespeare (1765), On the Tragedies of Shakespeare (1811), ‘Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays’ (1817), Lectures on Shakespeare (1818), ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’ (1823), Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), The Wheel of Fire (1930), 4: Later critical texts, Bibliography

    Biography

    D. F. Bratchell was until recently Professor and Head of the Department of English at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. Other works include 'Robert Greene's Planetomachia and the text of the third tragedy', 'The aims and organization of further education', 'The impact of Darwinism'