Shakespearean Tragedy

by A. C. Bradley

Layout 2

SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

 

LECTURES ON
HAMLET, OTHELLO, KING LEAR
MACBETH

 

BY

A. C. BRADLEY

LL.D. LITT.D., FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

 

SECOND EDITION
(EIGHT IMPRESSION)

 

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1912

 

COPYRIGHT.

First Edition 1904.
Second Edition March 1905.
Reprinted August 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1912.

 

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

 

To my Students

 

PREFACE

These lectures are based on a selection from materials used in teaching at Liverpool, Glasgow, and Oxford; and I have for the most part preserved the lecture form. The point of view taken in them is explained in the Introduction. I should, of course, wish them to be read in their order, and a knowledge of the first two is assumed in the remainder; but readers who may prefer to enter at once on the discussion of the several plays can do so by beginning at page 89.

Any one who writes on Shakespeare must owe much to his predecessors. Where I was conscious of a particular obligation, I have acknowledged it; but most of my reading of Shakespearean criticism was done many years ago, and I can only hope that I have not often reproduced as my own what belongs to another.

Many of the Notes will be of interest only to scholars, who may find, I hope, something new in them.

I have quoted, as a rule, from the Globe edition, and have referred always to its numeration of acts, scenes, and lines.

November, 1904.

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NOTE TO SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRESSIONS

In these impressions I have confined myself to making some formal improvements, correcting indubitable mistakes, and indicating here and there my desire to modify or develop at some future time statements which seem to me doubtful or open to misunderstanding. The changes, where it seemed desirable, are shown by the inclusion of sentences in square brackets.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction	1
LECTURE I.
The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy	5
LECTURE II.
Construction in Shakespeare's Tragedies	40
LECTURE III.
Shakespeare’s Tragic Period—Hamlet	79
LECTURE IV.
Hamlet	129
LECTURE V.
Othello	175
LECTURE VI.
Othello	207
LECTURE VII.
King Lear	243
LECTURE VIII.
King Lear	280
LECTURE IX.
Macbeth	331
LECTURE X.
Macbeth	366

 

Note A.	Events before the opening of the action in Hamlet	401
Note B.	Where was Hamlet at the time of his father’s death?	403
Note C.	Hamlet’s age	407
Note D.	‘My tables—meet it is I set it down’	409
Note E.	The Ghost in the cellarage	412
Note F.	The Player’s speech in Hamlet	413
Note G.	Hamlet’s apology to Laertes	420
Note H.	The exchange of rapiers	422
Note I.	The duration of the action in Othello	423
Note J.	The ‘additions’ in the Folio text of Othello. The Pontic sea	429
Note K.	Othello’s courtship	432
Note L.	Othello in the Temptation scene	434
Note M.	Questions as to Othello, IV. i.	435
Note N.	Two passages in the last scene of Othello	437
Note O.	Othello on Desdemona’s last words	438
Note P.	Did Emilia suspect lago?	439
Note Q.	lago’s suspicion regarding Cassio and Emilia	441
Note R.	Reminiscences of Othello in King Lear	441
Note S.	King Lear and Timon of Athens	442
Note T.	Did Shakespeare shorten King Lear?	445
Note U.	Movements of the dramatis personæ in King Lear, II.	448
Note V.	Suspected interpolations in King Lear	450
Note W.	The staging of the scene of Lear’s reunion with Cordelia	453
Note X.	The Battle in King Lear	456
Note Y.	Some difficult passages in King Lear	458
Note Z.	Suspected interpolations in Macbeth	466
Note AA.	Has Macbeth been abridged?	467
Note BB.	The date of Macbeth. Metrical Tests	470
Note CC.	When was the murder of Duncan first plotted?	480
Note DD.	Did Lady Macbeth really faint?	484
Note EE.	Duration of the action in Macbeth. Macbeth’s age. ‘He has no children’	486
Note FF.	The Ghost of Banquo	492
Index		494

 

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.