Measure for Measure Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition. Volume 6

by Geckle, George L.

• ISBN13: 9780485810042
• ISBN10: 0485810042
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-02
• Publisher: Athlone Pr

Summary

The discussion focuses on the nature of the major characters, the morality of their behavior, the conclusion of the play, and the genre of a play that was listed in the First Folio as a comedy. The contents of this volume cover texts by English, American and European scholars and critics including Malone, Steevens, Schlegel, Hazlitt, Coleridge, Bagehot, Pater, Dowden, Furnivall, Swinburne, Shaw, Bradley, and Croce.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface	x
Preface	xxxv
Introduction	1	(30)
Correcting Shakespeare's editors, 1783	31	(3)
Joseph Ritson
Isabella `pious,... determined, and eloquent', 1789	34	(2)
William Richardson
Topical allusions in Measure for Measure, 1790	36	(3)
Edmond Malone
Identifying the main source, explaining the text, 1793	39	(3)
George Steevens
On the play's sources, 1807	42	(3)
Francis Douce
A faulty play, 1807	45	(2)
Henry James Pye
Character and characterization, 1808	47	(2)
Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald
`The triumph of mercy over strict justice', 1815	49	(2)
A. W. Von Schlegel
Measure for Measure in performance, 1816	51	(2)
William Hazlitt
Isabella, a `lovely example of female excellence', 1817	53	(3)
Nathan Drake
`A general system of cross-purposes', 1817	56	(2)
William Hazlitt
The Family Shakespeare, 1818	58	(2)
Thomas Bowdler
Character and morality in Measure for Measure, 1822	60	(3)
The play's major source, 1824	63	(7)
Augustine Skottowe
A play about mercy, 1826	70	(4)
George Daniel
Isabella compared to Portia, 1832	74	(6)
Anna Brownell Jameson
A `hateful' and `painful' play, 1835, 1836	80	(2)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A struggle between drama and philosophy, 1839	82	(2)
Henry Hallam
An introduction to the play, 1840	84	(10)
Charles Knight
On the play's date and sources, 1842	94	(2)
J. Payne Collier
Striking passages in a play that gives little pleasure, 1845	96	(3)
Joseph Hunter
An expression of New Testament morality, 1846	99	(7)
Hermann Ulrici
`This remarkable drama', 1847	106	(7)
Gulian C. Verplanck
The betrothal contracts and their significance, 1850	113	(2)
J.O. Halliwell
Dispraise for Angelo, praise for Isabella, ambivalence about the Duke, 1851	115	(6)
H.N. Hudson
Angelo a natural hypocrite, 1853	121	(2)
Walter Bagehot
Sympathy for Angelo, criticism of Isabella, 1854	123	(12)
Richard Grant White
An uncongenial play, 1856	135	(6)
William Watkiss Lloyd
On Isabella, the epitome of goodness, and some minor characters, 1863	141	(11)
Charles Cowden Clarke
A play expressing equity, not justice, 1863	152	(9)
Georg Gottfried Gervinus
`The central expression' of Shakespeare's `moral judgments', 1874	161	(7)
Walter Pater
A dark and bitter play, 1875	168	(4)
Edward Dowden
Mediation by the monastic life, 1875	172	(10)
Denton J. Snider
The place of Measure for Measure in Shakespeare's canon, 1877	182	(4)
F.J. Furnivall
Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism, 1877	186	(6)
George Wilkes
On the play's analogues and early performance, 1880	192	(2)
J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps
A tragedy, 1880	194	(2)
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Measure for Measure as dramatic literature, 1886-1909	196	(3)
George Bernard Shaw
A lesson from the Sermon on the Mount, 1889	199	(2)
Henry Morley
The `painfulness' of Measure for Measure, 1889	201	(4)
Arthur Symons
A `disconsolate and bitter' play, 1891	205	(10)
Andrew Lang
A recapitulation of Shakespeare's earlier work, 1894	215	(4)
Barrett Wendell
A problem play, 1896	219	(10)
Frederick S. Boas
Measure for Measure and Puritan hypocrisy, 1898	229	(7)
Georg Brandes
Shakespeare elevated `a degraded and repellent theme', 1898	236	(3)
Sidney Lee
A play `full of prophetic intimations', 1899	239	(3)
C.H. Herford
A `painful and repellent' play, 1900	242	(2)
Hamilton Wright Mabie
Measure for Measure as `a moral experiment', 1903	244	(10)
Richard G. Moulton
Miscellaneous comments, 1904	254	(3)
A.C. Bradley
A critical introduction, 1905	257	(4)
H.C. Hart
An `unclassifiable play' with a `half satirical title', 1905	261	(2)
Algernon Charles Swinburne
`The limits of comedy...sorely strained', 1906	263	(5)
E.K. Chambers
Measure for Measure and `the philosophy of morals', 1906	268	(3)
Morton Luce
On the `inconsistency in the character of Angelo', 1907	271	(3)
Robert Bridges
Shakespeare's representation of `a weak world', 1907	274	(7)
Sir Walter Raleigh
A play dramatizing `the central truth of Christian morality', 1907	281	(5)
Andrew J. George
A play better read than acted, 1907	286	(3)
A. B. Walkley
Duke Vincentio as Shakespeare's alter ego, 1909	289	(6)
Frank Harris
`A dramatised Sermon on the Mount of Genius', 1909	295	(5)
Charlotte Porter
An attack on Puritanism, 1909	300	(9)
Mary Suddard
`An early, half finished piece', 1910	309	(2)
George Saintsbury
Historical criticism and Measure for Measure, 1910	311	(2)
Elmer Edgar Stoll
`One of the greatest works of the greatest English mind', 1911	313	(3)
John Masefield
William Poel's `Elizabethan' production, 1911	316	(3)
C.E. Montague
Characterization, style and structure, 1912	319	(4)
Edgar C. Morris
An `eminently disagreeable' piece of cynicism, 1913	323	(9)
Stopford A. Brooke
A play `as painful as it is ill-shapen', 1913	332	(4)
Brander Matthews
A play `unfit for the modern Theatre', 1913	336	(2)
William Winter
Measure for Measure and `the ethical spirit of western literature', 1915	338	(2)
Lafcadio Hearn
The `happy ending...fails to persuade', 1920	340	(3)
Benedetto Croce
Notes	343	(20)
Select Bibliography	363	(10)
Index	373