Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
Summary
I began work for this book a long time ago with the intention of writing a study of Shakespeare's comedies introduced by some account in outline of the earlier dramatic forms and traditions that influenced him. A study following these lines could, I thought, throw fresh light on the conventions he uses or the ideas associated with them, as well as on his position in the drama of his time and possibly on the course of his personal development. But I found that if my historical outline was to be of use or interest for my purpose I could not make it brief enough to fit the whole undertaking conveniently into one pair of covers. Consequently, I have divided my undertaking into two. A sequel to this book will discuss Shakespeare's comedies more directly and continuously; the present book is largely historical and my discussion here of details from Shakespeare's plays is selective (without, I trust, being arbitrary). My object is to indicate what seem to me his points of departure: his choice of narrative and dramatic conventions from the medieval traditions of stage romance; his farreaching but independent application of classico-renaissance conceptions of comedy; and finally some of the innovations connected with his position as an Elizabethan actor–dramatist writing in the first period of the commercial theatre in Europe, or with his personal interest in Italian short stories.
A reader can soon see that I have depended extensively on Professor Geoffrey Bullough's invaluable examination of Shakespeare's sources. My concern, however, is less with particular sources than with general traditions or underlying conventions.
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- Information
- Shakespeare and the Traditions of Comedy , pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1974