Lanterna Rally

Author: Henry Charles Beeching

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-03-23

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 9781332870370

Excerpt from The Character of Shakespeare How far then is a dramatists own character a necessary element in his constructive imagination? We should all agree probably that a dramatist, like a clergyman, might have private vices of which his writings would give no hint. We should not guess from Robert Greenes plays that he was a drunkard and debauchee, though we should not credit him with any high moral principles. It would be perfectly possible for any competent playwright to draw persons acting courageously or beneficently though he himself were a coward or a pennyfather, because the general standard for these and other particular virtues would be familiar to him but would it be possible for a dramatist to draw what we call a noble character, and to repre sent him, throughout a whole play, speaking and acting always from high mitives, if he were himself vulgar-minded and mean-spirited? We should require a clear instance of such a phenomenon before we could believe it. From the element of nobility in most men they would be able, perhaps, to recognize a thing said or done as being finely said or done, but they could not, unless they were themselves noble, throw themselves into a state of mind so far above the ordinary level, and think and act in that character consistently. Now some of Shakespeares most impressive characters are of this noble type. Othello, for example, is a great gentleman. We feel his magnanimity in every line he speaks. But this nobility is entirely the creation of Shakespeare it forms no part of the character in the novel of Cinthio, upon which the play is based. 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.