King Richard II: Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition

Description

This revised volume in Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition increases our knowledge of how Shakespeare’s plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. Updated with a new introduction providing a survey of critical responses to the plays since the 1990s to the present day, the volume offers, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the introduction offers a critical evaluation from a current stance, including modern theories and methods. Thus the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of the play and of the traditions of Shakespearean criticism surrounding it as they have developed from century to century. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents General editor’s preface General editors’ preface to the revised editions Preface Introduction Introduction to the revised edition Chapter 1: Edward Capell, various notes on Richard II: 1780 Chapter 2: Edmond Malone and others, supplementary remarks on Richard II: 1780 Chapter 3: Thomas Davies, on the deposition scene in Richard II: 1784 Chapter 4: Edmond Malone, edition of Shakespeare: 1790 Chapter 5: Joseph Ritson, Shakespeare’s part-authorship of Richard II and other notes: 1793 Chapter 6: George Steevens, notes on Richard II: 1793 Chapter 7: George Chalmers, on the date and political significance of Richard II: 1799 Chapter 8: Charles Dibdin, Richard II inferior to Richard III: 1800 Chapter 9: Francis Douce, Richard II and the memento mori tradition: 1807 Chapter 10: Charles Lamb, Marlowe’s Edward II compared to Richard II: 1808 Chapter 11: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, on Richard II and the history play: 1813 Chapter 12: William Hazlitt, a critique of Edmund Kean as Richard II: 1815 Chapter 13: Richard Wroughton, advertisement of an adaptation of Richard II: 1815 Chapter 14: A.W. von Schlegel, Richard II and the unity of Shakespeare’s history plays: 1815 Chapter 15: Nathan Drake, a sympathetic view of Richard II: 1817 Chapter 16: William Hazlitt, characterization in Richard II: 1817 Chapter 17: John Hamilton Reynolds, the poetry of Richard II and the other histories: 1817 Chapter 18: Augustine Skottowe, Richard II and the truth of history: 1824 Chapter 19: George Daniel, prefatory remarks on Richard II: 1831 Chapter 20: Henry Nelson Coleridge, another version of Coleridge on Richard II: 1836 Chapter 21: Henry Hallam, on the scene of Aumerle’s pardon in Richard II: 1837–39 Chapter 22: Thomas Campbell, general comments on Richard II: 1838 Chapter 23: Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, Richard II and history: 1838 Chapter 24: Charles Knight, the pictorial edition of Richard II: 1838 Chapter 25: John Payne Collier, on the existence of two plays on Richard II’s reign: 1842 Chapter 26: Hermann Ulrici, kingship and the morality of Richard II: 1846 Chapter 27: Gulian C. Verplanck, critical remarks on Richard II : 1847 Chapter 28: Hartley Coleridge, a comment on Richard II: 1851 Chapter 29: François P. G. Guizot, history, character, and divine right in Richard II: 1852 Chapter 30: Henry N. Hudson, historical truth and characterization in Richard II: 1852 Chapter 31: Henry Reed, history as tragedy in Richard II: 1855 Chapter 32: William Watkiss Lloyd, the political morality of Richard II : 1856 Chapter 33: Richard Grant White, Richard II, Daniel’s Civil Wars, and the play’s date: 1859 Chapter 34: G.G. Gervinus, the characterization and artistry of Richard II: 1863 Chapter 35: John A. Heraud, the play’s divided authorship and Shakespeare’s attitude to divine right: 1865 Chapter 36: Henry N. Hudson, further observations on Richard II: 1872 Chapter 37: Richard Simpson, Richard II and Elizabethan politics: 1874 Chapter 38: Edward Dowden, the immaturity of Richard II and the realism of Bolingbroke: 1875 Chapter 39: A. C. Swinburne, an unsympathetic view of Richard II: 1875 Chapter 40: F.J. Furnivall, the topicality of Richard II and the character of its protagonist: 1877 Chapter 41: Denton J. Snider, Richard II and the right of revolution:  1877 Chapter 42: P.A. Daniel, time problems in Richard II:  1879 Chapter 43: Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare’s concern with costume in Richard II: 1885 Chapter 44: A.W. Verity, Marlowe’s influence on Richard II: 1886 Chapter 45: Richard Grant White, Richard III and Richard II compared: 1886 Chapter 46: Havelock Ellis, on the inferiority of Richard II to Marlowe’s Edward II: 1887 Chapter 47: Frank A. Marshall, the theatrical weakness of Richard II: 1888 Chapter 48: Walter Pater, ritual and lyricism in Richard II: 1889 Chapter 49: P. A. Daniel, a nonpolitical reason for omitting the deposition scene from the early quartos of Richard II: 1890 Chapter 50: Cyril Ransome, character disclosure and dramatic symmetry in Richard II: 1890 Chapter 51: E.K. Chambers, the artistry of Richard II: 1891 Chapter 52: C.H. Herford, miscellaneous comments on Richard II: 1893 Chapter 53: Beverley E. Warner, characterization and history in Richard II: 1894 Chapter 54: Barrett Wendell, Richard II as an archaic masterpiece: 1894 Chapter 55: Frederick S. Boas, diseased will and sentimentalism in Richard II : 1896 Chapter 56: Georg Brandes, Edward II and Richard II contrasted: 1898 Chapter 57: C.E. Montague, on F.R. Benson’s portrayal of Richard II: 1899 Chapter 58: Sidney Lee, Benson’s Richard II and the acting of minor roles:  1900  Chapter 59: W.B. Yeats, Richard II and Henry V as emblems of refinement and vulgarity: 1901 Chapter 60: Frederick S. Boas, the relation of Woodstock to Richard II: 1902 Chapter 61: Felix E. Schelling, Shakespeare’s independence in Richard II: 1902 Chapter 62: H.F. Prevost Battersby, on Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s Richard II: 1903  Chapter 63: Richard G. Moulton, Richard II, the divine right of kings, and the pendulum of history: 1903 Chapter 64: A. C. Swinburne, an iconoclastic view of Richard II: 1903 Chapter 65: A.C. Bradley, on Richard II and tragedy: 1904 Chapter 66: Stopford A. Brooke, purgation through tragic suffering in Richard II:  1905  Chapter 67: Morton Luce, Richard II a disappointing failure: 1905 Chapter 68: George Pierce Baker, Richard II and the weaknesses and strengths of the chronicle play: 1907 Chapter 69: Sir Walter Raleigh, weakness and the philosophic strain in the character of Richard II : 1907 Chapter 70: George Saintsbury, Richard II as an imperfect but rhetorically unique drama: 1907 Chapter 71: Ashley H. Thorndike, structure, style, and characterization in Richard II: 1908 Chapter 72: A. C. Bradley, further comments on Richard II: 1909 Chapter 73: G.S. Gordon, patriotism and the absence of moral order in Richard II: 1909 Chapter 74: Charlotte Porter, the subtle artistry of Act I: 1910 Chapter 75: C.F. Tucker Brooke, miscellaneous comments on Richard II: 1911 Chapter 76: John Masefield, Richard II as a tragedy of double treachery: 1911 Chapter 77: Hardin Craig, from an introduction to Richard II: 1912 Chapter 78: Ivor B. John, from an introduction to Richard II: 1912 Chapter 79: Brander Matthews, dramaturgical weakness and psychological strength in Richard II: 1913 Chapter 80: Lacy Collison-Morley, Alessandro Manzoni’s anti-classical perspective on Richard II: 1916 Chapter 81: Wilhelm Creizenach, miscellaneous comments on Richard II: 1916 Chapter 82: J.A.R. Marriott, historical context and Richard II as a tragedy of political amateurism: 1918 Notes A select bibliography Index