CHAPTER VII EY OF SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to hronologically and in detail the successive stages of peare's dramatic progress. Now that I have comthe inquiry it may be convenient to sum up briefly neral result as far as it throws light on the structure, terisation, and style of his plays. The first group of Shakespeare's plays includes Titus nicus, The Troublesome Raigne of King John, the id and Third Parts of King Henry VI. (in their old of The Contention of the Houses of York and Lancaster, The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York), and ard III. With these tragedies is to be ranked nologically The Taming of A Shrew. In all the --s just mentioned the influence of Marlowe, as a poet, 1 of Machiavelli, as a philosopher, is unmistakable; and is especially the case in Titus Andronicus. The on represented involves a striking display of the tistic passions, and the interest turns on the fixity purpose with which the different dramatis persona rsue their several objects. Shakespeare, however, is far perior to Marlowe in the power of conceiving an action a whole, and in his early historical tragedies he reresents, not so much the victorious progress of a single onqueror like Tamburlaine, as the collision of a number f powerful wills engaged in a fierce struggle for upremacy. can only account for its dissimilarity to his other plays by supposing it to have been written to order after he had practically quitted the stage. It is clear, from the final christening scene and the prophecy of Cranmer, that a compliment was intended in it to James I., while, in other respects, the drama seems intended by its structure to gratify the taste for pageants which was encouraged by the Queen. Whether Shakespeare was recalled from his retirement to compose the play for a particular occasion, whether he wrote it as a tour de force to show that he could successfully adapt himself to the dramatic taste of the time, or whether (which on the whole I should think most probable, for the obscurely metaphorical style often resembles his latest manner) he wrote a portion of the play, and gave the whole the prestige of his name, in any case, King Henry VIII. breaks away completely from the poet's old method of dramatic composition. It is written with a constant eye to stage effect, but without any central poetical idea such as animates even King Henry VI., so that it is made up of a succession of episodes rather than of a series of connected actions. The scenes of the arrest and sentence of Buckingham, the trial of Queen Katharine, the fall of Wolsey, the coronation of Anne Bullen, and the christening of Elizabeth, might, any or all of them, have been removed without affecting the organic structure of the drama; while the best known passages, such as the two famous speeches of Wolsey to Cromwell, and those of Katharine in the fourth Act, are purple patches, effective for stage recitation, but not remarkable for depth of thought or feeling. A drama composed on these mechanical lines need not be considered in the history of Shakespeare's art. CHAPTER VII A SURVEY OF SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT IN the foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to trace chronologically and in detail the successive stages of Shakespeare's dramatic progress. Now that I have completed the inquiry it may be convenient to sum up briefly the general result as far as it throws light on the structure, characterisation, and style of his plays. The first group of Shakespeare's plays includes Titus Andronicus, The Troublesome Raigne of King John, the Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. (in their old form of The Contention of the Houses of York and Lancaster, and The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York), and Richard III. With these tragedies is to be ranked chronologically The Taming of A Shrew. In all the plays just mentioned the influence of Marlowe, as a poet, and of Machiavelli, as a philosopher, is unmistakable; and this is especially the case in Titus Andronicus. The action represented involves a striking display of the egotistic passions, and the interest turns on the fixity of purpose with which the different dramatis personæ pursue their several objects. Shakespeare, however, is far superior to Marlowe in the power of conceiving an action as a whole, and in his early historical tragedies he represents, not so much the victorious progress of a single conqueror like Tamburlaine, as the collision of a number of powerful wills engaged in a fierce struggle for supremacy. The structure of these early tragedies is comparatively simple, and, as in Marlowe's plays, the epic principle predominates. But as Shakespeare takes the trouble to conceive in his imagination how the historical struggle he represents would really have proceeded, the progress of the action in King Henry VI. is far more complicated and probable than is the case in Tamburlaine and Edward II.; and though he follows closely the order of events as related by Holinshed, he arranges them with a just view to stage effect. In the same way as regards character, Shakespeare's leading dramatis personæ, being arbitrarily evolved out of an abstract idea of virtù, have, like Marlowe's, a melodramatic air: Aaron and Richard III. in this respect resemble Barabas, Tamburlaine, and Guise. But the power of conscience, as well as of the will, is illustrated in the character of Richard III., and the delusion of self-love in the person of Cade. Marlowe, on the other hand, can only conceive one type of character. The idea of energy and resolution, characteristic not only of the school of Marlowe but of the temper of the audience in the early Elizabethan theatre, is vividly reflected in the style of Titus Andronicus. The Nyms and Pistols, who then abounded in the pit, loved to hear the actor "bombast out a blank verse," and we know from the testimony of contemporaries that, in the judgment of such critics, Titus Andronicus was the model of a play. They doubtless listened with delight to the following speech of Aaron when he saves his infant son from being killed by Demetrius and Chiron : Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother? That shone so brightly when this boy was got, He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point That touches this my first-born son and heir! I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus, With all his threatening band of Typhon's brood, Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands. |