ABSTRACT
The place of Shakespeare in the history of thought is – incredible though this may seem – a comparatively neglected field of exploration. Shakespearean scholarship, so inexhaustibly curious about every other aspect of the great poet's life and art, has been strangely indifferent to this one. The problem falls into two parts. We require first of all a careful analysis of what Shakespeare's view of the universe was; and secondly, we must enquire from what earlier or contemporary currents of thought he might have derived it. In a recent article in the Edinburgh University Journal, 1 Professor Dover Wilson has broached these questions, and the present essay is inspired by some of the points which he raised. But it must be strongly emphasised that the following brief remarks are intended rather as suggestions for further enquiry than as in any sense solutions of the extremely complex problems involved.
