ABSTRACT

First published in 1980.

At their most successful, Shakespeare's styles are strategies to make plain the limits of thought and feeling which define the significance of human actions. John Baxter analyses the way in which these limits are reached, and also provides a strong argument for the idea that the power of Shakespearean drama depends upon the co-operation of poetic style and dramatic form. Three plays are examined in detail in the text: The Tragedy of Mustapha by Fulke Greville and Richard II and Macbeth by Shakespeare.

chapter 1|6 pages

Verse into drama

chapter 2|39 pages

Sydney's Defence and Greville's Mustapha

chapter 3|10 pages

Tragedy and history in Richard II

chapter 4|21 pages

The standard

The moral and the golden

chapter 5|29 pages

The standard

the metaphysical and the Shakespearean

chapter 6|8 pages

Reductions

style and the character of Bolingbroke

chapter 7|30 pages

Deflections

style and the character of Richard

chapter 9|28 pages

Astounding terms

Bombast and wonder

chapter 10|25 pages

Macbeth

Style and form