ABSTRACT
No long acquaintance with the plays of Shakespeare is needed to make the reader aware that beneath the poetry and the seemingly effortless generation of lifelike and memorable characters he manifested to a considerable extent the bourgeois virtue of economy. In 1941 appeared Paul V. Kreider's volume, Repetition in Shakespeare's Plays. Part 1 takes up the mechanics of repetition as displayed in disguise and devotes particular attention to the introduction, character, and motivation of the villain, his relation with his fellows, his system of self-defense, and the destruction of his victim. Part 2 takes up several types of repetition: repetition of idea; of the theme of blindness and sight; of atmosphere; of satire on romantic conventions in drama. It may be in order to suggest that yeoman service remains to be done on his borrowings from himself.
