ABSTRACT
I am going to attempt to say a very great deal in a very short space. Much of it may be ‘old hat’, but it is necessary for my argument. First, I shall make a few comments on neglected elements in Shakespeare's dramatic vision – a vision of the universe and the destiny of man which derives directly from the medieval Christian civilisation of which he and Milton were perhaps the last great literary exponents. This vision is much closer to that of St Augustine, Dante and Chaucer than it is to that of Marx or Freud or Shaw or Samuel Beckett. Second, I shall emphasise certain aspects of the Elizabethan theatre and some of the opportunities and limitations it offered to a dramatist attempting to express this vision. Third, I shall suggest certain obvious and less obvious dimensions of reading and performing a Shakespeare text – dimensions that producers and actors should attempt to project.
