ABSTRACT
As dramatist, Shakespeare was an Elizabethan to an extent which modern scholarship has tended to make in creasingly impressive. At every point his work attaches itself to that which preceded it, without notable break or contrast, so far as the main outlines of his method are con-
eerned. Like his fellows, he undertook primarily to tell vivid and appealing stories in dramatic form, and availed himself of the materials already provided in classical, medieval, and Renaissance fiction, rarely troubling himself to invent, and never exhibiting any specific taste for plot ting as an art in itself. A surprisingly large number of his plays appear to be the mere rewriting of novels or plays by other hands, and there is faint evidence that this is true in a number of instances where our information is im perfect. Neither did he contribute anything of a positive character to the technique of his art. He early mastered its essentials, adapted them with growing skill to the con ditions of the various periods and types of his work, and was never at a loss to find the right dramatic method for the story in hand. But he was content to use, on the whole, the conventional processes of the playwrights of his time, and set no distinctive stamp upon his dramaturgy which is forever associated with his name, as Moliere did, and Ibsen. It seems clear that he was neither greatly interested in the theory of his art nor very conscientious in its prac tice. Ben Jonson always finds a way to tell us what he thinks of the aim and method of his composition, and we know that he will work it out according to the deep-laid principles of his critical theory. Shakespeare never ex plains his intentions, and we cannot be sure whether he will carry his structure to a beautifully finished conclusion, or dismiss it hurriedly with only such attention as to ensure a reasonably effective final scene upon the stage. He wrote no play, it seems, to fit a chosen type or to satisfy a pet theory, without reference to his audience, and he gives no sign of being fascinated by the problem of dramatic tech
nique as an end in itself. On the other hand, he cheer fully experimented with, and triumphantly mastered, al most every theatrical mode which, throughout the twenty years of his play-writing, gave pleasure to the Elizabethan public.
