ABSTRACT
The subject of my study in the following pages will be the four later romances of Shakespeare which have notoriously presented critics with thorny problems both theoretical and interpretative. Indeed, no comprehensive theory exists to account for the form and character of these plays, nor any definitive nomenclature even with which to refer to them. Some of them have been acclaimed as among his most praised and prized productions, some – indeed all of them at some time or another – have been relegated to a distinctly lower, or even doubtful place in the canon.
