Search -
A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature Tr. [from Ueber Dramatische Kunst Und Literatur] by J. Black
A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature Tr by J Black - from Ueber Dramatische Kunst Und Literatur Author:August Wilhelm von Schlegel General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1840 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: LECTURE XII. Comparison of the English and Spanish theatres. -- Spirit of the romantic drama. -- Shakspeare. -- His age and the circumstances of his life. -- How far costume is necessary, or may be dispensed with. -- Shakspeare the greatest drawer of characters. -- Vindication of the genuineness of his pathos. -- Play on words. -- Moral delicacy. -- Irony. -- Mixture of the tragic and comic. -- The part of the fool or clown. -- Shakspeare's language and versification. -- Account of his several works : comedies, tragedies, and historical dramas. -- Appendix, on the pieces of Shakspeare said to be spurious. In conformity with the plan which we at first laid down, we shall now proceed to treat of the English and Spanish theatres. -- We were compelled in passing to allude cursorily, on various occasions, sometimes to the one and sometimes to the other, partly for the sake of placing, by means of contrast, many ideas in a clearer light, and partly on account of the influence which these stages have had on the theatres of other countries. Both the English and Spaniards possess a very rich dramatic literature ; both have had a number of fruitful dramatic poets of great talents, among whom even the least admired and celebrated, considered as a whole, display uncommon aptitude for dramatic animation and insight into the essence of theatrical effect. The history of their theatre has no connection with that of the Italians and French ; for it developed itself wholly from the fulness of its own strength without any foreign influence : the attempts to bring it back to an imitation of the ancients, or even of the...« less