AS A DRAMATIC THINKER A POPULAR ILLUSTRATION OF FICTION AS THE EXPERIMENTAL SIDE OF PHILOSOPHY BY RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A. (CAMB.), PH.D. (PENNA.) PROFESSOR OF LITERARY THEORY AND INTERPRETATION IN THE UNIVERSITY (ENGLAND AND AMERICA) AUTHOR OF "SHAKESPEARE AS A DRAMATIC ARTIST," "THE ANCIENT New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1907 All rights reserved PREFACE THE present work is supplementary to my former book, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, originally published (by the Clarendon Press, Oxford) in 1885, and now (third edition, 1893) in extensive use amongst private readers and in schools and universities. It illustrates an entirely different view point of literary study. Necessarily, however, two books treating the same author must have some points in common. Where this is the case, I have usually in the present work given the briefest treatment consistent with clearness, the reader being referred by footnotes to the other book for fuller discussion. In what is intended primarily for the general reader I have wished to exclude technical discussion from the text. Believing, however, that precise analysis of structure is the best foundation for the fullest appreciation of literary beauty, I have added an Appendix, which gives formal schemes of plot for each of the Shakespearean plays. By this combination of general discussion in the text with formal analysis in the Appendix I have tried to make what may serve as a text-book of Shakespeare for students of literary clubs or scholastic institutions. This work is a re-issue of the book published four years ago under the title The Moral System of Shakespeare. I have reason to believe that that title has been misunderstood, and, in spite of my disclaimer, has created an expectation of systematization in what was really a protest against the over-systematization of others. The Introduction has been entirely re-written, so as to make the argument clearer. Apart from this, there has been no change, except occasional slight alterations of phraseology. April, 1907. RICHARD G. MOULTON. |