Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

An edition of Hazlitt's critical study with notes.

William Hazlitt (Author), J. H. Lobban (Edited by)

9781108005296, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

312 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

The critic, essayist and painter William Hazlitt (1778–1830) published and lectured widely on English literature, from Elizabethan drama to reviews of the latest work of his own time. His first extended work of literary criticism was Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, published in 1817. This volume from 1908 takes the text of the first edition and adds notes explaining complex terms to readers and an introduction by J. H. Lobban, a lecturer in English at Birkbeck College. As such it is the ideal introduction to Hazlitt's criticism. Hazlitt's political view of Shakespeare drew the ire of the Tory Quarterly review, whose hostile review destroyed sales of the second edition. The work remains of value, however, both as a contribution to the study of Shakespeare and, as with all of Hazlitt's prose, as a model of an elegant, persuasive essay.

Introduction
Preface
1. Cymbeline
2. Macbeth
3. Julius Caesar
4. Othello
5. Timon of Athens
6. Coriolanus
7. Troilus and Cressida
8. Antony and Cleopatra
9. Hamlet
10. The Tempest
11. A Midsummer Night's Dream
12. Romeo and Juliet
13. King Lear
14. Richard II
15. Henry IV
16. Henry V
17. Henry VI
18. Richard III
19. Henry VIII
20. King John
21. Twelfth Night
or, what you will
22. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
23. The Merchant of Venice
24. The Winter's Tale
25. All's Well That Ends Well
26. Love's Labour's Lost
27. Much Ado About Nothing
28. As You Like It
29. The Taming of the Shrew
30. Measure for Measure
31. The Merry Wives of Windsor
32. The Comedy of Errors
33. Doubtful plays of Shakespeare
34. Poems and Sonnets.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]