Shakespeare very rarely makes the least attempt to surprise by his catastrophes. They are felt to be inevitable, though the precise way in which they….

A Shakespearean tragedy as so far considered may be called a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man in high estate. But it is cl….

In Shakespearean tragedy the main source of the convulsion which produces suffering and death is never good: good contributes to this convulsion only….

Shakespeare also introduces the supernatural into some of his tragedies; he introduces ghosts, and witches who have supernatural knowledge..

We might not object to the statement that Lear deserved to suffer for his folly, selfishness and tyranny; but to assert that he deserved to suffer wh….

In the first place, it must be remembered that our point of view in examining the construction of a play will not always coincide with that which we ….

In approaching our subject it will be best, without attempting to shorten the path by referring to famous theories of the drama, to start directly fr….

Job was the greatest of all the children of the east, and his afflictions were well-nigh more than he could bear; but even if we imagined them wearin….

Shakespeare's idea of the tragic fact is larger than this idea and goes beyond it; but it includes it, and it is worth while to observe the identity ….

Most people, even among those who know Shakespeare well and come into real contact with his mind, are inclined to isolate and exaggerate some one asp….

In speaking, for convenience, of devices and expedients, I did not intend to imply that Shakespeare always deliberately aimed at the effects which he….

Nor does the idea of a moral order asserting itself against attack or want of conformity answer in full to our feelings regarding the tragic characte….

When Shakespeare begins his exposition thus he generally at first makes people talk about the hero, but keeps the hero himself for some time out of s….

We cannot arrive at Shakespeare's whole dramatic way of looking at the world from his tragedies alone, as we can arrive at Milton's way of regarding ….