Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:31:10.147Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

V - THE EXPRESSION OF IDEAS–PARTICULARLY POLITICAL IDEAS–IN THE THREE PAGES AND IN SHAKESPEARE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

Get access

Summary

Degree

Frequent misuse has brought into disrepute the method of drawing parallels between Shakespeare's acknowledged works and some play or portion of a play which we wish to attribute to him. But the case of Sir Thomas More is peculiar. Here is a history play, the manuscript of which proves that many hands wrought upon it. Now one scene of 147 lines is written in a different hand from any other in the manuscript–the hand called D in Greg's edition. This hand is obviously that of the author, for we see the writer occasionally pausing, cancelling a word or phrase, and then finishing the line according to his second thoughts. However, for an author composing as he writes, he seems to show great fluency. Shakespeare, we know, worked in this way. ‘His mind and hand went together: and what he thought he uttered with that easiness that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers.’ These words can only mean that blots were so few that it was possible to use Shakespeare's original draft as the copy which his fellow actors received from him: for the words are written as a proof, not of Shakespeare's care, but of his fluency.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1923

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×