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The Use of Song in Shakespeare's Tragedies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1959

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Extract

The Modern student who sets out to gain a clear idea of the concept of tragedy in the age of Shakespeare is dependent on two kinds of sources: those of the living theatre, its playwrights and extant dramas; and the reflections of Elizabethan literary sages concerning the nature of tragedy. The force of humanism in the second half of the sixteenth century was such that ancient precedent pervades both the actual plays and contemporary critical writings. Before proceeding to an examination of Shakespeare's use of song in his mature tragedies, particularly with respect to Othello and Hamlet, I want to consider the role of music in the Elizabethan theatre generally.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1959

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References

1 Cf. James Osborn's edition of the autobiography of Thomas Whythorne, Appendix III, Oxford, 1960.Google Scholar

2 This version differs from those proposed by E. H. Fellowes in Richmond Noble, Shakespeare's Use of Song, London, 1923, p. 152; and J. P. Cutts, La musique de scène de la troupe de Shakespeare, Paris, 1959, p. 119.Google Scholar

3 Coleridge's Shakespearean Criticism, ed. T. M. Raysor, 2 vols., London, 1930, 1, PP. 33. 226.Google Scholar

4 Woodfill, W., Musicians in English Society, Princeton, 1953, p. 201.Google Scholar

5 Westrup, J. A., ‘Domestic Music under the Stuarts’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 68 (1941–42), 1953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Iliad, IX, 186; Shakespeare Society Publications, Vol. II, London, 1841, P. 39.Google Scholar

7 English School of Lutenist Song Writers, Second Series, ed. E. H. Fellowes, Vol. 14, pp. 5557.Google Scholar