University Studies 



Vol. XIX JULY-OCTOBER iqiq Nqs. 3-4 



ON CERTAIN NEW ELUCIDATIONS OF 

 SHAKESPEARE 



' BY L. A. SHERMAN 



The title of Qiiiller-Couch's recent volume/ would seem to 

 promise a fresh discussion of the dramaturgic method and excel- 

 lencies of this author. No promise or prospect could have been 

 more welcome. The technic of organizing a play is a matter of 

 no slight concern. All the dramatic world is waiting for some 

 satisfying if not final word. There are critics and scholars who 

 afifirm that there is no such thing as dramatic construction. They 

 would even add that there are no principles whatever which suc- 

 cessful plays illustrate. Every playwright works out his own 

 salvation, and is a respective and independent law unto himself. 

 On the other hand, there are critics of perhaps superior insight 

 and authority who insist that there are indeed laws of dramatic 

 technic, and that no sort of play can be constructed without con- 

 forming, in essential features, to them. 



Mr. Quiller-Couch furnishes no enlightenment, in the present 

 volume, on this fundamental question. He leaves it in fact wholly 

 unconsidered. Here and there he crosses the boundaries of 

 dramatic technic, but for the most part deals only with the psy- 

 chology of its effects. His work is thus in substance only another 

 contribution to aesthetic criticism. This is greatly to be re- 

 gretted. We have long had too little help, in attempts at resolv- 

 ing the riddle of Shakespeare's craftsmanship, from minds expert 

 in the creation and management of personality. It is fair to 



1 Notes OH Shakespeare's Workmanship. By Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, 

 M. A. New York : Henry Holt and Company. 



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