Volume 1, Number 2 · June 1, 1963
Shakespeare
By Andrew Chiappe
Shakespeare Criticism, 1935-1960
Selected with an introduction by Anne Ridler
Oxford University Press (World's Classics), $2.75
Since Ben Jonson, in his commemorative poem in the First Folio, applied his critical theory to Shakespeare, stressing the 'Art' that shaped, ordered and clarified the copious inventions and intuitions proceeding from his 'Nature,' Shakespeare's works have been the proper and central concern of English—speaking critics. Critical theories and methods have been tested on the plays and poems, confirmed by them, or, in some cases, have originated from their study. (One thinks of Keats and Empson.) A history of Shakespeare criticism would be a basic history of criticism in English and might, in fact, serve instead of a full account. Since major movements of critical thought, the shifting fashions and winds of doctrine, and the wilder aberrations as well, are usually encountered first in the limitless flood of commentary that Shakespeare provokes, we must look with more than a specialist's interest at a volume like Mrs. Ridler's, which attempts to select a sampling of 'principal trends' in the Shakespeare criticism of the past quarter century.
Review, 1816 words
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