# Shakespearean Tragedy

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SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY
LECTURES ON HAMLET, OTHELLO, KING LEAR MACBETH
BY
A. C. BRADLEY
LL.D. LITT.D., FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
SECOND EDITION (EIGHT IMPRESSION)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1912
COPYRIGHT.
First Edition 1904. Second Edition March 1905. Reprinted August 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1912.
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
To my Students
PREFACE
These lectures are based on a selection from materials used in teaching at Liverpool, Glasgow, and Oxford; and I have for the most part preserved the lecture form. The point of view taken in them is explained in the Introduction. I should, of course, wish them to be read in their order, and a knowledge of the first two is assumed in the remainder; but readers who may prefer to enter at once on the discussion of the several plays can do so by beginning at page 89.
Any one who writes on Shakespeare must owe much to his predecessors. Where I was conscious of a particular obligation, I have acknowledged it; but most of my reading of Shakespearean criticism was done many years ago, and I can only hope that I have not often reproduced as my own what belongs to another.
​Many of the Notes will be of interest only to scholars, who may find, I hope, something new in them.
I have quoted, as a rule, from the Globe edition, and have referred always to its numeration of acts, scenes, and lines.
November, 1904.
NOTE TO SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT IMPRESSIONS
In these impressions I have confined myself to making some formal improvements, correcting indubitable mistakes, and indicating here and there my desire to modify or develop at some future time statements which seem to me doubtful or open to misunderstanding. The changes, where it seemed desirable, are shown by the inclusion of sentences in square brackets.
CONTENTS
PAGE :
| Introduction | 1 |
| LECTURE I. ||
| The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy | 5 |
| LECTURE II. ||
| Construction in Shakespeare's Tragedies | 40 |
| LECTURE III. ||
| Shakespeare’s Tragic Period—Hamlet | 79 |
| LECTURE IV. ||
| Hamlet | 129 |
| LECTURE V. ||
| Othello | 175 |
| LECTURE VI. ||
| Othello | 207 |
| LECTURE VII. ||
| King Lear | 243 ​ |
| LECTURE VIII. ||
| King Lear | 280 |
| LECTURE IX. ||
| Macbeth | 331 |
| LECTURE X. ||
| Macbeth | 366 |
| Note A. | Events before the opening of the action in Hamlet | 401 |
| Note B. | Where was Hamlet at the time of his father’s death? | 403 |
| Note C. | Hamlet’s age | 407 |
| Note D. | ‘My tables—meet it is I set it down’ | 409 |
| Note E. | The Ghost in the cellarage | 412 |
| Note F. | The Player’s speech in Hamlet | 413 |
| Note G. | Hamlet’s apology to Laertes | 420 |
| Note H. | The exchange of rapiers | 422 |
| Note I. | The duration of the action in Othello | 423 |
| Note J. | The ‘additions’ in the Folio text of Othello. The Pontic sea | 429 |
| Note K. | Othello’s courtship | 432 |
| Note L. | Othello in the Temptation scene | 434 |
| Note M. | Questions as to Othello, IV. i. | 435 |
| Note N. | Two passages in the last scene of Othello | 437 |
| Note O. | Othello on Desdemona’s last words | 438 ​ |
| Note P. | Did Emilia suspect lago? | 439 |
| Note Q. | lago’s suspicion regarding Cassio and Emilia | 441 |
| Note R. | Reminiscences of Othello in King Lear | 441 |
| Note S. | King Lear and Timon of Athens | 442 |
| Note T. | Did Shakespeare shorten King Lear? | 445 |
| Note U. | Movements of the dramatis personæ in King Lear, II. | 448 |
| Note V. | Suspected interpolations in King Lear | 450 |
| Note W. | The staging of the scene of Lear’s reunion with Cordelia | 453 |
| Note X. | The Battle in King Lear | 456 |
| Note Y. | Some difficult passages in King Lear | 458 |
| Note Z. | Suspected interpolations in Macbeth | 466 |
| Note AA. | Has Macbeth been abridged? | 467 |
| Note BB. | The date of Macbeth. Metrical Tests | 470 |
| Note CC. | When was the murder of Duncan first plotted? | 480 |
| Note DD. | Did Lady Macbeth really faint? | 484 |
| Note EE. | Duration of the action in Macbeth. Macbeth’s age. ‘He has no children’ | 486 |
| Note FF. | The Ghost of Banquo | 492 |
| Index | | 494 |
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1912, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1935, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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