Title: Shakespeare's comic theory. A study of art and artifice in the last plays.
Authors: Nelson, Thomas Allen, 1940-
Publisher: Mouton,
Year: 1972
Subjects: Shakespeare, William,; Shakespeare, William, Tragicomedies.; Comedy
Abstract: Building on a foundation of defined terminology and the critical ambience of Shakespearean comedy, Thomas Nelson proceeds to demonstrate through a detailed discussion of Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest his controlling thesis, that, contrary to a modern propensity for reductive systemization, "Shakespeare was not as interested as his readers in employing his plays as pegs on which to hang a series of 'meanings' in the traditional sociological, psychological, moral, or religious sense..." -- from book jacket.
Contents: Introduction -- The historical perspective -- Pericles : Prince of Tyre : Romance and Shakespearean comedy -- Cymbeling : Holinshed and Shakespearean comedy -- The Winter's Tale : Pastoralism and Shakespearean comedy -- The Tempest : Art and comedy -- Full circle -- Selected bibliography -- Index.