Commentaries of the Historical Plays of Shakspeare Volume 2

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840 edition. Excerpt: ...the characters, that of Catherine is doubtless the most complete and true. It is taken from history, with little colouring or suppression, and it has an admirable combination of dignity, simplicity, firmness, and feminine affection. It may be thought, that with the character of Henry more pains are taken, in order to represent him in a favourable light; but no important incident or speech is given without warranty from the Chronicles. If, therefore, the dramatist has exercised any art, it is only in selecting from the life of his queen's father those passages which exhibit him the least unfavourably. But though the history of his divorcing his first wife is taken from the recorded speeches ' Although I do not go the whole way with Mrs_ Jameson in my estimate of this character, I earnestly recommend her observations to perusal (Charact. ii. 260), as well as Catherine's letters to which she refers. of Henry himself, Shakspeare has freely stated the insinuations of unworthy motives which prevailed among the people. The imperiousness of the king's character, too, is fairly represented on several occasions. The character of Wolsey, or rather all that illustrates the character of Wolsey, is taken from the Chronicle, just as Shakspeare found it; and no one of the historical dramas supports, more than this, the opinion to which I have felt inclined in going through the series, that Shakspeare used very little artifice, and, in truth, had very little design, in the construction of the greater number of historical characters. He dramatised incidents and speeches, and left characters to be inferred. Malone has alluded to somebody, who "tampered with parts of the play so much, as to have rendered the versification of it of a...

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