M7 1901 MAIN PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION THE present edition is distinguished by two features. In the first place, the list of plays treated in Part First has been enlarged by three,-Othello, Love's Labour's Lost, and As You Like It. The Study of Othello has been made No. XI, to associate it with previous Studies of Julius Cæsar and Lear, since it connects Character and Plot as these had connected Passion and Movement. The Studies of Love's Labour's Lost and As You Like It (Nos. XIV, XV) are placed after those on The Tempest, and carry further the topics of Central Ideas and Dramatic Colouring. The new matter is the substance of papers read at various times before the New Shakspere Society of London. Such additions to Part First involve, according to the plan of the whole work, additions of detail and restatements of various points in Part Second. But besides these there is a change of a more general character in Part Second, which makes the other main feature of this edition. It has always been my contention that the Science of Dramatic Criticism admits at present of no systematisation other than a digest of critical topics, 306091 and such a digest must always be provisional. One of the most difficult problems in this science is the proper treatment of Dramatic Movement, to determine whether its relations with Passion or with Plot are the closer, or whether indeed it does not constitute a fundamental division of Drama by itself. In previous editions I have treated this problem by making a compromise, which separated Motive Force from Motive Form, associating the former with Passion and the latter with Plot. Further experience has led me to think that it is more accurate as it is certainly simpler-to treat the whole of Movement as a division of Plot, leaving Passion-Movement to be represented by successions of Tone. A glance at the Table of Topics on page 398 will make the new scheme clear. December, 1892. PREFACE TO THE SECOND In this edition two new Studies, Nos. XI and XII have been added to Part First, dealing with The Tempest, and bringing the treatment in that portion of the book, which has for its purpose to illustrate masterpieces of dramatic art in particular plays of Shakespeare, to a natural climax in the discussion of Central Ideas. The new Studies are the substance of a paper read before the New Shakspere Society of London in January, 1887. Such addition to Part First carries with it, according to the plan of the whole work, additions of detail and restatement of various points in Part Second. A few verbal corrections and alterations have been made in other parts of the book. July, 1888. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION I HAVE had three objects before me in writing this book. The first concerns the general reader. No one needs assistance in order to perceive Shakespeare's greatness; but an impression is not uncommonly to be found, especially amongst English readers, that Shakespeare's greatness lies mainly in his deep knowledge of human nature, while, as to the technicalities of Dramatic Art, he is at once careless of them and too great to need them. I have endeavoured to combat this impression by a series of Studies of Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. They are chiefly occupied with a few master-strokes of art, sufficient to illustrate the revolution Shakespeare created in the Drama of the world-a revolution not at once perceived simply because it had carried the Drama at a bound so far beyond Dramatic Criticism that the appreciation of Shakespeare's plays was left to the uninstructed public, while the trained criticism that ought to have recognised the new departure was engaged in clamouring for other views of dramatic treatment, which it failed to perceive that Shakespeare had rendered obsolete. While the earlier chapters are taken up with these Studies, the rest of the work is an attempt, in very brief form, to present Dramatic Criticism as a regular Inductive Science. If I speak of this as a new branch of Science I am not ignoring the great works on Shakespeare-Criticism which already exist, the later of which have treated their subject in an inductive spirit. What these still leave wanting is a recognition of method in application to the study of the Drama: my purpose is to claim for Criticism a position amongst the Inductive Sciences, and to sketch in outline a plan for the Dramatic side of such a Critical Science. A third purpose has been to make the work of use as an educational manual. Shakespeare now enters into every scheme of liberal education; but the annotated editions of his works give the student little assistance except in the explanation of language and allusions; and the idea, I believe, prevails that any thing like the discussion of literary characteristics or dramatic effect is out of place in an educational work— is, indeed, too 'indefinite' to be 'examined on.' Ten years' experience in connection with the Cambridge University Extension, during which my work has been to teach literature apart from philology, has confirmed my impression that the subject-matter of literature, its |