A Study of Shakespeare

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A Study of Shakespeare (1880)
by Algernon Charles Swinburne

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First published in 1880, most of this work was previously published in a combination of The Fortnightly Review, The Examiner and The Gentleman's Magazine during the years 1876 to 1879. Where this is the case, prior publication information is provided for each section of the book based on A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Algernon Charles Swinburne (1912), by Thomas J. Wise, in 2 volumes.

This transcription is of the first edition.

3590108A Study of Shakespeare1880Algernon Charles Swinburne

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A Study of Shakespeare

BY

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

London
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880

The right of translation is reserved

LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

TO
JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.

That a sample or excerpt given from this book while as yet save in design unfinished should have found such favour in your sight and won such approval at your hands as you then by word alike and action so cordially expressed, is reason enough why I should inscribe it with your name: even if I felt less pleasure in the reflection and the record that this little labour of a lifelong love had at once the doubly good fortune and the doubly grateful success, to be praised by those who have earned the praise and thanks of all true Shakespearean scholars, and dispraised by such as have deserved their natural doom to reap neither but from the harvest of their own applause or that of their fellows. It might be hard for a personally unbiassed judgment to strike the balance of genuine value and significance between these two forms of acknowledgment: but it will be evident which is to me the more precious, when I write your name above my own on the votive scroll which attaches my offering to the shrine of Shakespeare.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.

CONTENTS.

A STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE.
PAGE
I.	First Period: Lyric and Fantastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1
II.	Second Period: Comic and Historic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	66
III.	Third Period: Tragic and Romantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	170
APPENDIX.
I.	Note on the Historical Play of King Edward III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	231
II.	Report of the Proceedings on the First Anniversary Session of the Newest Shakespeare Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	276
III.	Additions and Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	300

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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