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In: Plays/Films/Dramas·Essays, Letters & Speeches·British Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #16966.
The work is a series of university‑level lectures by A. C. Bradley, first delivered at Liverpool, Glasgow and Oxford and later compiled in 1904. The opening pages explain that the author has kept the original lecture format, assumes familiarity with the first two talks, and offers a detailed, scholarly apparatus of notes and an index. The lectures proceed systematically, beginning with a general inquiry into the “substance of Shakespearean tragedy” before moving on to individual examinations of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Bradley explicitly limits his scope to dramatic appreciation rather than biographical or textual criticism, promising a blend of analysis and imaginative reconstruction aimed at deepening the reader’s grasp of the plays’ action and character.
Bradley’s voice is that of an early‑20th‑century academic, formal yet conversational, combining rigorous close reading with a plea for vivid imagination. The style is dense, replete with footnotes and occasional bracketed revisions, reflecting the scholarly conventions of his time. Readers who relish detailed structural and thematic dissection, students of Shakespeare, theatre historians, or anyone who enjoys a disciplined yet passionate exploration of the four great tragedies, will find the book rewarding, while casual fans may prefer a more narrative‑oriented guide.
The opening · free to read
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.
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.
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