Shakespeare's Style in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra

Abstract

At least since the time of Lamb's comments on the actability of King Lear, critics have been somewhat embarrassed by Shakespeare in the The theater smacks of mere entertainment and one of the most cutting judgments of a serious play is to pass it off as good theater. The recent Broadway production of Anastasia left some viewers with a secret sense of shame at being so affected by an obviously contrived recognition scene. This long-standing conflict between theater-goers and readers, between the play as studied and the play as performed, has obvious implications for an understanding of Shakespeare's style. In the traditional view, a Shakespearean play is a poetic text to be studied with the same care as a poem of Donne or Empson. One could not disagree with the soundness of this view, but one would also like to reunite the play to its dramatic vitality in the The humble elements of the stage production may in themselves offer images and even metaphors which work together with the poetry of the text. By thus including both verbal and non-verbal (or presentational ) aspects, we can attempt a fuller grasp of Shakespeare's dramatic style.