Samuel Johnson---Preface to Shakespeare

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Samuel Johnson---Preface to Shakespeare 1. Johnson was a critic of the Neo-Classical age and therefore his assessment of Shakespeare has both the advantages and disadvantages based on the attitudes of the age 2. Since Shakespeare is a writer of the past he has gained the reputation given by antiquity. 3. Praise—Shakespeare’s drama is a mirror of life; his plays are full of practical wisdom 4. Laughter and sorrow in one mind and one composition—tragi-comedy 5. His characters have genuine passion; his tragedy is more of toil while is comedy is more natural 6. FAULTS--He sacrifices virtue to convenience—his plays are more interested in pleasing than in instructing 7. The plots are loosely constructed. The end of his plays is often neglected 8. He has no distinction of time and place because he gives to one age or country the characteristics of another 9. He is not very successful in comic scenes and his tragedy is much worse 10. His language is sometimes too pompous. He used quibble which Johnson finds a grave fault. 11. He violated the 3 unities—whether from ignorance or willfully is not known 12. England at his time was in its infancy so were pleased by simple things like the entertainment value of his plays 13. His plots are full of incidents which please common people; borrowed from novels and As You Like It from Chaucer 14. Work of correct writers compared to a garden while Shakespeare is compared to a forest. 15. Examples from Tempest, Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, Otherllo 16. He was a great reader of foreign literatures too and found much of his material there; but much of his knowledge cannot be found in books 17. His best trait was his own genius. His greatness lies in his creation of realistic characters and memorable dialogues. 18. He did not have the
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