William Shakespeare: the Critical Heritage Volume 4, 1753–1765 the Critical Heritage Series
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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE VOLUME 4, 1753–1765 THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES General Editor: B.C.Southam The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE VOLUME 4, 1753–1765 THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by BRIAN VICKERS London and New York First published in 1976 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1976 Brian Vickers All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-19795-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19798-4 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-13407-2 (Print Edition) FOR ARTHUR SHERBO General Editor’s Preface The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near- contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures. The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative quality—perhaps even registering incomprehension! For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to appear. Shakespeare is, in every sense, a special case, and Professor Vickers is presenting the course of his reception and reputation extensively, over a span of three centuries, in a sequence of six volumes, each of which will document a specific period. In each volume the documents are headed by an Introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged. B.C.S. vii Contents PREFACE xiii INTRODUCTION 1 NOTE ON THE TEXT 51 137 MACNAMARA MORGAN, Romeo and Juliet acted and adapted, 1753 53 138 GEORGE COLMAN, Shakespeare’s self-criticism, 1753 56 139 JOSEPH WARTON on The Tempest and King Lear, 1753–4 60 140 ARTHUR MURPHY, Essays on Shakespeare, 1753–4 84 141 CHARLOTTE LENNOX, Shakespeare’s misuse of his sources, 1753–4 110 142 ZACHARY GREY and others, Notes on Shakespeare, 1754 147 143 ARTHUR MURPHY on Shakespeare’s ghost-scenes, November 1754 156 144 THOMAS SHERIDAN, Thomson’s Coriolanus conflated with Shakespeare’s, 1754 159 145 DAVID HUME, Shakespeare and Jacobean taste, 1754 171 146 DAVID GARRICK, in defence of Shakespeare musicals, 1755 175 147 JOHN GILBERT COOPER, The Tomb of Shakespeare. A Poetical Vision, 1755 178 148 JOSEPH SHEBBEARE, Othello and King Lear in the theatre, 1755 184 149 CHRISTOPHER SMART on Shakespeare’s learning, January 1756 199 150 DAVID GARRICK, from his adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, 1756 207 151 DAVID GARRICK, in defence of Shakespeare musicals, 1756 218 152 DAVID GARRICK, from his musical adaptation of The Tempest, 1756 222 153 CHARLES MARSH, from his adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, 1756 229 154 TOBIAS SMOLLETT and SAMUEL DERRICK on the current adaptations of Shakespeare, March 1756 243 ix CONTENTS 155 JOHN BERKENHOUT on Marsh’s adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, March 1756 246 156 FRANCES BROOKE on King Lear, March 1756 247 157 THEOPHILUS CIBBER, Garrick’s Shakespeare, 1756 250 158 JOSEPH WARTON on Shakespeare, 1756 262 159 TOBIAS SMOLLETT on Shakespeare’s imperfections, 1756 266 160 SAMUEL JOHNSON, Proposals for an edition of Shakespeare, 1756 268 161 ARTHUR MURPHY, Shakespeare in the London theatres, 1757 274 162 RICHARD HURD on Shakespeare’s language and learning, 1757 297 163 Unsigned essay on Garrick’s Romeo, 1757 308 164 JOHN ARMSTRONG, Shakespearian jottings, 1758 313 165 JOSEPH PITTARD, Garrick’s Lear, 1758 316 166 WILLIAM SHIRLEY, Garrick’s sins as actor and adapter, 1758 323 167 Unsigned essay, Shakespeare weighed and measured, January 1758 326 168 THOMAS EDWARDS on Warburton’s Shakespeare, 1758 331 169 RICHARD RODERICK, Remarks on Shakespeare, 1758 337 170 ARTHUR MURPHY, Shakespeare in the London theatres, 1758 344 171 ALEXANDER GERARD, Shakespeare and enlightened taste, 1759 350 172 EARL OF ORRERY, Shakespeare’s irregularities defended, 1759 353 173 THOMAS WILKES, Shakespeare on the stage, 1759 356 174 OLIVER GOLDSMITH, Shakespeare’s absurdities and theatrical revivals, 1759 372 175 WILLIAM HAWKINS, from his adaptation of Cymbeline, 1759 374 176 CHARLES MARSH, from his adaptation of Cymbeline, 1759 393 177 WILLIAM KENRICK on the adaptations of Cymbeline, May 1759 400 178 ‘SIR’ JOHN HILL on a revival of Antony and Cleopatra, 1759 402 179 EDWARD YOUNG, Shakespeare’s genius, 1759 405 180 THOMAS FRANCKLIN, Shakespeare’s tragedies supreme, 1760 408 x CONTENTS 181 LORD LYTTELTON, an imaginary conversation on Shakespeare, 1760 410 182 Unsigned essay, ‘On the Merits of Shakespeare and Corneille’, June 1760 413 183 Unsigned review, an Ode to Shakespeare, September 1760 417 184 ROBERT LLOYD, Shakespeare greater than the rules, 1760 419 185 THADY FITZPATRICK, Garrick’s speaking of Shakespeare, 1760 424 186 CHARLES CHURCHILL, Shakespeare and Garrick supreme, 1761 435 187 GEORGE COLMAN on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists, 1761 440 188 BENJAMIN VICTOR, Shakespeare acted and adapted, 1761 450 189 HUGH KELLY, Garrick’s Shakespeare, 1761–2 455 190 TOBIAS SMOLLETT on Garrick’s adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, February 1762 458 191 Unsigned notices, Garrick’s Shakespeare, 1762 460 192 DAVID GARRICK, the coronation procession in Henry VIII, 1762 468 193 LORD KAMES, Shakespeare’s beauties and faults, 1762 471 194 TOBIAS SMOLLETT, Shakespeare’s faulty style, 1762 498 195 DANIEL WEBB, Shakespeare’s poetry, 1762 505 196 BENJAMIN VICTOR, from his adaptation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1762 525 197 K.L., ‘Shakespeare and Milton Compared’, July 1763 533 198 Unsigned essay, ‘An Account of the Novel and Play of Romeo and Juliet’, 1764 538 199 EDWARD WATKINSON on Shakespeare, 1764–5 540 200 RICHARD HURD, Shakespeare and Gothic romance, 1765 542 201 THOMAS PERCY, Shakespeare and the History Play, 1765 544 202 HORACE WALPOLE on Shakespeare and French rules, 1765 546 203 BENJAMIN HEATH on restoring Shakespeare’s text, March 1765 550 204 GEORGE STEEVENS on restoring Shakespeare’s text, 1765 565 A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 574 INDEX 577 xi Preface This fourth instalment of Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage continues its reconstruction of the mainstream of Shakespeare’s reception between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, as it affected public discussion across this period. That is, in addition to the kind of literary criticism which one would expect to find collected in this series I have included material from Shakespearian scholarship—work on the text of his plays and his sources, for instance, poetry to or about Shakespeare, and much material from the theatre: excerpts from the adaptations of his plays, theatrical criticism, both of the adaptations and of the original plays, and discussions of acting and interpretation. With this wider scope I hope to present the major materials from which one could draw a more integrated picture of Shakespeare’s reception than we yet have. The value of such an attempt is, I hope, self-evident, and the justification for giving it this form is that in effect all these areas were interrelated. The literary criticism was produced because of the high status of Shakespeare’s reputation; his general prestige is reflected in the way he dominated all other dramatists in actual stage performance. Yet the aesthetic ideas of the period determined that his plays should be changed to conform to current concepts of dramatic structure or style. These aesthetic ideas are also evident in the scholarly discussion of how he used his sources, and can be seen affecting the very text of his plays as established by editors, who complain at his offences against the critical canons and emend (or even suppress) accordingly. The interpretation of Shakespeare by the common reader and theatre-goer is much affected by the choice of repertoire and the style of performance: it is arguable that Garrick’s Shakespeare had more influence than Dr Johnson’s.