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Shakespeare as an Historian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
There is an advantage in dealing with such a subject as this, which may counterbalance the disadvantages under which a writer labours who ventures to bring forward ‘common saws and modern instances,’ in place of that serious investigation of obscure historical facts, or that review of the social questions of the past, which have honourably distinguished the last few years of the Society's labours. On such a familiar topic a brief treatment of a large matter is possible. There is no need to quote many examples, or passages at length, when the mere mention of the name of a character will commonly recall at once how he and his actions have been presented upon the stage by Shakespeare:
I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1896
References
page 24 note 1 Henry's want of initiative in failing to knight Iden till Buckingham plucks his sleeve and suggests it; his pious reflection on the impiety of the pretended miracle at St. Albans; and while he attributes the apprentice's victory over his master to God's justice, York's attribution of it to the master's drunkenness, are touches in the revised play only.
page 27 note 1 Shakespeare is so absolutely careless of historical costume that it is doubtful if his plays are made really more intelligible by a careful reproduction of dress, arms, and architecture upon the stage. The elaborate pains taken, for instance at the Lyceum, to make the surroundings of Macbeth resemble the surroundings of a Scot in the eleventh century, created a positively false impression. The society and manners of the play are not those of the place and time; the result was therefore an incongruity. Who in the real Scotland of the eleventh century would have had bad dreams, or a spoilt dinner, because of a few murders, more or less? There is no Scot of any age in the play, except the cautious Malcolm.
page 39 note 1 My authority for this is Brenner, Von F., quoted in the Month, 05 1882Google Scholar .