Neo-Classical Era 1660-1798 Flashcards
What dominated criticism of the play in the early eighteenth century?
The neo-classical perception of plot and charecter
What were the 7 characteristics of Neo-classicism?
Focused on values of objectivity, impersonalism, rationality, decorum, balance, harmony, proportions and moderation
What was the Neo-classicism art movement?
A severe and unemotional form of art harkening back to the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome. It’s rigidity was a reaction to the overbred Rococo style and the emotionally charged Baroque style.
What did the main critics who defended Hamlet take for granted?
The necessity of the classical canon in principle
Who provides the most famous example of neo-classical treatments of the play?
Voltaire
Defences against Voltaire had to do what first?
At first had to weaken the neo-classical othodoxy
How did Lewis Theobald explain the absurdity of Hamlet calling death “the undiscovered country”?
He hypothesised that the, having just seen the ghost, it explains purgatory rather than death itself
What did William Popple praise (1735)?
The verisimilitude of Polonius’ character, deploring the actors tradition of only playing him as a fool
What scene did Joseph Addison praise?
The ghost scene
What soliloquy did Richard Steele praise and why?
The first one, due to the psychological insight
Why were the ghost scenes a particular favourite during this period?
The era was on the verge of the gothic revival
What did George Stubbes note about how Shakespeare made the ghost credible?
He used Horatio’s incredulity to make the ghost credible
What did Arthur Murphy believe the play was a “poetic representation” of?
“the mind of a weak and melancholic person”
What did George Calmon the elder single Hamlet out for in a general discussion of Shakespeare?
His skill with the supernatural element of drama
What unusual note did Aaron Will raise in 1735?
He praised the contradictions of Hamlets temperament (rather than condemning them as violations of decorum)
What reading gained popularity after the mid-century?
Psycological
What did Tobias Smollet criticise as illogical?
Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, which he believed was illogical because of Hamlet’s actions.
What was commonly defended as part of a grander plan?
The plays disparate elements
What did Horace Walpole defend as ultimately more realistic and reflective than rigid separation?
The plays mixture of comedy and tragedy
How did Samual Johnson echo Popple?
In his defence of the character of Polonius, he also doubled the necessity of Hamlets viscous treatment of Ophelia and skeptically viewed the necessary and probability of the climax
What criticism occurred near the end of the century?
An attack on Hamlets character e.g George Stevens
What understanding of Hamlet occurred in the late eighteenth century even before the Romantic movement?
The recognition that Hamlet (with Falstaff) was the first Shakespeare character to be understood as a personality separate from the play in which he appears
What did critics and performers begin to view the play as towards the late eighteenth century?
Confusing and inconsistant
Who had one of their characters say “Shakespeare meant…to represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it…A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden which it cannot bear, and must not cast away.“?
Geothe, in ‘Wilheims Master Apprentice” (1795)
What was the century’s changed view of Hamlets character called?
The shift in critical emphasis on plot (pre-1750) to an emphasis on the theatrical portrayal of the character (post-1750)
