The Soul of Wit by Chesterton, G.K. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction I. This Blessed Plot, This Earth, This Realm, This England

The Measure of Shakespeare English Literature and the Latin Tradition The Mind of the Middle Ages v. the Renaissance The Origins of Elizabethan Drama The Renaissance Drama of Blood and Gold This Sceptered Isle Shakespeare’s London Renaissance and Restoration Enter Shakespeare

II. The Tragedies

The Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy The Moral Basis for Tragedy The True Hamlet Hamlet and the Psycho-analyst The Orthodoxy of Hamlet The Grave-digger A Convincing Ghost Hamlet and the Danes The Englishness of Hamlet Hamlet’s Education The Murderer as Maniac Ophelia’s Madness The Macbeths The Moral Mystery in Tragedy Free Will and the Drama Out, Damned Spot! Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog The Tragedy of King Lear Madness in Lear The Two Lears Hope in the Face of Sorrow The Meaning of Mark Antony Richard II Richard III and Nietzsche

III. The Comedies

The Other Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy The Comedy of Love Shakespeare and the Legal Lady The Pound of Flesh The Character of Shylock The Merchant’s Place The Heroines of Shakespeare Heroic Heroines Beatrice The Repetition of Rosalind A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Man with the Ass’s Head A Hundred Heads Buffoonery Love’s Labour’s Lost Falstaff Falstaff Was Real

IV. The Play’s the Thing

Everything is Dramatic The Fun of the Drama The Silver Goblets On Stage Costume Shakespeare in Modern Dress Shakespeare in Modern Dress (Again) On Eyebrows Modern Drama and Old Conventions The Ideal Detective Story On Shakespeare’s Method of Opening His Plays The Merits of Shakespeare’s Plots Good Stories Spoilt by Great Authors

V. Words, Words, Words

What’s in a Name? The Speech That Shakespeare Spoke The Sound of Shakespeare Poetical The Yellow Sands Poor Old Shakespeare Picturesque The Artistic Temperament Creative Vagueness Fragments Incidental Discords An Outpouring of Ideas Multitudinous and Tragic The Incongruity of Reality Words of Strong Poetry The Heroic Couplet Progress in Poetry Improving on Shakespeare’s Language Bowdlerism Plain-spoken Scorn Hating Ranting The Best Parts The Worst Parts Stairs of Sand The Soliloquy An Argument Between Two Truths Brutus The Political Play The Problem Play The Real Problem Play The Historical Plays The English Hero Henry V On the Tudors Shakespeare and St. George Shakespeare and Bunyan Winter Tales The Twelve Days of Christmas For All Ages For All the Continents Shakespeare and the Land Equality Why is Shakespeare Popular? Author and Man Ordinary and Extraordinary The Embodiment of Humanity Typical Moralist The Flaw in the Deed The Flaw in the Deed (Again) Is Shakespeare an Allegory? The Phoenix and the Turtle Shakespeare and the Germans Shakespeare and the Dark Lady On The Shakespeare Ball By One Who Was Not There

VI. Shawkspear

The Great Shawkspear Mystery Sorry, I’m Shaw On the Alleged Pessimism of Shakespeare The Realities of Romantic Drama The Poet and the Puritan Shakespeare and Shaw

VII. Was Shakespeare Catholic?

Shakespeare Was a Christian Shakespeare and Milton Shakespeare and Milton (Again) Purgatory The Ancient Religious Unity The Medieval Religion Recognizable as a Catholic Utterly Unmistakable

VIII. Who Wrote Shakespeare?

Quite Himself The Cryptogram Again The Secret Rose More Gammon of Bacon Sensationalism and a Cipher Sensationalism and a Cipher (Again) A Shakespeare Portrait Shakespeareans vs. Baconians Shakespeare’s Breakfast Shakespeare and the Dark Lady (Again) Why Indeed? Lord Southampton? The Earl of Leicester? Sir Walter Raleigh? Shakespeare Is Shakespeare Shakespeare Has Written Us

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