Shakespeare and the Ends of Comedy"This is a congenial, lucidly written work, the product of careful thought and attention to performance." --Shakespeare Bulletin "... Jensen has done a service by reminding readers of the variety and richness of the comedy and comic devices in Shakespeare's plays." --Choice "The ear that Jensen brings to the plays themselves results in close readings that are always insightful and stimulate new questions." --English Language Notes "Here is a genuinely readable and enjoyable book... humane, balanced, unpolemical, good humored, and fundamentally sane." --Charles R. Forker "... Jensen has produced a sensitive and eminently readable book that will no doubt figure prominently in future attempts to understand Shakespeare's comic practice." --Shakespeare Yearbook Jensen questions a persistent critical emphasis that finds the meanings of Shakespeare's comedies in their endings. Analyzing The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Measure for Measure, he shows how much vitality is sacrificed when critics assume that "the end crowns the work." |
From inside the book
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... Duke's address to Shylock momentarily suspends our ex- pectation ; knowing full well the rigidity of Shylock's attitude , the Duke pretends that " the world thinks " Shylock's aim is mercy and that " we all expect a gentle answer " ( 17 ...
... Duke come together . " I love to cope him in these sullen fits " ( 2.1.68 ) , says the Duke ; and Amiens tells Jaques that the Duke " hath been all this day to look you " ( 2.5.32-33 ) . When their meeting occurs , however , Jaques ...
... Duke undertakes precisely the opposite journey , from a public role that he finds in some ways distasteful— " I love ... Duke's appearance in propria persona in I.I does little more than set the plot in motion . His appearance in 1.3 ...
Contents
The Aggrandizement of Closure | 1 |
The Comic Pleasures | 22 |
three | 34 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown