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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... Orsino , at- tended by Viola , Curio , and others , calls for a song . Feste is sum- moned , performs the song , and - after some banter - departs . At Orsino's command , " all the rest give place " ( 79 ) , and he is left alone with ...
... Orsino , asking for confirmation of his own view , not independent judgment , asks , " How dost thou like this tune ... Orsino's understanding , he nevertheless emphasizes in an unconscious pun : " Thou dost speak masterly " ( 22 ) . The ...
... Orsino and Viola together . Theirs may not be a marriage made in heaven , but it is made secure by this episode in Orsino's court . Thus Shakespeare's management of tone in 2.4 of Twelfth Night takes interpretive pressure off the play's ...
Contents
The Aggrandizement of Closure | 1 |
The Comic Pleasures | 22 |
three | 34 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown