Shakespeare and the History of SoliloquiesFairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003 - 470 pages Provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the conventions governing soliloquies in Western drama from ancient times to the twentieth century. Over the course of theatrical history, there have been several kinds of soliloquies. Shakespeare's soliloquies are not only the most interesting and the most famous, but also the most misunderstood, and several chapters examine them in detail. The present study is based on a painstaking analysis of the actual practices of dramatists from each age of theatrical history. This investigation has uncovered evidence that refutes long-standing commonplaces about soliloquies in general, about Shakespeare's soliloquies in particular, and especially about the to be, or not to be episode. 'Shakespeare and the history of Soliloquies' casts new lights on historical changes in the artistic representation of human beings and, because representations cannot be entirely disentangled from perception, on historical changes in the ways human beings have perceived theselves. |
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Page 17
... heard by another character . A character onstage sometimes speaks to be heard by a character who is offstage . In an overtly religious play , a prayer is not a solil- oquy because the speaker intends her words to be heard by an- other ...
... heard by another character . A character onstage sometimes speaks to be heard by a character who is offstage . In an overtly religious play , a prayer is not a solil- oquy because the speaker intends her words to be heard by an- other ...
Page 72
... heard his soliloquy : But there's my wife in front of the house ! Oh dear me ! I'm afraid she's not deaf and that she's heard all this . ( 574-75 ) Lysidamus is so startled and flustered by this turn of events that he fails to guard ...
... heard his soliloquy : But there's my wife in front of the house ! Oh dear me ! I'm afraid she's not deaf and that she's heard all this . ( 574-75 ) Lysidamus is so startled and flustered by this turn of events that he fails to guard ...
Page 155
... heard . After they emerge from hiding , Polonius says to Ophelia , " You need not tell what Lord Hamlet said , / We heard it all " ( 179-80 ) . He has also heard all that Ophelia has said , but he cares only about " what Lord Hamlet ...
... heard . After they emerge from hiding , Polonius says to Ophelia , " You need not tell what Lord Hamlet said , / We heard it all " ( 179-80 ) . He has also heard all that Ophelia has said , but he cares only about " what Lord Hamlet ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Representation of Speech | 35 |
From Antiquity to the Middle of the Sixteenth | 62 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acters action actor addressed speech addressed to playgoers addresses playgoers apostrophe audience address Betterton boy actor chapter char character's characters onstage Claudius clearly conventions governing soliloquies Davenant Davenant's direct access dominant convention dramatic context dramatists earlier eavesdropping eavesdropping episodes enemy evidence explicit explicitly expresses father feigned soliloquy genuine soliloquy gives voice guard his speech guarded in asides Hamlet heard hearing human Iago imagine incongruities innermost thoughts interior monologue kinds of soliloquies King King Lear late seventeenth century later liloquies Love's Labor's Lost Menaechmus mind offstage Ophelia oquies Othello outward behavior overheard soliloquies passage performed playgoers Polonius post-Renaissance presence pretends quies Renaissance Renaissance drama Renaissance playgoers representation Richard Romeo says scene self-addressed speech Shake Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's soliloquies Shakespeare's theater situation solilo soliloquies and asides soliloquies in Shakespeare's soliloquies represented speech soliloquy guarded speaker speare's theatrical Thomas Betterton thou tion Troilus and Cressida unspoken thoughts words spoken