A Study Of The Neoclassical British Shakespearean Criticism

The Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism is one of the most glorious period during the history for more than four hundred years,which is a heard of but not familiar one for most scholars with some misunderstanding arising in different times.With the development of New Criticism,Meyer Howard Abrams and Harold Hart Crane have established the Four-Elements framework and the fundamental terms including author,works,reader and universe,to explore the formation and paradigm of Neoclassical Shakespearean criticism.In recent years,some scholars have broken through the mode of “ProShakespeare” or “Anti-Shakespeare”,discussing the interrelations among the adaptation,textual criticism and interpretation of Shakespeare's plays according to the historical documents scattered in the works of Neoclassical critics,namely the preface,epilogue and essays published anonymously.These researches are critical for further study in this field.In terms of the history of literary criticism,the Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism witnessed a course of nearly one and a half centuries' development from the Restoration period of the 17 th century to the arrival of the Romantic period at the end of18 th century.British critics in this times made great efforts to defend for the violation of the classical rules by Shakespeare and his contemporaries according to the convention of the tradition of British plays and formed the principle of criticism.Therefore,it is a rewarding task to have a commanding view concerning the Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism in three aspects.This dissertation intends to carry out research about the historical and theoretical backgrouds that might have influenced critical perceptions of John Dryden,Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson during their adaptation,collation and publication of Shakespeare's plays and the dynamic development of Shakespeare's identity and image in this period.Firstly,the Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism witnessed three criticalperiods in sucession.The establishment period,also known as the Age of Dryden,spans from 1660 to the end of 17 th century,featured by adaptation of Shakespeare's plays.The success of the adapted The Tempest by cooperation of William Davenant and Dryden changed the tendency of Fletcher-Beaumont's plays dominating London stage and improved the reception of Shakespeare's play.Though Dryden did not follow the rhymed tradition of heroic plays in his adaptation of All for Love and Truth Found Too Late,the theme of love,honor and friendship are fully conceived in them,which began to promote the publication of Shakespeare's plays in 18 th century.This is the solid foundation of Dryden's fundamental Principles to evaluate Shakespeare and his works.The development stage,known as age of Pope,starts from 1709 when Nicholas Rowe's edition of The Works of William Shakespeare published to 1733's version edited by Lewis Theobald.During this time,Pope's principles of Copy-text and Decorum like a stone thrown into the lake,might have exerted more effects than Jacob Tonson's efforts to establish a standardized version in the 18 th century to be the most glorious era in textual criticism.The textual criticism by Nicholas Rowe,Pope and Lewis Theobald marks the change taking place from the rule of art such as poetic justice to the authority,reliability and modernization of the Folio versions.As the second editor contracted with Tonson,Pope established a set of critical system based on investigation,textual criticism,appreciation and evaluation,which replaced the long-established and deep-rooted pattern established with the development of theater,stage and poet in the late part in 17 th century.The improvement period begins with 1747 when Warburton's edition published till the end of 18 th century,which witnessed Johnson's Preface to The Plays of William Shakespeare(1765)as the landmark,promising the coming of Romantic period.Warburton's historical approaches and Johnson's Philology explanation are two significant methods to explore the nature of Shakespeare's works within the framework of historical cultural horizon.The cooperation among Johnson,Steveens and Malone strengthened the textual criticism in the late 18 th century and Shakespeare's biographical study.Moreover,Malone deduced the chronology order of Shakespeare's plays according to Steevens' Stationer's Extract and the completion of Globe Theatre as a watershed.This is the first time to draw a picture of Shakespeare's mind and thereforelaunched a new era in biographical study.Secondly,the theoretical framework of Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism comprises three parts: On the characters Shakespeare's plays by Dryden,On Shakespeare's plays by Pope and On Tragic-comedy genre by Johnson based on the fundamental principles of literary criticism,as instructing by delight,the law of nature and the idea of general nature.The principle of instructing by delight was established by Dryden to explain his character-oriented Shakespearean critical system influenced by Aristotle,Horace and Lucretius.While the law of nature comes from Pope's reading and pondering Homer day and night.In Pope's opinion,Shakespeare follows the natural law and his originality excels Homer.Therefore,he is not so much as an imitator of nature,but a spokesman of nature.The grandeur of Gothic structure of Shakespeare's plays shaped by the adaptation of grand story into two hours' stage performance,the conventional writing style in Renaissance and the philosophy of Sundial time in that time.The most significant principle of this period is Johnson's theory of general nature that not only inherits some elements from Dryden's perception of human nature and Pope's perception of language,but also be coincided with David Hume's threecomponent framework of human nature as sense,emotion and moral in empirical philosophy.It can be proved that Johnson's opinion about the formation Shakespeare's plays genre represents the conversation of human nature in three levels.The interwoven of tragi-comedy scenes is a just image of human nature when confronted with gains and losses in the real world.Then,the coordination of the main and sub-plot is conducive to realize the poetic justice through struggles.Finally,the weak points of typical characters are the internal force affecting the development of the plot and the doomed fate.Thirdly,the British Neoclassical period is featured by the dynamic development of the poet's identity and image,namely,Shakespeare's idolization,the canonization and popularization of Shakespeare's plays.Shakespeare's idolization,specifically,is the worship of British dramatic poets such as Dryden,Nicholas Rowe and David Garrick.Dryden established a humor-temperament-oriented literary history through the perspective of Greek-Roman traditional medicine theory towards giants and genius.He compared Shakespeare to Homer and honored him as “father of the English DramaticPoets”,since Shakespeare was of a choleric-sanguine temperament with a pioneering spirit.Then Nicholas Rowe's “Some Account of the Life of William Shakespeare”contributed the first brief biography of Shakespeare.It provides a clear image and life story of the dramatic poet and helps the readers understand his works better.David Garrick,who built Shakespeare's temple and held celebrations in Stratford,promoted the idolization of Shakespeare and German poets' worship of the dramatic poet.The canonization of Shakespeare's plays is the critical part in the Neoclassical Period when the sizes of Folios shifted to the smaller one.It is a process of text construction from collation,art appreciation and cultural interpretation.In the 18 th century,the editing and compiling of The Plays of William Shakespeare was composed of an integrated textual criticism with four approaches and thereby the texts of Shakespeare's plays enjoyed three characteristics: the standardization of language spelling,the division of acts and scenes in the plays in line with the stage style of the times and the combination of annotation and criticism.The popularization of Shakespeare's plays is the critical turn to identify his works as classics shifting from stage to the printed books.It is in essence the diversification of aesthetic ways,objects and standards of Shakespeare's plays.From stage performance to text reading,the aesthetic paradigm is no longer restricted by the space-time of the stage,the aesthetic objects change from the imitation of actions to the systematic analysis of characters and the standard changes from the principle of decorum to the view of natural language.To sum up,Shakespearean criticism of Dryden,Pope and Johnson is not only based on the traditional classical poetic thoughts,but also shaped by the historical backgrounds.In a word,the Neoclassical British Shakespearean criticism includes metaphysical perceptions and profound practices.Therefore,it is not objective to label the Neoclassical British Shakespearean critics as conservative or pedantic for their critical feature to strive for inventions.They took double standards in writing and criticism.They intended to meet the taste and requirements of their time in their creative writing,while according to the criticism concerning Elizabeth literature,especially Shakespeare's plays,they began to form new critical system.In a word,Elizabethan plays are not only the backbone of that era butalso the internal driving force to promote the development of dramatic theory.