Jul 25, 2008

Shakespeare's Work | Shakespeare's Treatment of English History

Shakespeare's ten plays named after medieval English kings appear in the First Folio as his "histories." By calling the volume Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, and by arranging its contents in three corresponding sections, Heminge and Condell indicated their conviction that the history constitutes a dramatic genre equal in status to the two major traditional kinds. There are some problems, however, about the term. Shakespeare's plays on ancient Roman subjects treat equally historical matter, sometimes with greater fidelity to the sources. His plays on pre-...