CRITICISM

Bell, Arthur H. “Time and Convention in Antony and Cleopatra.” Shakespeare Quarterly 24, no. 3 (Summer 1973): 253-64.

Suggests that as Antony tries to come to terms with the relentless demands of time, he vacillates between three conventional roles: the courtly lover, the Homeric hero, and the man of political prudence. In Bell's judgment, Shakespeare shows that neither the lover's escapism, the hero's pursuit of honor and reputation, nor the politician's pragmatism is a sufficient means of coping with the force that controls Antony's destiny.

Bennett, Robert B. “Four Stages of Time: The Shape of History in Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy.” Shakespeare Studies 19 (1987): 61-85.

Focuses on Shakespeare's presentation of how time shapes human action and history, and discerns a cyclical, sacramental progression in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy from initial harmony between man and nature, or God, to spiritual alienation, then redemption and a return to unity.

Blissett, William. “This Wide Gap of Time: The Winter's Tale.” English Literary Renaissance 1, no. 1 (Winter 1971): 52-70.

Calls attention to the dynamic symmetries of the two halves of The Winter's Tale—most particularly to the integration of the notion of devouring time and tempestuousness in the first half and the concept of redeeming time and moderation in the second half.

Burnside, Kent. “Time, and Doubletime, in Hamlet.” Hamlet Studies 18, nos. 1 and 2 (Summer and Winter 1996): 126-29.

Draws on a variety of dramatic references to determine the extent of Hamlet's delay in avenging his father. Burnside proposes that at least six months, and perhaps as many as eight, elapse between the old king's murder and the death of his son.

Davidson, Clifford. “The Triumph of Time.” Dalhousie Review 50, no. 2 (Summer 1970): 170-81.

Focuses on Hamlet’s Claudius, stressing his diseased moral state and deep despair, and asserting that at the close of the play, time—which ultimately illuminates the truth—triumphs over Claudius's deceit and hypocrisy.

Driver, Tom F. “The Shakespearian Clock: Time and the Vision of Reality in Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.” Shakespeare Quarterly 15, no. 4 (Autumn 1964): 363-70.

Analyzes the contrasting treatments of time in Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest, contending that in Romeo and Juliet time is a keen reality that both compels and blinds the characters, none of whom can foresee or alter the course of events. By contrast, the critic suggests, in The Tempest time is ruled by Prospero, who, in an enchanted, remedial present, determines the significance of past injustices and future harmonies.

Ferry, Anne. “Shakespeare.” In All in War with Time: Love Poetry of Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, Marvell, pp. 1-63. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.

A detailed examination of the poet-lover's struggle, in sonnets 1-126, to preserve love from the ravages of time. Ferry maintains that while the first half of these sonnets affirm the “eternizing” power of art to transcend a time-bound world, the poems in the second half alternately mock, attack, and deprecate this promise.

Guj, Luisa. “Macbeth and the Seeds of Time.” Shakespeare Studies 18 (1986): 175-88.

Identifies the central theme of Macbeth as time in its linear and cyclical forms, and suggests that Macbeth's principal sin is making a mockery of God's design by trying to obliterate the past and control the future.

Kastan, David Scott. “The Shape of Time: Form and Value in the Shakespearean History Play.” Comparative Drama 7, no. 2 (Fall 1973-74): 259-77.

Links the open-ended structure of Shakespeare's history plays to his representation of the reigns of individual monarchs as merely episodic events drawn from the full continuum of human time. From Kastan's point of view, Shakespeare emphasized the continuity of time, and, unlike the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, his historical dramas have no fixed beginnings or resolutions.

Krier, Theresa M. “The Triumph of Time: Paradox in The Winter's Tale.” Centennial Review 26, no. 4 (Fall 1982): 341-53.

Examines the way in which the disparate senses of time accentuate the discrepancy between the tragic tone of the first half of The Winter's Tale and the comic tone of the second half.

Maguin, F. “The Breaking of Time.” Cahiers Élisabéthains 7 (1975): 25-41.

Evaluates the connection between the tragic ends of four Shakespearean protagonists and their disruption of time. In different ways, the critic argues, Richard II, Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth each interferes with the natural flow of time, severing the link between their individual times and cosmic time and thus becoming victims of forces beyond their control.

Salingar, L. G. “Time and Art in Shakespeare's Romances.” Renaissance Drama IX (1966): 3-35.

Evaluates Shakespeare's treatment of time in terms of his innovative adaptations of medieval and Renaissance conceptions of time.

Schanzer, Ernest. “Shakespeare and the Doctrine of the Unity of Time.” Shakespeare Survey 28 (1975): 57-61.

Briefly reviews the time schemes of several plays—especially The Tempest—and various characters' references to the passage of dramatic time. Schanzer links these to what he sees as Shakespeare's disdain for the neoclassical precept that a play's dramatic action should cover no more than twenty-four hours.

Střibrný, Zdeněk. “The Idea and Image of Time in Shakespeare's Early Histories.” Shakespeare Jahrbuch 110 (1974): 129-38.

Assesses the protagonists' attitudes toward time in 1, 2 and 3 Henry VI, Richard III, and—most particularly—King John. The critic argues that in these plays, Shakespeare's concept of time is dynamic and that he represents it as an exploitable tool of political policy rather than a symbol of a static world order.

———. “The Idea and Image of Time in Shakespeare's Second Historical Tetralogy.” Shakespeare Jahrbuch 111 (1975): 51-66.

Evaluates the significance of images of time and references to time in Richard II, 1 and 2 Henry IV, and Henry V. The critic sees in these plays a realistic view of a period in English history marked by the political, economic, and social upheaval that accompanied the disintegration of feudalism and the rise of a new order.

———. “Time in Troilus and Cressida.” Shakespeare Jahrbuch 112 (1976): 105-21.

Calls attention to Shakespeare's depiction of time in Troilus and Cressida, concluding that the play is, in effect, a critique of the notions of permanent order and constancy in love.

Tanselle, G. Thomas. “Time in Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Quarterly 15, no. 4 (Autumn 1964): 349-61.

Assembles all the exact references to time in Romeo and Juliet, discusses the play's double-time scheme, and suggests that the dramatic action takes place over the span of five days.

Taylor, Donn Ervin. “‘Try in Time in Despite of a Fall’: Time and Occasion in As You Like It.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 24, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 121-36.

Reads the contradictory perspectives on time expressed by characters in As You Like It in the context of the profound changes they experience as they undergo a process of maturation in the Forest of Arden. Taylor asserts that although the play does present time as a threat, the darker tone this perspective evokes is mitigated by the predominant mood of optimism.

Turner, Frederick. “The Crime of Macbeth.” In Shakespeare and the Nature of Time, pp. 128-45. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Contends that the essence of Macbeth's sacrilege is that he rebels against the constraints of time. Turner maintains that although Macbeth believes that by some means or other he can stem the flow of causality and live entirely in the future, by the end of the play he is overwhelmed by the oppressiveness of time.

———. “The Speech of Time in The Winter's Tale.” In Shakespeare and the Nature of Time, pp. 146-61. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Asserts that the speech of Time in The Winter's Tale manifests the strange and impenetrable nature of change itself. In the first three acts, he maintains, time is oppressive and unrelenting, faith and innocence have been lost, and society is oppressed. However, following Time’s speech, Act IV presents a vision of a world where mankind has harmonized the temporal and the eternal and begun the process of healing individuals as well as society.