Shakespearean Criticism

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Prior to Coleridge, as Professor Harbage remarks in an introduction to this volume, the great critics tended to "present Shakespeare at a remove. When we read Johnson, we think what a wonderful man Johnson is. When we read Schlegel, we think what a wonderful summary this is. When we read Coleridge, we think what a wonderful artist is Shakespeare. Coleridge's is the criticism with immediacy...when he speaks, Shakespeare is there."

In this edition Terence Hawkes has given a logical order to everything that was written (or spoken) by Coleridge about Shakespeare as poet and dramatist. His sound text (unencumbered by scholarly trimmings) assembles in one book the scattered enthusiasms, the considered opinions, and the random thoughts of one great poet about another and greater. These essays, notes, and lectures confirm Coleridge's reputation as the greatest Shakespearian critic of the last century.

Genres: Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.

Reviews

[Charis]

Great as an insight into Coleridge's way of thinking about the plays and as an artefact of the time but generally useless for any further understanding of Shakespeare. Some insights were clever and could inspire further analysis by the reader but most were cut short and he jumps from point to point without finishing his idea fully.