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Shakespeare's histories
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 12, 2020
3*
This slim little volume is a good first introduction to Shakespeare's history plays for someone who has never read them before, or never read Shakespeare in general (though it is generally not advised to start with his histories). You get a short introduction to his equally short biography, a concise examination of the contemporary reception of the histories, which I thought was a nice way to put the reader in the right mindset for them, and a short history of later reception. There are also a few pages of genealogies covering the dramatis personæ, which I'd recommend consulting while reading the plays to sort through the complex familial ties between the army of characters that Shakespeare throws at you.
Now for the centrepiece, the chapters on the respective plays. They are in historical order from Richard II to Henry VIII, with an annexed chapter on King John, which is a weird little play without any ties to the main cycle. Here you can also see the biggest weakness of this book (though no fault of its own), namely that it's from 1977 and the scholarship in it is dated. The "mainstream" histories don't suffer from it as much as King John, Henry VIII and Edward III do, the latter of which wasn't even acknowledged to have been co-authored by Shakespeare back then, so it's not featured. However, since these are very obscure even for Shakespearean histories and highly unlikely to be picked up by beginners anyway, it didn't count towards my rating.
The weak points of this book are definitely the interpretations. Becker gives a summary of each play and then goes on to analyse the motifs and imagery in it, and although he gives a very comprehensive overview, he is quite biased at times and shouldn't be trusted as your only source.
I used him mainly to break up my fear of the Henry VI plays, which have an aura of dubiousness wafting about them, and it worked very nice in conjunction with the Arden Third Series editions, which provided a much more judicious and up-to-date commentary.
This slim little volume is a good first introduction to Shakespeare's history plays for someone who has never read them before, or never read Shakespeare in general (though it is generally not advised to start with his histories). You get a short introduction to his equally short biography, a concise examination of the contemporary reception of the histories, which I thought was a nice way to put the reader in the right mindset for them, and a short history of later reception. There are also a few pages of genealogies covering the dramatis personæ, which I'd recommend consulting while reading the plays to sort through the complex familial ties between the army of characters that Shakespeare throws at you.
Now for the centrepiece, the chapters on the respective plays. They are in historical order from Richard II to Henry VIII, with an annexed chapter on King John, which is a weird little play without any ties to the main cycle. Here you can also see the biggest weakness of this book (though no fault of its own), namely that it's from 1977 and the scholarship in it is dated. The "mainstream" histories don't suffer from it as much as King John, Henry VIII and Edward III do, the latter of which wasn't even acknowledged to have been co-authored by Shakespeare back then, so it's not featured. However, since these are very obscure even for Shakespearean histories and highly unlikely to be picked up by beginners anyway, it didn't count towards my rating.
The weak points of this book are definitely the interpretations. Becker gives a summary of each play and then goes on to analyse the motifs and imagery in it, and although he gives a very comprehensive overview, he is quite biased at times and shouldn't be trusted as your only source.
I used him mainly to break up my fear of the Henry VI plays, which have an aura of dubiousness wafting about them, and it worked very nice in conjunction with the Arden Third Series editions, which provided a much more judicious and up-to-date commentary.
Displaying 1 of 1 review