The Drama of Speech Acts: Shakespeare's Lancastrian Tetralogy

by J.A. Porter

Traces Shakespeare's preoccupation with the subject of speech and language in Richard II, 1 & 2 Henry IV, and Henry V, plays written at a time when Shakespeare's allegiance as an artist was shifting decisively from poetry to drama (...excerpted from the jacket flap). Cloth binding, 208 pages. University of California Press, 1979. First Edition. Hardcover.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1979

Reviews

[Marie Trotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Porter's overall argument for the tetralogy as marking Shakespeare's shift from nondramatic to dramatic writing is perhaps overstated and not entirely convincing, but his methodology (applying Austin & Searle's theories of speech acts to the four plays) offers effective readings of how characters within these history plays speak and act.