A Natural Perspective - The Development of Shakespearean Comedy & Romance

Brampton Lectures in America

by Northrop Frye

Genres: Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, Literature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Born in Quebec but raised in New Brunswick, Frye studied at the University of Toronto and Victoria University. He was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada and studied at Oxford before returning to UofT.

His first book, Fearful Symmetry, was published in 1947 to international acclaim. Until then, the prophetic poetry of William Blake had long been poorly understood, considered by some to be delusional ramblings. Frye found in it a system of metaphor derived from Paradise Lost and the Bible. His study of Blake's poetry was a major contribution. Moreover, Frye outlined an innovative manner of studying literature that was to deeply influence the study of literature in general. He was a major influence on, among others, Harold Bloom and Margaret Atwood.

In 1974-1975 Frye was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

Frye married Helen Kemp, an educator, editor and artist, in 1937. She died in Australia while accompanying Frye on a lecture tour. Two years after her death in 1986 he married Elizabeth Brown. He died in 1991 and was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario. The Northrop Frye Centre at Victoria College at the University of Toronto was named in his honour.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop...

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic piece of literary criticism dealing with Shakespeare's last few plays. Northrop Frye argues that the late plays are the accumulation of all the genius of Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies. It shows how nature and the external world in general takes more space in these plays.

Fino's Reviews of Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Twelfth Night (1599-1600)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601)
All's Well That Ends Well (1602-1603)
Measure for Measure (1604-1605)
Cymbeline (1609-1610)
A Winter's Tale (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1611-1612)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613)

Histories
Henry VI Part I (1589-1590)
Henry VI Part II (1590-1591)
Henry VI Part III (1590-1591)
Richard III (1593-1594)
Richard II (1595-1596)
King John (1596-1597)
Edward III (1596-1597)
Henry IV Part I (1597-1598)
Henry IV Part II (1597-1598)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Henry VIII (1612-1612)

Tragedies
Titus Andronicus (1592-1593)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)
Coriolanus (1607-1608)
Timon of Athens (1607-1608)
Pericles (1608-1609)

Shakespearean Criticism
The Wheel of Fire by Wilson Knight
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber
Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background by M W MacCallum
Shakespearean Criticism 1919-1935 compiled by Anne Ridler
Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley
Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy by Hugh M. Richmond
Shakespeare: The Comedies by R.P. Draper
Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

Collections of Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece and Other Poems
Shakespeare's Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint
The Complete Oxford Shakespeare

[امیرمحمد حیدری · Rating 3 out of 5]

اثری جدی، سوژه‌ای بسیار سخت، اما همراه با درک بالای مؤلف. بسیار مفید.

[T. Tokunaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

【A Natural Perspective / Northrop Frye / Columbia University Press, 1965】

Here's a violent maxim everybody knows but are really reluctant to accept: writing plays are, under some certain circumstances, surprisingly easy.

To our knowledge, Edward Albee found writing plays, including one of the biggest hits of 20th century, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, possible without planning, and Sam Shepard didn't know anything else than Waiting for Godot. One can write a play without taking care of anything - if you were under 'some certain circumstances.'

Frye pointed out some knacks to get in that kind of trance by analysing Shakespeare.

--This is particularly true if a dramatist who, like Shakespeare, refrains from trying to impose any sort of personal attitude on us, and shows no interest in anything except his play. (P34, 2)

--Shakespeare's impartiality is a totally involved and committed impartiality: it expresses itself in bringing everything equally to life. (P44, 2)

--The irrational or anticomic society mai be clearly defined in its social aims, like the one in Love's Labour's Lost, but the new society that is formed in the last moments of the comedy never is: (P75, 3)


--His (note: a clown / fool's ) enthusiasm is all the more generous in that he has just been sharply rebuked by the ladies for not being obscene in an upper-class way, as they are. (P94, 3)

--Some of the most haunting speeches in Shakespeare are connected with these shifts of perspective provided by alienated characters. (P101, 3)

--Thus the irrational law represents the comic equivalent of a social contract, something we must enter into if the final society is to take shape. (P121, 4)

Even though the shadow of mystical theory held by Frye augments by the conclusion (represented by his dwelling on seasonal cycle and its parallel to theater), it's still a cooling down read for those who'd think of theater at present. And yes, for my academic discipline, too.

[Arasch The Ors · Rating 5 out of 5]

بگذارید صادق باشم: کتابی بود از هر حیث روشنگر و درخشان. برای درکی همه جانبه‌تر از این کتاب پیش‌نهاد می‌کنم یک‌بار دیگر؛ این‌بار دقیق‌تر، رمانس طوفان (Tempest) شکسپیر را بخوانید.
فرای جدای از پیشینه‌ای که در روانکاوی یونگی دارد (که از قضا در این کتاب بسیار هم به آن ایده‌ها خیانت می‌کند) با نوشتن چشم‌انداز طبیعی نشان می‌دهد که خواه ناخواه در ادامه سنت باختین در قرائت متون ادبی حرکت می‌کند. چشم‌انداز طبیعی اثری است که بلافاصله پس از تخیل مکالمه‌ای باختین درمی‌رسد، بی‌آنکه هیچ‌کجا کوچکترین ارجاعی به آن بدهد و اشارتی کند.
اگر باختین طرح فضا-زمانی (کرونوتوپ) خود را در پی‌جویی ریشه‌های رمان اروپایی در محیطی قرون وسطایی با بررسی آثار نویسندگانی چون رابله به پیش می‌برد، فرای همین‌ طرح را با الهام از باختین و سنت انتقادی او و البته بر روی آثار شکسپیر در اوج شکوفایی هنر باروک و تئاتر الیزابتی اجرا می‌کند، و نتیجه؟ چشم‌اندازی طبیعی که پرده وهم را از روی متونی چنان رویای شب نیمه تابستان برمی‌دارد و گسترهٔ دیدتان را یکسره نورافشانی می‌کند.

[Michael Milburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good supplement to the section on comedy in Anatomy of Criticism

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary insight into the structure of Shakespeare’s plays, especially the comedies. He sees repeating themes that gives the reading a greater understanding of the unity of ideas in the plays. I will probably reread this again in a few days in order to fully integrate his ideas.

[Samuel Mendel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frye writes beautifully, and has a deeper understanding of Shakespeare's structures than anyone I've read. Every page was bursting with ideas and aphorisms. Last night I dreamt I was looking through a selection of Northrop Frye books each dedicated to a single play; in the morning I was greatly disappointed to find it was a dream. If Frye had been able to focus on every Shakespeare play in such a manner, the world would have been richer for it.

[Zachary Waltz]

Mouldy Tales

“[Ben] Johnson writes comedies which, if not exactly realistic plays, still maintain a fairly consistent illusion. … Shakespeare hampers himself, in his comedies and romances, by never failing to include something incredible."