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The Crown of Life
Book by Knight, G. Wilson
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1947
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 11, 2022
Knight’s careful study of Shakespeare’s late plays (Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, and Henry VIII) is exhaustive, and, at times, exhausting.
His two longest chapters, those on Cymbeline and Henry VIII, each clocking in at around 80 pages, aim to prove that they belong, without Fletcherian additions, to Shakespeare’s canon. His argument is convincing in both cases. He searches carefully through the plays for direct textual parallels in the plays to Shakespeare’s other works. Further, he outlines Shakespeare’s overarching dramatic worldview to show how both plays fit within it, and even prove to be the consummation if it. The former arguments are the ones that too often prove tedious for all but the most learned and detail-oriented scholars of the bard; the latter provides all Shakespeare readers with a broader understanding of what Shakespeare was really up to, and gives us a lens through which to see any play in his canon more cohesively.
The opening essay, Myth and Miracle, is an excellent summary of the ressurective-hopeful arch of Shakespeare’s late plays, and I would recommend it without reservation. The rest of the book is a toss-up. I would recommend it to interested readers, but caution them that they ought to be familiar with, and desire to be very familiar with, the plays Knight covers. This is no light study.
His two longest chapters, those on Cymbeline and Henry VIII, each clocking in at around 80 pages, aim to prove that they belong, without Fletcherian additions, to Shakespeare’s canon. His argument is convincing in both cases. He searches carefully through the plays for direct textual parallels in the plays to Shakespeare’s other works. Further, he outlines Shakespeare’s overarching dramatic worldview to show how both plays fit within it, and even prove to be the consummation if it. The former arguments are the ones that too often prove tedious for all but the most learned and detail-oriented scholars of the bard; the latter provides all Shakespeare readers with a broader understanding of what Shakespeare was really up to, and gives us a lens through which to see any play in his canon more cohesively.
The opening essay, Myth and Miracle, is an excellent summary of the ressurective-hopeful arch of Shakespeare’s late plays, and I would recommend it without reservation. The rest of the book is a toss-up. I would recommend it to interested readers, but caution them that they ought to be familiar with, and desire to be very familiar with, the plays Knight covers. This is no light study.
July 20, 2018
Reading chapters I and V in advance of teaching Macbeth and The Tempest. Interesting, exhaustive, and impressive, if not altogether convincing.
July 9, 2019
Reads like a novel. Quite gripping.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews