Publisher's Synopsis
That Johnson thought Shakespeare "the poet of nature" challenges the common view. This notion is brought out by a series of contrasts with the leading Romantic critics - Coleridge, Hazlitt and A.W.Schlegel. The dichotomies which emerge are found to reflect tensions explored within or exhibited by the plays themselves and to imply a need for fundamental choices in our own reponse.;Johnson's feeling for "general nature" is related to the scepticism characteristic of his thought. The author offers a new account of Johnson's sense of the shockingness of Shakespearean tragedy. The central, critical portion of the "Preface to Shakespeare" is reprinted here, as are many of the most critically interesting notes, so that the book gives the reader a virtual anthology of Johnson's Shakespeare criticism as well as a commentary upon it.
