...smartness and contests of sarcasm ; their jests are commonly gross, and their pleasantry licentious ; i/ neither his gentlemen nor his ladies have much delicacy,...from his clowns by any appearance of refined manners. Whether he , . jrepresented the real conversation of his time is not easy to Determine ; the reign...

...successful when he engages his characters in reciprocations of smartness and contests of sarcasm. Their jests are commonly gross, and their pleasantry licentious;...from his clowns by any appearance of refined manners. Whether he represented the real conversation of his time is not easy to determine; the reign of Elizabeth...

...historical sense; he is a 'violator of chronology'. Fourthly, he ignores the principle of social decorum. 'Neither his gentlemen nor his ladies have much delicacy,...his clowns by any appearance of refined manners.' Fifthly, in tragedy he labours overmuch and achieves only 'tumour, meanness, tediousness and obscurity'....

...smartness and contests of sarcasm; their jests are commonly gross, and their pleasantry licentious;3 neither his gentlemen nor his ladies have much delicacy,...from his clowns by any appearance of refined manners. Whether he represented the real conversation of his time is not easy to determine; the reign of Elizabeth...

...it. In tragedy, Shakespeare works against the grain of his natural disposition, and it is then that "his performance seems constantly to be worse, as his labour is more" (pp. 71-73). But again the point is made by reference to how an ordinary reader of the tragic scenes...