...works, deserves more consideration. Let the fact be first stated, and then examined. Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and\ critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but^pmpositions of a jjstinct kind ; exhibiting the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes...

...Shakespearean or "mingled" drama against the critics who demanded unity of kind and action: "Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either...the world, in which the loss of one is the gain of jinother; in which, at the same time, the reveller is hasting to his wine, and the mourner burying...

...censure Shakespeare for mixing his comic and tragic scenes. Shakespeare's plays, Johnson says, exhibit 'the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes...evil, joy and sorrow, mingled with endless variety.' In addition, 'the mingled drama may convey all the instruction of tragedy or comedy' by approaching...

...and nature is tragicomic. Johnson's pronouncement is that Shakespeare writes neither tragedies nor comedies, .... but compositions of a distinct kind...nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow, in which at the same time, the reveler is hasting to his wine and the mourner burying his friend; in...

...the 1881 Stratford production. Many of us would concur in Dr Johnson's opinion that 'Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either...or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind', accurately reflecting 'the real state of sublunary nature' with its 'chaos of mingled purposes and...

...nature," at which Shakespeare is unsurpassed.76 In mixing comic and serious elements, Shakespeare exhibits "the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes...proportion and innumerable modes of combination." Admittedly, this is contrary to traditional rules, "but there is always an appeal open from criticism...

...vice and virtue, which distinguish one character from another," 127 just as he admires Shakespeare for exhibiting "the real state of sublunary nature, which...proportion and innumerable modes of combination." 128 Prince Hal, "whose virtues are obscured by negligence, and whose understanding is dissipated by...

...works, deserves more consideration. Let the fact be first stated, and then examined. Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either...tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind;7 exhibiting the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow,...

...plays. The relevant passage from the Preface contains the following famous statement: "Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either...combination; and expressing the course of the world" (p. 66). Johnson does not develop a theory for the notion that Shakespeare's plays are "compositions...

...the 1881 Stratford production. Many of us would concur in Dr. Johnson's opinion that "Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either...or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind," accurately reflecting "the real state of sublunary nature" with its "chaos of mingled purposes and...