Présentation de l'éditeur
Wars of the Roses had been fought, was a storehouse of history and legend. A wealth of material had been handed down by oral tradition. The battle of Bosworth Field was fought only eighty years before Shakespeare sbirth. Thus the history that he narrates is the history that he must have heard recounted in his youth and early manhood. This gives a peculiar value to Shakespeare s English historical plays, a value that historians are just beginning to appreciate. In the preface to The Houses of York and Lancaster, Mr. James Gairdner says: For this period of English history we are fortunate in possessing an unrivaled interpreter in our great dramatic poet Shakespeare. Following the guidance of such a master mind, we realize for ourselves the men and actions of the period in a way we cannot do in any other epoch. .. .T he doings of that stormy age, the sad calamities endured by kings, the sudden changes of fortune endured by great men. the glitter of chivalry, and the horrors of civil war, all left a deep impression upon the mind of the nation, which was kept alive by vivid traditions of the past at t Jwtime that our great dramatist zcrote. Shakespeare snearness, therefore, in time and place to the events that he records to say nothing of his unrivaled powers of insight and presentation not only gives him an advantage over modern historians, but makes him a peculiarly fitting guide for those who arc just entering upon the serious study of English history. For Maxims of Conduct. Three-fourths of our daily thought, says Matthew A rnold, is devoted to questions of conduct. In the case of the young, in whom conduct has not yet crystallized into matured and unconscious habit, the proportion would be nearer fourfifths.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science
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