From 'Henry V' to 'Hamlet' - By Harley Granville-Barker - Norwood Editions - 1978

Sep 29, 2026

The text is a literary lecture introduction by Harley Granville-Barker on the crucial period of Shakespeare’s development as a dramatist, especially in relation to the Elizabethan drama crisis leading to the closure of theatres. It imagines a conversational setting in the early seventeenth century at the Pegasus Inn, where playgoers debate contemporary decadence, Puritan influence, and Shakespeare’s artistic legacy. The discussion frames Shakespeare as topical wit, heir to Kyd and Marlowe, and a playwright whose success may have exceeded the theatre’s nature.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages50

Reading Time1 h 17 min

AccessFree to download

From 'Henry V' to 'Hamlet'

Harley Granville-Barker’s premise

Imagined playgoers and the Elizabethan drama crisis

Debating Shakespeare’s later reception and works

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Hamlet | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DATE DUE | | BORROWER'S NAME | | | | | | | | | | 魔C | | 90
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By
Harley Granville-Barker
NORWOOD EDITIONS/1978
15890 | | --- | LAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGELEANING RESOURCES CFNJTFD 1000000000 # FROM'HENRY V'TO'HAMLET'I By HARLEY GRANVILLE-BARKER TWANT to speak of what seems to me to have been the⊥crucial period of Shakespeare's development as a drama-tist,and to glance at what prompted the crisis and whatresulted from it.And if I must seem dogmatic,it is notthat I am in love with my dogma,or feel dogmatic at all,but merely that in spending an hour upon a controversialsubject one must save time.I shall speak of him simply asa dramatist,and primarily as an Elizabethan dramatist;a view too long ignored,though now returning to favour.In fact for an ideal standpoint I would throw myself andyou back,if I could,by not quite three hundred years,to belisteners to such a talk as I imagine might have had place—let us say about I635,at the Pegasus Inn in Cheapside,and at supper time,between three playgoers returnedfrom some performance at the Blackfriars;not of oneof Shakespeare's plays,but of the latest Massinger orShirley. The chill shadow of Puritanism was already falling,andwithin seven years the theatres were to be closed.It wasthe time of the decadence of Elizabethan drama;thoughthat,no doubt,was a question of contemporary dispute.Iwill imagine our three playgoers disputing it.Let one ofthem be elderly,and the two others young;one of thesetwo an enthusiast,and the other—as common a type—agreat frequenter of theatres and a greater despiser of them.After a while the elder might drift—if the supper and thewine and the company were generous I feel sure he woulddrift—into reminiscence of the better time 'when youyoung blades were in your cradles’,when Shakespeare andBurbage were the men.It is to such a point of view of # FROM‘HENRY V’TO‘HAMLET Shakespeare's art that I wish I could lead you this after-noon.For from it we could still see him as the topical wit,and he was that;as the successor to Kyd and Marlowe,ina perspective which would give us the contemporary valueof that heritage;as the popular playwright and the pro-vider of effective parts for Burbage,Heminge,Phillips,Field,Pope,and the rest;for he was this too,and upon thismust have hung much of his contemporary reputation.Finally,I suspect,we should have to consider him as thedramatist who—his head turned by too much success,maybe—tried to do more with the theatre than thetheatre's nature allowed,and,for all his reputation,failed.The youngest of the trio,our contemptuous playgoerwould,I feel sure,urge this very smartly.(Had he latelyspent 20s.,perhaps,upon a nice new copy of the secondfolio?A second-hand copy of the first would have been abetter investment for the future.) 'Hamlet?Yes,interesting;but I'd sooner read than seeit.Can it be a good play then?Macbetb,with its ellipticalobscurities of language—do you call that poetry?KingLear,with its verbal thundering and lightning,and thewhole thing as inchoate as the thunder-storm—is this sortof stuff suitable to a theatre?" In which last objection,of course,most modern criticsjoin;but they are apt to blame the theatre and notShakespeare for it.We should perhaps have heard hisearlier work preferred to his later.Did he,after all,everdo anything more delightful than Love's Labour's Lost andRichard II?O

FAQs

What does Harley Granville-Barker say he wants to discuss about Shakespeare?

He wants to address the crucial period of Shakespeare’s development as a drama-tist and examine what prompted the crisis and what resulted from it.

How does the text use an imagined conversation to frame its argument?

It imagines three playgoers disputing the decadence of Elizabethan drama during a time when Puritan influence was rising and theatres would soon close.

What competing views about Shakespeare’s plays are presented?

The younger, contemptuous playgoer prefers reading over seeing Hamlet and questions whether plays like King Lear suit a theatre, while other objections shift blame toward the theatre rather than Shakespeare.

Sep 29, 2026

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