ENGL362 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sprezzatura, Stephen Greenblatt, Soltyrei
Document Summary
Much ado about nothing: comedy of errors, taming of the shrew, somewhat dry; flat characters. Middle (1596-99: much ado about nothing, as you like it, twelfth night, the golden age of shakespearean comedy. No explicit climax/primary crisis like in tragedy. Less emphasis on the romantic couple themselves. If richard ii was shakespeare"s experimentation with verse, much ado is his experimentation with prose. Hero and claudio slandered woman plotline. Beatrice and benedick witty lovers who move from hate to love at the end of the play. Dogberry and his men bumbling and dimwitted, afforded a slice of authority, figure largely in the action exposing the slander of hero. The tale of the unjustly slandered woman was very popular in renaissance literature, especially in italy. Shakespeare diverges because don john slanders her not because he loves hero (which is the clich ), but to spite don pedro through his friend claudio.
