Provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the conventions governing soliloquies in Western drama from ancient times to the twentieth century. Over the course of theatrical history, there have been several kinds of soliloquies. Shakespeare's soliloquies are not only the most interesting and the most famous, but also the most misunderstood, and several chapters examine them in detail. The present study is based on a painstaking analysis of the actual practices of dramatists from each age of theatrical history. This investigation has uncovered evidence that refutes long-standing commonplaces about soliloquies in general, about Shakespeare's soliloquies in particular, and especially about the to be, or not to be episode. 'Shakespeare and the history of Soliloquies' casts new lights on historical changes in the artistic representation of human beings and, because representations cannot be entirely disentangled from perception, on historical changes in the ways human beings have perceived theselves.

Twenty-seven soliloquies are examined in this work, illustrating how the spectator or reader is led to the soliloquy and how the drama is continued afterwards.

This is the first book to provide students and scholars with a truly comprehensive guide to the early modern soliloquy.

First published in 1987. Often the best known and most memorable passages in Shakespeare's plays, the soliloquies, also tend to be the focal points in the drama. Twenty-seven soliloquies are examined in this work, illustrating how the spectator or reader is led to the soliloquy and how the drama is continued afterwards. The detailed structure of each soliloquy is discussed, as well as examining them within the structure of the entire play - thereby extending the interpretation of the work as a whole.

Presents a collective study of all of Shakespeare's soliloquies by defining the soliloquy, classifying the soliloquies and presenting them as revelations of thought and feeling.