Clemen - The Development of Shakespeares Imagery

Routledge Library Editions

SHAKESPEARE

Routledge Library Editions Shakespeare

In 36 Volumes

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHAKESPEARE'S IMAGERY

WOLFGANG CLEMEN

First published in 1977

Reprinted in 2005 by
Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

First issued in paperback 2010

1951 And 1977 Wolfgang Clemen

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery
ISBN 978-0415-43595-6 (set)
ISBN 978-0-415-35280-2 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0-415-61220-3 (pbk)
Miniset: Critical Studies

Series: Routledge Library Editions Shakespeare

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHAKESPEARE'S IMAGERY

Wolfgang Clemen

SECOND EDITION, WITH A
NEW PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON
METHUEN AND CO LTD
1977

First published in 1951
by Methuen & Co Ltd
Reprinted seven times
First published as a University Paperback in 1966
Reprinted twice
Second edition 1977
1951 and 1977 Wolfgang Clemen

Printed in Great Britain at the
University Press, Cambridge

ISBN 0 416 85740 x (hardback)
ISBN 0 416 85730 2 (paperback)

This title is available
in both hardback and paperback
editions. The paperback edition is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is
published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.

PART I
THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGERY IN THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE'S EARLY AND MIDDLE PERIOD

PART II
THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGERY IN SHAKESPEARE'S GREAT TRAGEDIES

PART III
THE IMAGERY IN THE ROMANCES

PART IV
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

LOOKING BACK OVER FORTY YEARS

I T is now twenty-five years since this book was first published in England and forty years since Shakespeares Bilder, which formed the basis for it, appeared in Germany. These dates provoke a retrospective survey, self-criticism and a prospective look into the future, for in the meantime the study of Shakespeare's imagery has developed in various quite divergent directions.

It was my good fortune to be among the first to concentrate on this subject, for my book was published almost simultaneously with Caroline Spurgeon's Shakespeare's Imagery and What It Tells Us. But it was also fortunate that our two books took a different line, supplementing each other rather than overlapping. However, it also needed the boldness and inexperience of a young man not deterred by the complexity of his subject and not wholly aware of it, and who was, moreover, not bowed down by the burden of secondary literature which would have suggested many other possible approaches. For anyone settling down to write about Shakespeare's imagery nowadays would have to take these possibilities into consideration. The task I had set myself in those early years was shortly afterwards described justly as exploring a field far beyond the power of any one man.

When, in 1950, I was preparing the English version of my German book, altering a good deal, I was again fortunate in receiving Una Ellis-Fermor's advice. For she encouraged me to stick to my original scheme, advising me to extend the inquiry into the specifically dramatic functions of imagery and not to abandon the variety of approach which I had used and furthermore not to give up the wide concept of imagery which in the meantime she too had advocated Her encouragement was supplemented by that of John Dover Wilson who recommended the book in a preface which he contributed to the first edition, thus introducing its author to Shake-speareans in the English-speaking world.