Defects of Shakespeare - Preface to Shakespeare
Quotes from "Preface to Shakespeare", written by Samuel Johnson
Preface to Shakespeare is a critical essay by the neo-classical writer Samuel Johnson. In this essay, he has judged the merits and demerits of William Shakespeare's plays. Here are some of the defects of his plays-
Defect/Demarite in Shakespeare-
"His first defect is that to which may be imputed most of the evil in books or in men. He sacrifices virtue to convenience and is so much more careful to please than to instruct, that he seems to write without any moral purpose." [362-365]
👉The first defect that can be attributed to Shakespeare is that there is evil in his works. His prime purpose was to entertain his audiences, not to instruct them which is why he sacrificed virtues and wrote without moral purpose.
"He makes no just distribution of good or evil, nor always be careful to show in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked; he carries his persons indifferently through right and wrong, and at the close dismisses them without further care, and leaves their examples to operate by chance... for it is always writer's duty to make the world batter, and justice is a virtue independent on time or place." [368-375]
👉Shakespeare does not distinguish between good and evil. His characters irrespective of their virtues and vices, are filled with all human qualities and when they reach that point where the opposite qualities are very close to each other and require distinction then he leaves them to operate by the time and place in which they are confronting. By remanding the duty of a writer, Johnson says that the writer must make the world better. Justice is a virtue and free from time and place.
"The Plots are often so loosely formed, that a very slight consideration may improve them, and so careless pursued, that he seems not always fully to comprehend his own design. He omits opportunities of instructing or delighting which the train of his story seems to force upon him, and apparently rejects those exhibitions which would be more affecting, for the sake of those which are more easy."
"It may be observed, that in many of his plays that latter part is evidently neglected. When he found himself near the end of his work and in view of his reward, he shortened the labour to snatch the profit." [383-385]
"In Tragedy his performance seems constantly to be worse, as his labour is more. The effusion of passion which exigence forces out are for the most part striking and energetic; but whenever he solicits his invention, or strains his faculties, the offspring of his throes os tumour, meanness, tediousness, and obscurity." [414-419]
Source-
ENGLISH CRITICAL TEXTS by Ernst De Chickera D J Enright.