Explain fully the meaning of originality.
What is more important in a man of genius than originality? Illustrate.
In Shakespeare's youth how were dramatic entertainments regarded?
What material did Shakespeare find at first to work upon?
What were the great sources of his material in the plays with which you are familiar?
Have other writers felt free to borrow as they pleased?
What is their justification?
Explain the meaning of: "It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no man's work" (p. 191).
What have scholars and Shakespeare societies found out about Shakespeare? How did his contemporaries regard him? Explain: "Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare" (p. 198), and "He is the one person, in all modern history, known to us" (p. 200).
What do we learn of him through his works?