The material in this thesis is copyright, but it may, of course, be quoted in the usual way.
The hyperlinks in the text will obviously work best if the whole file is allowed to download first (the average file size is about 110 KB for each play, so downloading is reasonably quick).
The text has been prepared using Microsoft FrontPage 2000 with fonts available with this software. In some browsers the layout may not appear as intended, and certain characters will not appear as they should (for example, Greek text [e.g. Αίκατερίνα] and letters from other languages [e.g. þ and ע]; and also some symbols used in sixteenth and seventeenth century typographic conventions [e.g. cõtinue wt thẽ; þe quen was oway ytuiзt | Wiþ fairi forþ ynome]).
A note on changes in the text as a result of re-typing for web pages.
THE DRAMATIC FUNCTION OF DISORDER, CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE
IN SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES AND ROMANCES
by
Raymond Justin Hoole
submitted in accordance with the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
in the subject
ENGLISH
at the
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
PROMOTER: PROFESSOR R.I. FERGUSON
SEPTEMBER 1989
IN MEMORY OF MY BROTHER
GERALD WATSON HOOLE
23.7.1946 - 24.12.1987
Chapter One: The Early Comedies (I)
Chapter Two: The Early Comedies (II)
Chapter Three: The Middle Comedies (I)
Chapter Four: The Middle Comedies (II)
Chapter Five: The Dark Comedies
Chapter Six: The Romances
Chapter Seven: Conclusions
Appendix One: Some Recent Shakespearean Productions
Appendix Two: Location of Primary Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Sources
NOTE ON THE TEXT IN
THESE WEB PAGES
The text given in this web site is that of the thesis I presented for my doctorate. I have tried to give the text as it was in my thesis, which was originally processed on an Amstrad PCW 9512. In re-typing it for web pages there have inevitably been some changes in format and design. These include the following:
1. For ease of reference page numbers are placed at the top of each page where they appear at the foot of the page in the original. Page numbers are placed between hyphens, thus: - iii -, or - 123 - . Page breaks are indicated by a horizontal line on the web page; because of different font sizes and line lengths, these page breaks do not always appear at the ends of lines as they naturally do in the original. Also, lines may start with hyphens, which would not have been allowed in the original.
2. Titles which were underlined in the original have been italicised here.
3. The Notes have been placed at the end of each web page, and not at the end of each chapter as in the original. Numbers to notes have been prefixed by their chapters, so that the fifth note in the third chapter appears as 3.5; in the original it would have appeared simply as 5 in chapter 3.
4. References to other pages in my thesis are indicated by page numbers as in the original, but here I have added hyperlinks for the reader's convenience.
5. Hyperlinks appear underlined in the text, and this means that if the title of a play is used as a hyperlink, it will appear in italics and underlined.
6. I have omitted the Index.
Proceed to Summary, Acknowledgements and Introduction