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THE MORAL OF THE PLAY

Is there a moral against the current educational methods and the affectations social and literary of Shakespeare's time? The monastic and aristocratic elements in education considered as opposed to the progress of Women and the People. Show the general conditions of education prevailing after the Middle Ages, and the new spirit of the Renascence making itself felt, also the degree in which this appears in this plot. If Shakespeare's spirit, as manifested in this Play, had been more influential practically, do you think a different road would have been taken? (For hints upon this line of thought see Introduction in the "First Folio Edition"). How far is Berowne to be taken as the spokesman of Shakespeare? Note what Pater says of him as "a reflex of Shakespeare himself," and trace the truth of this as concerns the fact that he is never "quite in touch" with the level of the understanding shown by others of the Play, and state the bearing this has upon the Moral of the Play. (See Pater's "Appreciations" or extract from same in "Selected Criticism," pp. 242-248, "First Folio Edition").

Why does so frolicsome a Comedy end so seriously? Does that make it funnier?

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