HAMLET AND ORESTES
07
1
THE BRITISH ACADEMY
THE ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE
1914
Hamlet and Orestes
A
Study
in Traditional
Types
By
Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt.
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Fellow of the
Academy
New York
Oxford University Press American Branch
35 West 32nd Street
London
:
Humphrey Milford
THE BRITISH ACADEMY
THE ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE
1914
Hamlet and Orestes
A
Study
in Traditional
Types
By
Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt.
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Fellow of the Academy
New York
Oxford University Press American Branch
35 West 32nd Street
London
:
Humphrey Milford
Copyright in the United States of America
by the Oxford University Press
American Branch
1914
CU387143
OCT 22 1914
ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE,
1914
HAMLET AND ORESTES
A STUDY IN TRADITIONAL TYPES
By Gilbert Murray, LL.D.,
D.Litt.
FELLOW OF THE ACADEMY
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am no Shakespearian scholar its and
if
I have ventured, at the
to accept the perilous honour of deliv-
Academy,
Annual Shakespeare Lecture
invitation of the
ering
;
in succession to lecturers,
whose authority on this subject is far greater than mine, it is for a definite reason. In studying the general development of Tragedy, Greek, English, French and
Mediaeval Latin, I have found myself haunted by a curious problem, difficult to state in exact terms and perhaps impossible to answer, which I should much like to lay before an audience such as this. It concerns the interaction of two elements in Literature, and especially in Drama, which is a very primitive and instinctive kind of literature I mean the two elements of tradition and invention, or the unconscious and the conscious. The problem has been raised in three quite recent discussions: I mention them in chronological order. My own note on the Ritual Forms in Greeh
1
THE BRITISH ACADEMY
THE ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE
1914
Hamlet and Orestes
A
Study
in Traditional
Types
By
Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt.
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Fellow of the
Academy
New York
Oxford University Press American Branch
35 West 32nd Street
London
:
Humphrey Milford
THE BRITISH ACADEMY
THE ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE
1914
Hamlet and Orestes
A
Study
in Traditional
Types
By
Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt.
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford
Fellow of the Academy
New York
Oxford University Press American Branch
35 West 32nd Street
London
:
Humphrey Milford
Copyright in the United States of America
by the Oxford University Press
American Branch
1914
CU387143
OCT 22 1914
ANNUAL SHAKESPEARE LECTURE,
1914
HAMLET AND ORESTES
A STUDY IN TRADITIONAL TYPES
By Gilbert Murray, LL.D.,
D.Litt.
FELLOW OF THE ACADEMY
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am no Shakespearian scholar its and
if
I have ventured, at the
to accept the perilous honour of deliv-
Academy,
Annual Shakespeare Lecture
invitation of the
ering
;
in succession to lecturers,
whose authority on this subject is far greater than mine, it is for a definite reason. In studying the general development of Tragedy, Greek, English, French and
Mediaeval Latin, I have found myself haunted by a curious problem, difficult to state in exact terms and perhaps impossible to answer, which I should much like to lay before an audience such as this. It concerns the interaction of two elements in Literature, and especially in Drama, which is a very primitive and instinctive kind of literature I mean the two elements of tradition and invention, or the unconscious and the conscious. The problem has been raised in three quite recent discussions: I mention them in chronological order. My own note on the Ritual Forms in Greeh