Reviewed in Brief

Shakespeare and the Natural Condition, by Geoffrey Bush. 135 pp. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. $3.00

In the army of the younger Fortin-bras,” says Mr. Bush, “twenty thousand men go to their graves like beds for ‘a fantasy and trick of fame.’ This is action, and it stings Hamlet’s conscience; yet the twenty thousand men fight for a plot not wide enough to hide the slain, ‘for an eggshell.’ There is no great argument for action; to act is greatly to find quarrel in a straw.” If in this specimen you discern profound critical acumen embellished by delightful conceits, hasten rejoicing to the nearest bookstore. But if the quotation suggests to you an exhibition by a linguistic contortionist, you had best confine your reading to less mannered writers—for instance, Shakespeare.

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Shakespeare and the Natural Condition, by Geoffrey Bush. 135 pp. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. $3.00

In the army of the younger Fortin-bras,” says Mr. Bush, “twenty thousand men go to their graves like beds for ‘a fantasy and trick of fame.’ This is action, and it stings Hamlet’s conscience; yet the twenty thousand men fight for a plot not wide enough to hide the slain, ‘for an eggshell.’ There is no great argument for action; to act is greatly to find quarrel in a straw.” If in this specimen you discern profound critical acumen embellished by delightful conceits, hasten rejoicing to the nearest bookstore. But if the quotation suggests to you an exhibition by a linguistic contortionist, you had best confine your reading to less mannered writers—for instance, Shakespeare.