Modern Criticism

From Frank E. Halliday , ‘ Twelfth Night ’, in The Poetry of Shakespeare’s Plays (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1954), pp. 122–4 Frank E. Halliday (1903–82) was profoundly influenced by the New Critical methods championed, among others, by F. R. Leavis. The following extract shows the extent to which the legacy of nineteenth-century Romantic critics affected New Critical approaches to Shakespeare in the first half of the twentieth century. Like William Hazlitt, Halliday describes Viola’s language as ‘celestial music’ and, like other New Critics of his generation, he insists that ‘Shakespeare was above all things a poet’, 1 thus reinforcing a Romantic aversion against the stage. Halliday’s analysis of the famous ‘willow cabin’ speech in Act 1, Scene 5 (see Key Passages, pp. 150 - 1 ) shows how the New Critical approach privileged Shakespeare’s poetic diction over other aspects of the play. Halliday regards this speech quite literally as a musical set piece, and is more interested in establishing how this speech works than what Viola actually says.