Abstract
This thesis is the result of a special interest aroused in the reading of the continental plays of Shakespeare during the course of a study of all his plays. The impression received from the mere reading was that the scenes denoted as continental places were actually dominated by English atmosphere; in other words, the milieu was Shakespeare's native England. From reading, the writer went to an investigation of the problem in a Shakespearean seminar. The work had not progressed too far before it became evident that a delimitation of some kind would have to be made in the plays to be examined. |After a careful study of the plays, it was decided to cut off all continental plays that had their setting outside of Italy. This took the bulk of the plays-- Love's Labour’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, Pericles, Two Noble Kinsmen, and Hamlet.