The children in Shakespeare's plays

Text from page 1: In the study of Shakespeare's plays, the major characters have been considered almost exclusively; the minor characters have been largely neglected or ignored. Highly important among these minor characters are the children; and of them, either in their general dramatic function or in their relation to their sources, no systematic study has been made. It is the purpose of this thesis to indicate the several forms of dramatic function rendered, in the plays in which they appear, by the children in Shakespeare's plays, and to indicate, in terms especially of relative prominence and characterization, the relation of these children to their original representation.