Anacronicism refers
to the violation of chronology or the indifference to historical accuracy.
Johnson considers this as one of the great fault of Shakespeare. Shakespeare is
indifferent about the distinctions of time and place, and gives to one age on
manners and opinions which pertain to another. In Shakespeare’s plays no
distinction of time or place is observed but the customs, opinions and manners
of one age or one country are freely attributed to another. As a result, the
criteria of like hood and possibility have been shattered. For example,
Shakespeare mingles classical legends with Gothic mythology in a Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
Alexander Pope
opines that this defect is to be attributed not to Shakespeare himself but to
those who interpolated unnecessary details of their own into his plays. But
Johnson does not agree this. However it must be confessed that he was not the
only violate of chronology, Sidney,
a contemporary writer who confounded in his Arcadia pastoral period with the Feudal Age,
whereas the two ages were quite opposite to each other.
