The one thing certain about modern criticism is that there is too much of it, and it is only rarely that one can say of a practitioner that he cannot safely be left unread. But one has to say it of Frye; ever since the publication, in 1957, of An Anatomy of Criticism, we have been trying to come to terms with him, and he has been writing a succession of shorter books to help us do so. Shakespeare's final plays have always been important to his theory, and he has now devoted to them a series of lectures [A Natural Perspective: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy and Romance] which should enable us to make up our minds. (p. 10)

According to Frye, we must not confuse the experience of literature with criticism…. Criticism is a progressive system of description. It cannot value literature, but by describing its mythic fundamentals...