Dramatic Greatness and Content: A Quantitative Study of Eighty-One Athenian and Shakespearean Plays

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Abstract
Three hypotheses specified the possible direct and indirect determinants of a play's greatness and issue content. The sample consisted of eighty-one plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Shakespeare. Each play's dramatic greatness was operationalized using a citation measure. The Great Books Syntopicon was used to define nineteen issue content domains and general issue richness. Multiple regression analyses indicated that 1) dramatic greatness is a positive function of line quotability, which in turn is a positive function of issue richness, and 2) the particular issue or themes addressed in a play are affected both by the playwright's personal age and by the presence of civil unrest at the time of composition.