Beyond what impresses spectators and scholars on the surface of Shakespearian drama, there lurks a hidden dimension or other world of what may be called "meta-drama". There is so much to be said about this other world, that it is necessary to concentrate on three notable plays belonging to the early 17th century - on "Hamlet" in terms of the hero's question in the face of death, on "King Lear" in the light of Lear's sermon to the blinded Gloucester, and on "The Tempest" with reference to Prospero's meditations on the approaching end of life. In these plays above all the dramatist faces "a world, not world, but that which is not world", partly inspired by his reading of the Bible, partly by his memories of life in this world.