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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: William Shakespeare + +Author: John Masefield + +Release Date: November 15, 2008 [EBook #27264] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Carla Foust and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note</h3> + + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Obvious +printer errors have been corrected, and they are indicated with a +<a class="correction" title="like this" href="#tnotes">mouse-hover</a> +and listed at the <a href="#tnotes">end</a>. +<br /><br /> + +For the chapter heading, "The Second Part of King Henry IV", the Table +of Contents lists it as "King Henry IV, Part II"; this was not changed. +In addition other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's +spelling has been maintained.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><b>HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY</b><br /> +<b>OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE</b></p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h1>WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE</h1> + +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">By</span> JOHN MASEFIELD</p> + +<p class="fm3"><span class="smcap">London</span></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm2">WILLIAMS & NORGATE</p> + +<p class="fm2">HENRY HOLT & Co., <span class="smcap">New York</span></p> +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">Canada</span>: WM. BRIGGS, <span class="smcap">Toronto</span></p> +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">India</span>: R. & T. WASHBOURNE, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p style="font-size: 150%"><b>HOME</b><br /><br /><br /> +<b>UNIVERSITY</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>LIBRARY</b><br /> +<br /></p> +<p style="font-size: 100%"><b>OF</b><br /> +<br /></p> +<p style="font-size: 125%"><b>MODERN KNOWLEDGE</b><br /></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm3"><i>Editors:</i><br /><br /> +HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Prof.</span> GILBERT MURRAY, D.LITT., LL.D., F.B.A.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Prof.</span> J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Prof.</span> WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A.<br /> +(Columbia University, U.S.A.)<br /></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm2">NEW YORK<br /> +<br /> +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY<br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="fm1"> +WILLIAM<br /> +SHAKESPEARE<br /> +<br /></p> +<p class="fm3">BY<br /><br /></p> +<p class="fm2">JOHN MASEFIELD</p> + + +<p style="font-weight: bold">AUTHOR OF "THE TRAGEDY OF POMPEY THE GREAT," "MULTITUDE AND SOLITUDE," +"LOST ENDEAVOUR," "CAPTAIN MARGARET," "THE TRAGEDY OF NAN," ETC.</p> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p class="fm3"> +NEW AND REVISED EDITION<br /> +<br /> +LONDON<br /> +<br /></p> +<p class="fm2">WILLIAMS AND NORGATE<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">CHAP.</td> +<td class="tdr page" colspan="2">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Life of Shakespeare</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Elizabethan Theatres</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Plays</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Love's Labour's Lost</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Two Gentlemen of Verona</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Comedy of Errors</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Titus Andronicus</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Henry VI, Part I</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">" " + " " II</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">" " + " " III</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Midsummer Night's Dream</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Romeo and Juliet</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King John</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Richard II</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Richard III</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Merchant of Venice</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Taming of the Shrew</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Henry IV, Part I</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">" " + " " II</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Henry V</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Merry Wives of Windsor</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">As You Like It</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Much Ado About Nothing</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Twelfth Night</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">All's Well that Ends Well</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Julius Cæsar</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Hamlet, Prince of Denmark</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Troilus and Cressida</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Measure for Measure</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Othello, the Moor of Venice</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Lear</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Macbeth</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Antony and Cleopatra</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Coriolanus</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Timon of Athens</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Pericles, Prince of Tyre</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Cymbeline</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Winter's Tale</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Tempest</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">King Henry VIII</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Work Attributed to Shakespeare</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Poems</span></td> +<td class="tdr"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Venus and Adonis</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Rape of Lucrece</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Passionate Pilgrim</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Sonnets</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Phœnix and the Turtle</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Author's Note</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="WILLIAM_SHAKESPEARE" id="WILLIAM_SHAKESPEARE"></a>WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE</h3> + + +<p>Stratford-on-Avon is cleaner, better paved, and perhaps more populous +than it was in Shakespeare's time. Several streets of mean red-brick +houses have been built during the last half century. Hotels, tea rooms, +refreshment rooms, and the shops where the tripper may buy things to +remind him that he has been where greatness lived, give the place an air +at once prosperous and parasitic. The town contains a few comely old +buildings. The Shakespeare house, a detached double dwelling, once the +home of the poet's father, stands on the north side of Henley Street. A +room on the first floor, at the western end, is shown to visitors as the +room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> in which the poet was born. There is not the slightest evidence to +show that he was born there. One scanty scrap of fact exists to suggest +that he was born at the eastern end. The two dwellings have now been +converted into one, which serves as a museum. New Place, the house where +Shakespeare died, was pulled down in the middle of the eighteenth +century. For one museum the less let us be duly thankful.</p> + +<p>The church in which Shakespeare, his wife, and little son are buried +stands near the river. It is a beautiful building of a type common in +the Cotswold country. It is rather larger and rather more profusely +carved than most. Damp, or some mildness in the stone, has given much of +the ornament a weathered look. Shakespeare is buried seventeen feet down +near the north wall of the chancel. His wife is buried in another grave +a few feet from him.</p> + +<p>The country about Stratford is uninteresting, pretty, and well watered. +A few miles away the Cotswold hills rise. They have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> bold beauty, very +pleasant after the flatness of the plain. The wolds towards Stratford +grow many oaks and beeches. Farther east, they are wilder and barer. +Little brooks spring up among the hills. The nooks and valleys are +planted with orchards. Old, grey Cotswold farmhouses, and little, grey, +lovely Cotswold villages show that in Shakespeare's time the country was +prosperous and alive. It was sheep country then. The wolds were sheep +walks. Life took thought for Shakespeare. She bred him, mind and bone, +in a two-fold district of hill and valley, where country life was at its +best and the beauty of England at its bravest. Afterwards she placed him +where there was the most and the best life of his time. Work so calm as +his can only have come from a happy nature, happily fated. Life made a +golden day for her golden soul. The English blessed by that soul have +raised no theatre for the playing of the soul's thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>Legends about Shakespeare began to spring up in Stratford as soon as +there was a demand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> for them. Legends are a stupid man's excuse for his +want of understanding. They are not evidence. Setting aside the legends, +the lies, the surmises and the imputations, several uninteresting things +are certainly known about him.</p> + +<p>We know that he was the first son and third child of John Shakespeare, a +country trader settled at Stratford, and of Mary his wife; that he was +baptised on the 26th April, 1564; and that in 1582 he got with child a +woman named Anne or Agnes Hathaway, eight years older than himself. Her +relatives saw to it that he married her. A daughter (Susanna) was born +to him in May 1583, less than six months after the marriage. In January +1585 twins were born to him, a son (Hamnet, who died in 1596) and a +daughter (Judith).</p> + +<p>At this point he disappears. Legend, written down from a hundred to a +hundred and sixty years after the event, says that he was driven out of +the county for poaching, that he was a country school-master, that he +made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> a "very bitter" ballad upon a landlord, that he tramped to London, +that he held horses outside the theatre doors, and that at last he was +received into a theatrical company "in a very mean rank." This is all +legend, not evidence. That he was a lawyer's clerk, a soldier in the Low +Countries, a seaman, or a printer, as some have written books to attempt +to show, is not evidence, nor legend, but wild surmise. It might be +urged, with as great likelihood, that he became a king, an ancient +Roman, a tapster or a brothel keeper.</p> + +<p>It is fairly certain that the company which first received him was the +Earl of Leicester's company, then performing at The Theatre in +Shoreditch. The company changed its patron and its theatre several +times, but Shakespeare, having been admitted to it, stayed with it +throughout his theatrical career. He acted with it at The Theatre, at +the Rose and Globe Theatres, at the Court, at the Inns of Court, and +possibly on many stages in the provinces. For many years he pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>fessed +the quality of actor. Legend says that he acted well in what are called +"character parts." Soon after his entrance into the profession he began +to show a talent for improving the plays of others.</p> + +<p>Nothing interesting is known of his subsequent life, except that he +wrote great poetry and made money by it. It is plain that he was a +shrewd, careful, and capable man of affairs, and that he cared, as all +wise men care, for rank and an honourable state. He strove with a noble +industry to obtain these and succeeded. He prospered, he bought New +Place at Stratford, he invested in land, in theatre shares and in +houses. During the last few years of his life he retired to New Place, +where he led the life of a country gentleman. He died there on the 23rd +April, 1616, aged fifty-two years. The cause of his death is not known. +His wife and daughters survived him.</p> + +<p>Little is known of his human relationships. He is described as "gentle." +Had he been not gentle we should know more of him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> Ben Jonson "loved +the man," and says that "he was, indeed, honest and of an open and free +nature." John Webster speaks of his "right happy and copious industry." +An actor who wrote more than thirty plays during twenty years of +rehearsing, acting, and theatre management, can have had little time for +mixing with the world.</p> + +<p>That we know little of his human relationships is one of the blessed +facts about him. That we conjecture much is the penalty a nation pays +for failing to know her genius when he appears.</p> + +<p>Three portraits—a bust, an engraving, and a painting—have some claim +to be considered as genuine portraits of Shakespeare. The first of these +is the coloured half-length bust on the chancel wall in Stratford +Church. This was made by one Gerard Janssen, a stonemason of some +repute. It was placed in the church within seven years of the poet's +death. It is a crude work of art; but it shows plainly that the artist +had before him (in vision or in the flesh) a man of unusual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> vivacity of +mind. The face is that of an aloof and sunny spirit, full of energy and +effectiveness. Another portrait is that engraved for the title page of +the first folio, published in 1623. The engraving is by Martin +Droeshout, who was fifteen years old when Shakespeare died, and +(perhaps) about twenty-two when he made the engraving. It is a crude +work of art, but it shows plainly that the artist had before him the +representation of an unusual man.</p> + +<p>It is possible that the representation from which he engraved his plate +was a painting on panel, now at Stratford. This painting (discovered in +1840) is now called "the Droeshout portrait." It is supposed to +represent the Shakespeare of the year 1609. In the absence of proof, all +that can be said of it is that it is certainly a work of the early +seventeenth century, and that it looks as though it were the original of +the engraving. No other "portrait of Shakespeare" has any claim to be +considered as even a doubtful likeness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are, unfortunately, many graven images of Shakespeare. They are +perhaps passable portraits of the languid, half-witted, hydrocephalic +creatures who made them. As representations of a bustling, brilliant, +profound, vivacious being, alive to the finger tips, and quick with an +energy never since granted to man, they are as false as water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRES</h3> + + +<p>The Elizabethan theatres were square, circular, or octagonal structures, +built of wood, lath and plaster, on stone or brick foundations. They +stood about forty or forty-five feet high. They were built with three +storeys, tiers, or galleries of seats which ran round three sides of the +stage and part of the fourth. On the fourth side, at the back of the +stage, was a tiring house in which the actors robed. The upper storeys +of the tiring house could be used in the action, for a balcony, the +upper storeys of a house, etc., according to the needs of the scene. It +is possible, but not certain, that the tiring house itself was used in +some plays to represent an inner chamber. The three storeys of seats +were divided by partitions into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> "gentlemen's roomes" and "Twoe pennie +roomes." The top storey was roofed in, either with thatch or tiles. The +stage was roofed over in the same way. The space or yard between the +stage and the galleries which surrounded it, was open to the sky. It +contained no seats, but it held many spectators who stood. "Standing +room" cost a penny. Those who stood could press right up to the stage, +which was a platform four or five feet high projecting well out from the +back of the house "to the middle of the yarde." It was possible to see +the actors "in the round," instead of, as at present, like people in a +picture. The audience got their emotions from the thing done and the +thing said; not, as with us, from the situation. It was the custom of +gallant gentlemen to hire stools placed on the stage itself. They sat +and took tobacco there during the performance. Rank had then a greater +privilege of impertinence than it has to-day. The performances took +place by daylight. They were announced by the blowing of a trumpet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +During a performance, a banner was hung from the theatre roof. The plays +were played straight through, without waits. The only waits necessary in +a theatre are (<i>a</i>) those which rest the actors and (<i>b</i>) those which +give variety to the moods of the spectators. The double construction of +Shakespeare's plays provided a sub-plot which held or amused the +audience while the actors of the main plot rested. It is possible, but +not certain, that the scenes were played on alternate halves of the +stage, and that when one half of the stage was being cleared of its +properties, or fitted with them, the play continued on the other half. +It is not possible to speak of the general quality of the acting. +Acting, like other dependent art, can only be good when it has good art +to interpret. The acting was probably as good and as bad as the plays. +Careful and impressive speaking and thoughtful, restrained gesture were +qualities which Shakespeare and Ben Jonson praised. It is likely that +the acting of the time was much quicker than modern acting. The plays +were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> played very swiftly, without hesitation or dawdling over +"business."</p> + +<p>There was little or no scenery to most plays. The properties, <i>i.e.</i> +chairs, beds, etc., were simple and few. The play was the thing. The aim +of the play was to give not a picture of life, but a glorified vision of +life. The object was not realism but illusion. The costumes were of +great splendour. In some productions (as in <i>Henry VIII</i>) they were of +an excessive splendour. Music and singing added much to the beauty of +many scenes.</p> + +<p>Women were not then allowed upon the stage. Women's parts were played by +boys. Some have thought that this must have taken from the excellence of +the performances. It is highly likely that it added much to it. Nearly +all boys can act extremely well. Very few men and women can.</p> + +<p>The playing of women's parts by boys may have limited Shakespeare's art. +His women are kept within the range of thought and emotion likely to be +understood by boys.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> This may account for their wholesome, animal +robustness. There is no trace of the modern heroine, the common woman +overstrained, or the idle woman in her megrims, in any Shakespearean +play. The people of the plays are alive and hearty. They lead a vigorous +life and go to bed tired. They never forget that they are animals. They +never let any one else forget that they are also divine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE PLAYS</h3> + + +<p>Three plays belong to Shakespeare's first period of original creative +writing. It is fair to suppose that the least dramatically sound of the +three was the one first written. We therefore take <i>Love's Labour's +Lost</i> as his first play. It is commonly said by critics that <i>Love's +Labour's Lost</i> is "the work of a young man." It might more justly be +said of it that it is the work of a new kind of young man. The young man +knows all the trick of the theatre and uses it, as a master always uses +technique, for the statement of something new to the human soul. The +play no longer speaks to the human soul; for though it is the work of a +master, it is the work of a master not yet alive to the depths and still +doubtful among the temptations to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> intellect is subject. It is one +of those works of art which remind us of Blake's saying, that "the best +water is the newest." When it came out, with all the glitter of newness +on it, the mind of man was flattered by a new possession. To us, the +persons of the play are not much more than Time's toys, who never really +lived, but only glittered a little.</p> + + +<p><i>Love's Labour's Lost.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> Between 1589 and 1592.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, after correction and augmentation, from a badly +corrected copy, 1598.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> It is thought that Shakespeare created the +plot. The names of some of the characters were taken from people +then living. The incident in Act V, scene ii (the entrance of the +King of Navarre and his men, in Russian habits), was perhaps +suggested by the visit of some Russians to Queen Elizabeth in 1584.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The King of Navarre and his three courtiers, Biron, +Dumaine and Longaville, have sworn to study for three years under +the usual collegiate conditions of watching, fasting, and keeping +from the sight and speech of women. They are forced to break this +vow. The Princess of France comes with her Court to discuss State +affairs.</p> + +<p>At the discussion, the King falls in love with the Princess, his +three courtiers fall in love with the ladies of her train.</p> + +<p>The lovers send vows of love to their ladies. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>plot to visit +them in disguises of masks and Russian clothes. The ladies, hearing +of this plot in time, mask themselves. The men fail to recognise +them. Each disguised lover makes love-vows to the wrong woman.</p> + +<p>The ladies twit the men with a double perjury: that they have +broken their vow to study, and their love vows.</p> + +<p>The play is kept within the bounds of fantastic comedy by the +members of the sub-plot, who intrude with their fun whenever the +action tends to become real. They intrude here, to impersonate the +Nine Worthies before the two Courts. The farce of their performance +is heightened by ragging from the courtiers. When it is at its +height, two of the members of the sub-plot begin to quarrel. One +blow would ruin the play by making it real. At the crisis the +violence is avoided; the reality is brought unexpectedly, by +beauty. A messenger enters to tell the Princess that her father is +dead.</p> + +<p>The ladies bid the men test their love by waiting for twelve +months. The trifling of the earlier acts is shown at its moral +value against a background of tragic happening. Accomplishments are +compared with life.</p> + +<p>The members of the sub-plot enter. They end the play with the +singing of a lyric.</p></div> + +<p>The play gives the reader the uncanny feeling that something real inside +the piece is trying to get out of the fantasy. The lip-love rattles like +a skeleton's bones. The love of Biron for Rosaline is real passion. The +conflict throughout is the conflict of the unreal with the real.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>The play seems to have been written in a literary or sentimental mood, +and revised in a real mood. There is little in the early version that is +not fantastic. The situation is fantastic, the people are fantastic, the +language is fantastic with all a brilliant young master's delight in the +play and glitter of cunning writing. The later version was written +during the passionate years of Shakespeare's growth, after something had +altered the world to him. The two versions are carelessly stuck +together, with the effect of a rose-bush growing out of bones.</p> + +<p>The Biron scenes, as we have them, seem to be the fruit of the mood that +caused the sonnets. We do not know what caused that mood. The sonnets, +like the plays, are as likely to be symbol as confession. The sonnets +suggest that he loved an unworthy woman who robbed him of a beloved +friend. <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> and several other early plays suggest +that he knew too well how love for the unworthy woman smirches honour, +wakens, but holds captive, the reason, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> wastes the spiritual gift in +the praise of a form of death.</p> + +<p>The dramatic method is dual. He presents in the plot something eternal +in human life, and in the sub-plot something temporal in human fashion. +In the plot of this play, his intention seems to have been this—to show +intellect turned from a high resolve, from a consecration to mental +labour, by the coming of women, who represent, perhaps, untutored, +natural intelligence. Later in the play the high resolve of intellect is +betrayed again, indirectly by women; but more by the sexual emotions +which distort the vision till even the falsest, loosest woman appears +beautiful and "celestial," and worth the sacrifice of intellect. The end +of the play is not so much an end as a clearing of the road of life.</p> + +<p>It often happens that the setting down of a doubt in careful words +resolves it. This play seems to free Shakespeare's mind from doubts as +to the right use and preparation of intellect. He presents with extreme +care the different types of literary intellect: the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> man who shuts +himself up to study, the man who sparkles in society, the man whom books +have made stupid and the man whom style has made mad.</p> + +<p>The play is full of the problem of what to do with the mind. Shall it be +filled with study, or spent in society, or burnt in a passion, or +tortured by strivings for style, or left as it is? Intellect is a +problem to itself. Something of the problem seems (it would be wrong to +be more certain) to have made this play not quite impersonal, as good +art should be.</p> + +<p>The problems are settled wisely, though not without a feeling of +sacrifice. The beauty and the worth of learning are baits by which many +intellects are lured from wisdom. The knowledge that life is the book to +study, life at its liveliest, in the wits of women</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Keen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above the sense of sense,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and that style is a poor thing beside the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> "honest plain words" which +pierce, only comes with a sense of loss. Youth desires all the powers. A +man with great gifts desires all the mental gifts. Youth with nothing +but great gifts is never sure that the gifts will be sufficient. When +this play was written, the stage was supplied with plays by men of +trained intellects, who set more store upon the training than upon the +intellect itself. The society of well-taught men, who know and quote and +criticise, always makes the untaught uncertain and ill at ease. +Shakespeare seems to have risen from the writing of this play, certain +that poetry is not given to the trained mind, nor to the untrained mind, +but to the quick and noble nature, earnest with the passion which stands +the touchstone of death. "Subtlety," so Cromwell wrote, "may deceive +you, integrity never will." The mind is her own armour. She will not +fail for the want of a little learning or a little grace.</p> + +<p>In the sub-plot, among much low comedy, this truth is emphasised by the +triumph of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> Costard, a natural mind, in an encounter with Armado, an +artificial mind. At the end of the play the "learned men" are made to +compile a dialogue "in praise of the owl and the cuckoo." The dialogue +is of a kind not usual among learned men, but the choice of the birds is +significant. The last speech of the play: "The words of Mercury are +harsh after the songs of Apollo," seems to refer to Marlowe, as though +Shakespeare found it hard to justify an art so unlike his master's. +Marlowe climbs the peaks in the sun, his bow never off his shoulders. I +walk the roads of the earth among men.</p> + +<p>There is little character drawing in the piece. The Princess is a +gracious figure; but hardly real to us till the last scene of the play, +when she speaks wisely. Biron is more of a person. He presents his point +of view in a moment of pleasant poetry—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For where is any author in the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He shows a prejudice against Boyet, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> courtier in attendance on the +Princess. This prejudice is expressed bitterly—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This is the flower that smiles on every one,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>with the bitterness usual in Shakespeare when treating of the flunkey +mind. The ladies of the Princess's train all talk exactly alike, with +sharp feminine wit, infinitely swift in thrust. None of them has +personality; but Rosaline is described for us, body and disposition. The +members of the sub-plot are mental fashions well observed. Costard alone +has life. Shakespeare came from the country. In the country a thinking +man is reminded daily of the shrewdness of unspoiled minds. Armado, +Costard's opponent, lives for us by one phrase—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The sweet war-man is dead and rotten: sweet chucks, beat not the +bones of the buried: when he breathed, he was a man."</p></div> + +<p>It is interesting to see Shakespeare's mind trying for vividness. In his +maturity he had supremely the power of giving life. In this early play +one can see his first conscious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> literary efforts towards the obtaining +of the power. Longaville (in Act II, sc. i) makes the scene alive by the +question—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I beseech you a word. What is she in the white?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>(Who is the woman in the white dress?) The simple but telling means of +giving reality is repeated a few lines later in Biron's question—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What's her name in the cap?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In Act V, sc. ii, the vividness is given in a strangely pathetic +passage, that haunts, after the play is laid down. Two of the ladies are +talking of Cupid—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Rosaline.</i> You'll ne'er be friends with him: he killed your sister.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Katharine.</i> He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;</span><br /> +<span class="i4"> And so she died: had she been light, like you,</span><br /> +<span class="i4"> Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,</span><br /> +<span class="i4"> She might have been a granddam ere she died.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p>The power of giving life in a line is seen in the remark of Dumaine (Act +IV, sc. iii)—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The play is full of experiments. Some of it is written in a loose, +swinging couplet, some in quatrains, some in blank verse, some in the +choice, picked prose made the fashion by Lyly. It contains more lyrics +than any other Shakespearean play. One of the lyrics, a sonnet in +Alexandrines, is the fruit of a real human passion. The lyric at the end +of the play is the loveliest thing ever said about England. If this play +and most of the other plays were modern works, the Censor would not +allow them to be performed publicly. The men and women converse with a +frankness and suggestiveness not now usual, except among the young. +Shakespeare is blamed for not conforming to standards unknown to his +generation.</p> + +<p>He is blamed for not being delicate-minded like the great Greek tragic +poets. The Greek tragic poets wrote about the heroic life of legend. +Shakespeare wrote about life. A man who writes about life must accept +life for what it is, as largely an animal thing. Those who pretend that +life is only lived in boudoirs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> are in peril, and the world is in peril +through them.</p> + + +<p><i>The Two Gentlemen of Verona.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> Before 1592.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story of a woman who follows her lover in +the disguise of a page-boy, hears him serenade another woman, and +acts as a go-between in his suit to this other woman, is to be +found in the second book of <i>La Diana Enamorada</i>, a pastoral +romance, in prose, freely sprinkled with lyrics, by Jorge de +Montemayor, a Portuguese who wrote in Spanish about the middle of +the sixteenth century. De Montemayor's story is not complicated by +a Valentine. He calls the girl Felismena, her lover Felix, and the +second woman Celia. His tale ends with Celia dying for love of the +supposed page-boy.</p> + +<p>A play based on this story was acted in England in 1584. It is now +lost. The gist of the story was published in lame English verses, +by Barnabe Googe, in 1563.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Valentine and Proteus, the two gentlemen, are friends. +Valentine is about to travel. Proteus, in love with Julia, will not +go with him. Antonio, Proteus' father, sends Proteus after +Valentine. Julia resolves to follow him in boy's clothes. Valentine +at Milan falls in love with the Duke's daughter, Silvia, whom the +Duke plans to marry to one Thurio. Proteus, arriving at Milan, also +falls in love with Silvia. He becomes jealous of Valentine.</p> + +<p>Valentine tells him that he has planned to escape with Silvia that +night. Proteus betrays this plot to the Duke. The Duke banishes +Valentine and sends Proteus to Silvia to press the suit of Thurio.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +Valentine joins a gang of outlaws.</p> + +<p>Proteus woos Silvia for himself, and is rejected by her.</p> + +<p>Julia, who has come in boy's dress from Verona to look for Proteus, +finds him still unsuccessfully courting Silvia. She enters his +service as a page. He sends her on a message to Silvia.</p> + +<p>On her way to deliver the message, Julia meets Silvia flying from +home in search of Valentine.</p> + +<p>In her search for Valentine, Silvia is caught by the gang of +outlaws.</p> + +<p>Proteus rescues her, and threatens to resume his suit with +violence.</p> + +<p>Valentine, entering, stops this.</p> + +<p>Proteus sues for pardon to Valentine and Julia. He is received to +mercy. The Duke after dismissing Thurio, pardons Valentine, and +grants him Silvia's hand in marriage.</p></div> + +<p><i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> is fantasy. The <i>Two Gentlemen of Verona</i> deals +with real human relationships. It is a better play than the fantasy, +though the fantasy has moments of better poetry. It carries on one of +the problems raised in <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>. It is the work of a +troubled mind. It comes from the mood in which the sonnets were written.</p> + +<p>Twice in <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> the act of oath-breaking, of being +forsworn, is important to the play's structure. Though the vows broken +in that play are fantastic, the char<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>acters feel real dishonour at the +breaking of them. The play shows that though the idea of vow-breaking +was in Shakespeare's mind, he had not then the power, or the human +experience, or the mental peace, to grapple with it fairly, or see it +truly. The idea, that the person for whom the vows are broken brings +with her the punishment of the sin of vow-breaking, haunts the mind of +Biron (in Act IV, sc. iii)—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And justice always whirls in equal measure:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the <i>Two Gentlemen of Verona</i>, this idea, the idea that treachery +caused by some +<a name="corr1" id="corr1"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn1" title="changed from 'obession'">obsession</a> +is at the root of most tragedy, was treated by +him at length, perhaps for the first time.</p> + +<p>That it haunted him then, and remained all through his life as the +pole-star of dramatic action is evident to all who read his works as +poetry should be read. It is the law of his imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>Passion, not weakness of will, but strength of will blinded, is the +commonest cause of treachery among us. The great poets have agreed that +anything that distorts the mental vision, anything thought of too much, +is a danger to us. Passion that with the glimmer of a new drunkenness +blinds the mature to the life and death memories of marriage, and kills +in the immature the memory of love, friendship, and past benefits, is a +form of destruction. In its action as a destroyer, it is the subject of +Shakespeare's greatest plays. In the <i>Two Gentlemen of Verona</i> he is +interested less in the destruction than in the moral blindness that +leads to it.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's method is simple. He shows us two charming young men +becoming morally blind with passion, in a company not so blinded. The +only other "inconstant" person in the play (Sir Thurio) is inconstant +from that water-like quality in the mind that floods with the full moon, +and ebbs like a neap soon after. Even the members of the sub-plot, the +two servants, are constant, the one to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> master, who beats him, the +other to the dog that gets him beaten. A lesser mind would sit in +judgment in such a play. The task of genius is not to sit in judgment.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Shakespeare neither praises nor blames. His task is to see justly. It is +we who conclude that treachery looks ugly beside its opposite.</p> + +<p>Of the fine scenes in the play, sc. iv in Act II, where Valentine and +Sir Thurio walk with Silvia, with whom they are both in love, is the +liveliest. The two men bicker across the lady, as though the next word +would bring blows. The demure pleasure of Silvia in being quarrelled +for, is indicated most masterly in less than thirty words. Act III, sc. +i, where the Duke discovers Valentine's plot to escape with Silvia, is a +passage of noble dramatic power, doubly interesting because it shows the +justice of Shakespeare's vision. Valentine, the constant friend and +lover, is exposed in an act of treachery to his benefactor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> The scenes +in which the disguised Julia witnesses her lover's falseness, and the +scene in which the play is brought to an end, are deeply and nobly +affecting. Theatre managers play Shakespeare as though he were an old +fashion of the mind instead of the seer of the eternal in life. They +should play this play as a vision of something that is eternally +treacherous, bringing misery to the faithful, the noble, and the +feeling. One of the noblest things in the play is the forgiveness at the +end. Passion has taken Proteus into strange byways of treachery. He has +been false to Julia, to Valentine, to the Duke, to Thurio, one falseness +leading to another, till he is in a wood of the soul, tangled in sin. It +only wants that he be false to Silvia, too. Passion makes his eyes a +little blinder for an instant. He adds that treachery to the others. +Power to see clearly is the only cure for passion. Discovery gives that +power. Valentine's words—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who should be trusted now, when one's right hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> I am sorry I must never trust thee more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But count the world a stranger for thy sake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The private wound is deepest...."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>followed so soon by Julia's words—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And entertained them deeply in her heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root....<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Women to change their shapes, than men their minds"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>rouse Proteus to the confounding instant of self-recognition. His answer +is like a voice from one of the later plays. It is in Shakespeare's +grand manner. It does not read like a piece of revision done in the +poet's maturity; but as though Shakespeare suddenly found his utterance +in a moment of vision—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Than men their minds! 'tis true. O heaven! Were man<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But constant, he were perfect: that one error<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Inconstancy falls off, ere it begins."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>A word of excuse would brand him as base. He is ashamed and guilty; but +not base. He cannot say more than that he is sorry, and this only to +Valentine. Valentine accepts sorrow with the utterance of one of the +religious ideas which seem to have been constantly in Shakespeare's +mind.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His conduct towards Proteus after this forgiveness is so wise with +delicate tact that the reader is reminded of Shelley's treatment of +Hogg, in a similar case.</p> + +<p>The suggestion of the character of Silvia has an austere beauty. The two +gentlemen are limited by the play's needs. The figure of Valentine is +the more complete of the two. He is an interesting study of one of those +grave young men who, when tested by life, show themselves wise beyond +their years. Among the minor characters, that of Eglamour, an image of +constancy to a dead woman, is the most beautiful. He is one of the +strange,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> many-sorrowed souls, vowed to an idea, to whom Shakespeare's +characters so often turn when the world bears hard. The low comedy of +Launce could hardly be lower; but his phrase "the other squirrel" (in +Act IV, sc. iv) is a good stroke. The great mind is full of vitality on +all the planes.</p> + +<p>There is little superb verse in the play. The lyric, "Who is Silvia?" +shows a marvellous lyrical art, working without emotion to imitate an +effect of music. The proverb, "make a virtue of necessity," occurs in +Act IV, sc. ii. The fine lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O, how this spring of love resembleth<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The uncertain glory of an April day"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and the pretty speech of Julia in Act II, sc. vii—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And make a pastime of each weary step,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Till the last step have brought me to my love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> A blessed soul doth in Elysium"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>are memorable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Man is so eager to know about Shakespeare that he is tempted to find +personal confession in the plays. It is true that the art of a young man +is too immature to be impersonal. In an achieved style we see the man; +in all striving for style we see what hurts him. But in poetry, human +experience is wrought to symbol, and symbol is many virtued, according +to the imaginative energy that broods upon it. It is said that +Shakespeare holds a mirror up to life. He who looks into a mirror +closely generally sees nothing but himself.</p> + + +<p><i>The Comedy of Errors.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> Before 1594.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The plot was taken from the <i>Menæchmi</i> of +Plautus. Whether Shakespeare read the play in Latin, or in a +translation, or heard it from a friend, or saw it acted, is not +known. All four are possible.</p> + +<p>The sub-plot, in this case a duplication of the plot, was suggested +by a part of the <i>Amphitruo</i> of Plautus.</p> + +<p>The play is brought on to the plane of human feeling by the +character of Ægeon. This character was suggested by a story in <i>Gli +Suppositi</i> (The Supposes) of Ariosto.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Like all comedies of mistake, the <i>Comedy of Errors</i> +has an extremely complicated plot. The play consists of a number of +ingeniously contrived situations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>in which either the Antipholus +and the Dromio of Ephesus are mistaken for the Antipholus and +Dromio of Syracuse, or those of Syracuse are mistaken for those of +Ephesus. The comedy of mistake is touched with beauty by the +romantic addition of the restoration of old Ægeon to his long-lost +wife.</p></div> + +<p>Poets are great or little according to the nobleness of their endeavour +to build a mansion for the soul. Shakespeare, like other poets, grew by +continual, very difficult mental labour, by the deliberate and prolonged +exercise of every mental weapon, and by the resolve to do not "the +nearest thing," precious to human sheep, but the difficult, new and +noble thing, glimmering beyond his mind, and brought to glow there by +toil. We do not know when the play was written, nor why it was written. +If it were not written by special request, for reward, it must have been +chosen either for the rest given by a subject external to the mind, or +as a self-set exercise in the difficult mental labour of comic dramatic +construction. Every playwright sees the comic opportunity of the +<i>Menæchmi</i> fable. A playwright not yet sure of his art sees and admires<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +behind the comedy the firm, intricate mental outline that has kept the +play alive for more than two thousand years.</p> + +<p>The <i>Menæchmi</i> of Plautus is a piece of very skilful theatrical craft. +It is almost heartless. In bringing it out of the Satanic kingdom of +comedy into the charities of a larger system Shakespeare shows for the +first time a real largeness of dramatic instinct. In his handling of the +tricky ingenious plot he achieves (what, perhaps, he wrote the play to +get) a dexterous, certain play of mind. He strikes the ringing note, +time after time. It cannot be said that the verse, or the sense of +character, or the invention is better than in the other early plays. It +is not. The play is on a lower plane than any of his other works. It is +the only Shakespearean play without a deep philosophical idea. If it be +not a special commission, or an exercise in art, it is perhaps another +instance of the price great men pay for being happy. It is certainly the +fruit of a happier mood than that which bore the other early plays. It +is also the first play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> that shows a fine, sustained power of dramatic +construction.</p> + +<p>It is so well constructed (for the simple Elizabethan theatre and the +bustle of the Elizabethan speech) that any unspoiled mind is held by it, +when it is acted as Shakespeare meant it to be acted. The closeness and +firmness of the dramatic texture is the work of an acutely clear mind +driven at white heat and mercilessly judged at each step. Those who do +not understand the nature of dramatic art should read the ninety odd +verses in which Ægeon tells his story (in Act I, sc. i). They would do +well to consider the power of mind that has told so much in so few +words. They will find an instance of Shakespeare's happy use of stage +trick, in the final scene, where, after the general recognition, Dromio +of Syracuse again mistakes Antipholus of Ephesus for his master.</p> + +<p>Rare poetical power is shown in the making of the play. Little beauty +adorns the action. The speech of Adriana (in Act II, sc. ii) against the +obsession of passion that leads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> to treachery in marriage, is passionate +and profound. It is the most deeply felt speech in the early plays. +Adriana's husband is frequenting another woman who, having the charm +that so often goes with worthlessness, has a power of attracting that is +sometimes refused to the noble. Adriana beseeches him not to break the +tie that binds them. Two souls that have been each other's are not to be +torn apart without death to one of them. With that sympathy for the +suffering mind which gives Shakespeare all his power—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">("My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits")<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>he gives to her speech an unendurable reality. Reality, however +obtained, is the only cure for an obsession. As far as words can teach +in such a case Adriana's words teach the reality of her husband's sin.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"How dearly it would touch thee to the quick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And that this body, consecrate to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> By ruffian lust should be contaminate!<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span><span class="i0"> Wouldst them not spit at me and spurn at me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And hurl the name of husband in my face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring...?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> For, if we two be one, and thou play false,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> I do digest the poison of thy flesh."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There is no other poetry of this intensity in the play.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to compare Shakespeare's mind with Plautus's in the +description of Epidamnum. Plautus says—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This is the home of the greatest lechers and drunkards.</p> + +<p>"Very many tricksters and cheaters live in this city.</p> + +<p>"Nowhere are wheedling whores more cunning at bilking people."</p></div> + +<p>Shakespeare gives the horror a spiritual turn that adds much to the +intensity of the farce.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"They say, this town is full of cozenage:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span><span class="i0"> Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Soul-killing witches that deform the body,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And many such like liberties of sin."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The play is amusing. The plot is intricate. The interest of the piece is +in the plot. When a plot engrosses the vitality of a dramatist's mind, +his character-drawing dies; so here. It is sufficient to say that the +character of Ægeon is the best in the play</p> + + +<p><i>Titus Andronicus.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Tamora, Queen of the Goths, whose firstborn son is +sacrificed by Titus Andronicus, determines to be revenged. She +succeeds in her determination. Titus and his daughter are +mutilated. Two of the Andronici, his sons, are beheaded.</p> + +<p>Titus determines to be revenged. He bakes the heads of two of +Tamora's sons in a pasty, and serves them up for her to eat. He +then stabs her, after stabbing his daughter. He is himself stabbed +on the instant; but his surviving son stabs his murderer. Tamora's +paramour is then sentenced to be buried alive, and the survivors +(about half the original cast) move off (as they say) "to order +well the State."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>This play shows an instinct for the stage and a knowledge of the +theatre. It seems to have been a popular piece. A knowledge of the +theatre will often make something foolish theatrically effective. So +here.</p> + +<p>The piece is nearly worthless. The turning of the tide of revenge, from +Tamora against Andronicus, and then from Andronicus against Tamora, is +the theme. It is a simple theme. Man cannot have simplicity without hard +thought, and hard thought is never worthless, though it may be applied +unworthily.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that Shakespeare wrote a little of this tragedy; +it is not known when; nor why. Poets do not sin against their art unless +they are in desperate want. Shakespeare certainly never touched this job +for love. There is only one brief trace of his great, rejoicing +triumphant manner. It is possible that the play was brought to him by +his theatre-manager, with some such words as these: "This piece is very +bad, but it will succeed, and I mean to produce it, if I can start +rehearsals at once. Will you revise it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> for me? Please do what you can +with it, and write in lines and passages where you think it is wanting. +And whatever happens please let me have it by Monday."</p> + +<p>The only poetry in the play comes in the three lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> By uproar sever'd, like a flight of fowl<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>King Henry VI, Part I.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1589-91.</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> 1591.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Raphael Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The play begins shortly after the death of King Henry +V. Henry VI is too young to rule. There is a feud between +Gloucester, the Lord Protector, and Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of +Winchester. In France, where Talbot is besieging Orleans, the +English have had many losses. Joan of Arc begins her conquering +progress by causing Talbot to raise the siege.</p> + +<p>A feud between the Duke of York (the white rose faction) and the +Earl of Somerset (the red rose faction) becomes acute, in spite of +King Henry's personal intercession. It intensifies the feud between +the Lord Protector and the Cardinal. In France, Talbot is killed in +battle. The English are beaten from their possessions. Joan of Arc +is taken, tried, and burned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>The menace of civil trouble hangs over King Henry's court. The feud +between the factions of the roses threatens to break into war. The +Earl of Suffolk (one of the red rose faction) schemes to marry King +Henry to Margaret of Anjou. It is made plain that he means to +become Margaret's lover so that he may rule England through her. A +disgraceful peace is concluded with France. The play ends with +Suffolk's departure to arrange the King's marriage with Margaret.</p></div> + +<p>It is plain that this play is not the work of one mind. Part of it is +the work of a man who saw a big tragic purpose in events. The rest is +the work of at least two mechanical (sometimes muddy) minds, who neither +criticised nor understood, but had some sense of the pageant. There are +bright marks in the play where Shakespeare's mind touched it.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Glory is like a circle in the water,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If underneath the standard of the French<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> She carry armour."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now thou art come unto a feast of death."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thus, while the vulture of sedition<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Feeds in the bosom of such great commanders,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span><span class="i0"> Sleeping neglection doth betray to loss<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The conquest of our scarce-cold conqueror,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That ever-living man of memory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Henry the Fifth."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The work as a whole is one of the old formless chronicle plays, which +inspired the remark that if an English dramatist were to make a play of +St. George he would begin with the birth of the Dragon. In Act II +Shakespeare's mind both directs and explains the welter. The scene in +the Temple Gardens, where the men of the two factions pluck the red and +white roses, is like music after discord. The play is lifted into +poetry. The big tragic purpose broods; something fateful quickens. The +next scene, where Mortimer dies in prison, is another instance of the +power of great intellect to give life. The dying Mortimer is carried in, +to show how the imminent tragedy has been for long years preparing, in +countless passionate men, each of whom has shaped it, little by little, +out of lust and hate, till the spiritual measure tips towards justice.</p> + +<p>The only other scenes that bear marks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> Shakespeare's mind are those +in Act IV, in which Talbot meets his death. The verse of these scenes is +often careless, but it has a bright variety, pleasant to the mind after +the strutting verse (wearily reiterating one prosodic effect, like +choppy water) of the other authors. Some people claim that Shakespeare +wrote the whole of this play. The intellect changes much in life; but +never in kind, only in degree. Shakespeare's mind could play with dirt +and relish dirt, but it was never base and never blunt. The base mind is +betrayed by its conceptions, not by its amusements. Shakespeare's mind +could never, at any stage of his career, have sunk to conceive the +disgusting scene in which Joan of Arc pleads. Nor could he at any time +have planned a play in which the moral idea is a trapping to physical +action.</p> + + +<p><i>King Henry VI, Part II.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1591-2.</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> 1592.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the crude original form, 1593. When first +published, the play was called "The First part of the Contention +betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>and Lancaster." This +version seems to have been written by Greene and Peele. It contains +passages (improving additions) that resemble Shakespeare's work; +but the work is very crude. The version as a whole reads like a +long scenario.</p> + +<p>After the first production of this version, Shakespeare and some +other writer, possibly Marlowe, revised, improved and enlarged it. +This revised version, the <i>Second Part of King Henry VI</i>, as we now +have it, was first published in the first folio in 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Edward Hall's <i>Chronicle</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The play begins with the arrival of Margaret of Anjou +at the Court of King Henry VI. An altercation among the Lords in +scene i. explains the political situation to those who have not +seen the first part of the trilogy. The subject is the gradual +ascent to power of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. The play is +turbulent with passions. The subject is obscured and made grander +by the war of interests and lusts among the nobles of the Court. +The Queen's party, the Duke Humphrey's party, and Cardinal +Beaufort's party, make a welter of hate and greed, against which +the Duke of York's cool purpose stands out, as Augustus stands out +against the wreck of old Rome. The action is interrupted and +lightened by the cheat of Simpcox and by the rebellion of Jack +Cade. In modern theatres the passage of time is indicated by the +dropping of a curtain and by a few words printed on a programme. +The Elizabethan theatre had neither curtain nor programme. The +passage of time was suggested by some action on the stage as here. +The play advances the tragedy of the King by removing the figures +of Duke Humphrey, the Cardinal, and the Earl of Suffolk. It ends +with the first triumph of the white rose faction, under the Duke of +York, at the battle of St. Albans.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is plain that Shakespeare worked upon the revision of this play with +a big tragic conception. The first half of the piece is very fine. He +makes the crude, muddy, silly welter of the Contention significant and +complete. He reduces it to a simple, passionate order, deeply +impressive. The poet who worked with him, worked in sympathy with his +dramatic intention. If this poet were Marlowe, as some believe (and the +clearness of the man's brain seems to point to this), it is another +proof that the two great poets were friends during the last months of +Marlowe's life. It is plain that something stopped the revision before +it was finished. The latter half of the play is only half written. It +has flesh and blood but no life. It reads like work that has been +wrought to a pitch by two or three re-writings, and then left without +the final writing that turns imagination into vision. It would be +interesting to know why Shakespeare left the play in this state. Perhaps +there was no time to make it perfect before the rehearsals began. +Perhaps the murder of Marlowe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> upset the plans of the capitalist who was +speculating in the play. If it had been finished in the spirit of the +first two and a half acts it would have been one of the grandest of the +historical plays.</p> + +<p>The poetry of the two completed acts is often noble. The long speech of +York, in Act I, coming, as it does, after a clash of minds turbid with +passion, is most noble. It gives a terror to what follows. The calm mind +makes no mistake. The judgment of a man without heart seems as +infallible as fate, as beautiful, and as ghastly. All happens as he +foresees. All the cruelty and bloodiness of the latter half of the play +come from that man's beautifully clear, cool brain. He stands detached. +One little glimmer of heart in him would alter everything. The glimmer +never comes. Humphrey is poisoned, Suffolk is beheaded, the Cardinal +dies. Cade, in that most awful scene of the mob in power, looks at two +heads on pikes with the remark—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +"Is not this braver? Let them kiss one another, for they loved well when they were +alive....<br /><br /> +Now part them again." +</div> + +<p>These are some of the results of the working of a fine intellect in +which—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And not a thought but thinks on dignity."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There is a terrible scene at the Cardinal's death-bed. The Cardinal is +discovered in bed "raving and staring as if he were madde." He has +poisoned his old enemy, the Duke Humphrey. Now he is dying; the murder +is on his soul, and nothing has been gained by it. The path is made +clearer for his enemies perhaps. That is the only result. Now he is +dying, the waste of mind is at an end, and the figure of the victim is +at the foot of the bed.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bring me unto my trial when you will.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Died he not in his bed? where should he die?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> O, torture me no more, I will confess.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span><span class="i0"> Alive again? then show me where he is:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Comb down his hair: Look! look! it stands upright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Give me some drink."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Some people find humour in the Simpcox and Cade scenes. There is more +sadness and horror of heart than humour. The minds of the two great +poets were brooding together on life. They saw man working with +intellect to bring ruin, and working without intellect to bring +something beastlier than man should know. In its unfinished state the +play is without the exaltation of great tragedy. It would be one of the +hopeless plays, were it not for the passionate energy of mind with which +the nobles alter life. There is little human feeling in the play. +Warwick by Gloucester's corpse shows the sense of rectitude of a police +inspector. At the death-bed of the Cardinal, he makes the remark of a +fiend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"See how the pangs of death do make him grin."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The one human, tender figure is that of the King, who betrays his +friend, his only true friend—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"With sad unhelpful tears; and with dimm'd eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Looks after him, and cannot do him good."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This gentle, bewildered soul makes the only human remarks in the play. +In Shakespeare's vision it is from such souls, planted, to their own +misery, among spikes and thorns, that the flower of human goodness +blossoms.</p> + + +<p><i>King Henry VI, Part III.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the crude original form, 1595. When first +published, the play was called "The True Tragedie of Richard Duke +of Yorke, and the Death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the +whole contention betweene the two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke." +This version seems to have been by Greene, Peele, Marlowe, or by +some combination among the three. There are some marks of +Shakespeare's hand upon it; but not many. Afterwards the piece was +revised and enlarged to its present form by some unknown hand. +Shakespeare added a few touches to this revision. It was printed in +the first folio as his original work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Edward Hall's <i>Chronicle</i>. Raphael +Holinshed's <i>Chronicle</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The play describes the rise to power of Edward, Duke +of York, afterwards Edward IV. It carries on the story of the reign +of Henry VI from the time of his deposition by Richard, Duke of +York, to the time of his murder by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. +Various other tragedies are developed by the plot. Richard, Duke of +York, is defeated and put to death. The Earl of Warwick rises to +power, makes Edward, Duke of York, King, revolts from him, restores +Henry VI, is attacked, defeated, and killed in battle. Richard, +Duke of Gloucester, begins to cherish ambition, and sets bloodily +to work to gratify it. Edward, Duke of York, after one deposition, +due to his own treachery, obtains the supreme power, and rules as +King.</p></div> + +<p>Shakespeare had little hand in this ruthless chronicle. The idea of the +piece seems to be this, that—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"It is war's prize to take all vantages,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>that mercy has no place in war, that an act of mercy in war is more +fatal than defeat, and that the parfit gentle knight, if he wish to +prosper, must greet his father after battle with some such remark as—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I cleft his beaver with a downright blow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That this is true, father, behold his blood."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>There are three scenes that rouse human emotion: that in Act I, sc. iv, +where Margaret of Anjou taunts the captured York before putting him to +death; that in Act II, sc. v, where King Henry wishes himself either +dead, or called to some gentler trade than kingship; and that at the +end, after the battle of Tewkesbury, where the Prince of Wales is +murdered in his mother's presence. The second of these, the lamentation +of King Henry, is an enlargement, done in leisure, from a suggestion in +the early version. It is a very beautiful example of the quiet, limpid +running rhetoric that marks Shakespeare's best moments in the days +before he attained to power.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So minutes, hours, days, moneths and years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Pass'd over to the end they were created,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Ah, what a life were this. How sweet. How lovely.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Than doth a rich-embroidered canopy<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> To kings that fear their subjects' treachery."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p><i>A Midsummer Night's Dream.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1595 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1600.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The fantasy is of Shakespeare's making. Some +of it was perhaps current in popular belief. Names and lesser +incidents were suggested by various books. He took little bits from +various sources, added them to the vision, and turned upon the +whole the light of his mind. If any author laid under contribution +were to recognise his bantling, he could only cry to it, "Bless +thee, Bottom, thou art translated." Shakespeare did never this +particular kind of wrong but with just cause.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Theseus, Duke of Athens, is about to marry Hippolyta. +Bottom, the weaver, and his friends, plan to play the tragedy of +Pyramus and Thisbe before the Duke after the wedding.</p> + +<p>Hermia and Lysander, two lovers, whose match is opposed, plan to +escape from Athens to a state where they can marry.</p> + +<p>Demetrius, in love with Hermia, is loved by Helena.</p> + +<p>Oberon, King of the fairies, planning to punish his Queen Titania, +orders Puck to procure a juice that will make her dote upon the +next thing seen by her.</p> + +<p>Helena pursues Demetrius into the wood of the fairies. Titania, +anointed with the juice, falls in love with Bottom. Lysander, +anointed with the juice, falls in love with Helena. The confusion +caused by these enchantments (accidentally) makes the main action +of the play. When the purpose of Oberon is satisfied, the +enchantments are removed. The cross purposes of the lovers cease. +Theseus causes Hermia to wed Lysander, and Helena to wed Demetrius. +Bottom and his company perform their tragedy, and all ends happily.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a strange and sad thing that the English poets have cared little +for England; or, caring for England, have had little sense of the spirit +of the English. Many of our poets have written botanical verses, and +braggart verses, many more have described faithfully the appearance of +parts of the land at different seasons. Only two or three show the +mettle of their pasture in such a way that he who reads them can be sure +that the indefinable soul of England has given their words something +sacred and of the land.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare attained to all the spiritual powers of the English. He made +a map of the English character. We have not yet passed the frontiers of +it. It is one of his humanities that the English country, which made +him, always meant much to him, so that, now, wherever his works go, +something of the soul of that country goes too, to comfort exiles over +the sea. Man roams the world, wandering and working; but he is not +enough removed from the beasts to escape the prick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> in the heart that +turns the tired horse homeward, and sets the old fox padding through the +woods to die near the earth where he was whelped. Shakespeare's heart +always turned for quiet happiness to the country where he lived as a +boy. In this play, he turned not to the squires and farm-folk, but to +the country itself, and to those genii of the country, the fairies, +believed in, and often seen by country people, and reverenced by them as +the cause of mishaps. Imagination in a work of art is a transmuting of +the known by understanding. For some reason, perhaps home-sickness, +perhaps weariness of the city-jostle, that those who have lived the +country life cannot call life, or it may be, perhaps, from an exultation +in the bounty of the world to give pleasure to the mind, the country +meant very much to Shakespeare in the months during which he wrote the +last of the English plays. In writing this play, his imagination +conceived Athens as an English town, possibly Stratford, or some other +more pleasant place, with a wood, haunted by fairies, only a league<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +away, where the mind could be happy listening to the voice of the +beloved—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There was a memory of happiness about the wood. It was</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"the wood, where often you and I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In this wood, where Theseus goes a-hunting, Shakespeare, in his fantasy, +allows the fairies to vex the life of mortals. For a little while he +fancied, or tried to fancy, that those who are made mad and blind by the +obsessions of passion are made so at the whim of powers outside life, +and that the accidents of life, bad seasons, personal deformities, etc., +are due to something unhappy in a capricious immortal world, careless of +this world, but easily offended and appeased by mortal action.</p> + +<p>All the earth of England is consecrated by the intense memories of the +English. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> this play Shakespeare set himself free to tell his love for +the earth of England that had ministered to his mind with beauty through +the years of youth. Walking in the Cotswold country, when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"russet-pated choughs, many in sort<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rising and cawing at the gun's report,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>gives to the passenger a sense of the enduringness of the pageant upon +which those seeing eyes looked more than three centuries ago.</p> + + +<p><i>Romeo and Juliet.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1591-96.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in a mutilated form, 1597.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story existed in many forms, mostly +Italian. Shakespeare took it from Arthur Broke's metrical version +(<i>Romeus and Juliet</i>), and possibly consulted the prose version in +William Painter's <i>Palace of Pleasure</i>. The tale had been +dramatised and performed before Arthur Broke published his poem in +1562. The play (if it existed a generation later) may have helped +Shakespeare. It is now lost.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The houses of Montague and Capulet are at feud in +Verona.</p> + +<p>Romeo, of the house of Montague, falls in love with Juliet, of the +house of Capulet. She returns his love. A friar marries them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a street brawl, which Romeo does his best to stop, Mercutio, +Romeo's friend, is killed by Tybalt, Juliet's cousin. Carried away +by passion, Romeo kills Tybalt. He is banished from Verona.</p> + +<p>The Capulets plan to marry Juliet to the Count Paris.</p> + +<p>Juliet, in great distress, consults the Friar who married her to +Romeo. He gives her a potion to create an apparent death in her, to +the end that she may be buried in the family vault, taken thence +and restored to life by himself, and then conveyed to Romeo. He +writes to Romeo, telling him of the plan; but the letter +miscarries. Juliet takes the potion, and is laid in the tomb as +dead.</p> + +<p>The Count Paris comes by night to the tomb, to mourn her there. +Romeo, who has heard only that his love is dead, also comes to the +tomb. The two lovers fight, and Romeo kills Paris. He then takes +poison and dies at Juliet's side.</p> + +<p>The Friar enters to restore Juliet to life. Juliet awakens to find +her lover dead. The Friar, being alarmed, leaves the tomb. Juliet +stabs herself with Romeo's dagger and dies.</p> + +<p>The feud of the Montagues and Capulets is brought to an end. The +leaders of the two houses are reconciled over the bodies of the +lovers.</p></div> + +<p>This play is one of the early plays, written, perhaps, before +Shakespeare was thirty years old. It was much revised during the next +few years; but a good deal of the early work remains. Much of the early +work is in rhymed couplets. Much is in picked prose full of quibbles and +mistakings of the word. Another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> sign of early work is the mention of +the dark lady, the Rosaline of the <i>Comedy of Errors</i>, here called by +the same name, and described in similar terms: viz. a high forehead, a +hard heart, a white face, big black eyes and red lips. Perhaps she +appeared as one of the characters in the early drafts of the play. In +the play as we have it she is only talked of as a love of Romeo's who is +easily thrown aside when Juliet enters.</p> + +<p>The play differs slightly from the other plays, which deal, as we have +said, with the treacheries caused by obsessions. The subject of this +play is not so much the treachery as the obsession that causes it. The +obsession is the blind and raging one of sudden, gratified youthful +love. That storm in the blood has never been so finely described. It +takes sudden hold upon two young passionate natures, who have hardly met +each other. It drives out instantly from Romeo a sentimental love that +had made him mopish and wan. It brings to an end in two hearts, filial +affection and that perhaps stronger thing, attachment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> to family. It +makes the charming young man a frantic madman, careless of everything +but his love. It makes the sweet-natured girl a deceitful, scheming +liar, less frantic, but not less devoted than her lover. It results +almost at once in five violent deaths, and a legacy of +broken-heartedness not easily told. The only apparent good of the +disease is that it destroys its victims swiftly. It may also be said of +it that it teaches the old that there is something in life, some power +not dreamed of in their philosophy.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare saw the working of the fever. He also saw behind it the +working of fate to avenge an obsession that had blinded the eyes of men +too long. The feud of the two houses had long vexed Verona. The blood of +those killed in the feud was crying out for the folly to stop, so that +life might be lived. What business had sparks like Mercutio, and rebels +like Tybalt, with Death? Both are life's bright fire: they ought to +live. Fate seemed to plot to end the folly by letting Romeo fall in love +with Juliet. Let the two houses be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> united by marriage, as at the end of +<i>Richard III</i>. But love is a storm, sudden love a madness, and the fire +of youth a disturber of the balances. Hate and hot blood put an end to +all chance of marriage. There is nothing left but the desperate way, +which is yet the wise way, recommended by the one wise man in the cast. +With a little patience, this way would lead the couple to happiness. +Impatience, the fever in the blood that began these coils, makes the way +lead them to death. Accident, or rather the possession by others of that +prudence wanting in himself, keeps Romeo from the knowledge of the +friar's plans. A too hasty servant tells him that Juliet is dead. He too +hastily believes the news. He takes horse at once in a state of frenzy, +hardly heeding what his man says. He comes to the tomb in Verona, and +finds there a lover as desperate as himself. They fight there, madly. +The less mad of the two is killed, the more frantic (Romeo) kills +himself. The friar, coming to this death-scene, comes a moment too late. +Juliet wakes from her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> trance a moment too late. Theirs are the only +delays in this drama of fever, in which everybody hurries so that he +stumbles. Their delays are atoned for an instant later, his, by his too +great haste to be gone, she by her thirst for death. The men of the +watch come too late to save her. The parents learn too late that they +have been blind. They have to clasp hands over dead bodies, that have +missed of life through their hurry to seize it.</p> + +<p>The play tells the story of a feud greater than that of the Verona +houses. There is always feud where there is not understanding. There is +eternal feud between those two camps of misunderstanding, age and youth. +This play, written by a young man, shows the feud from the point of view +of youth. The play of King Lear shows it from the point of view of age. +This play of youth is as lovely and as feverish as love itself. Youth is +bright and beautiful, like the animals. Age is too tired to care for +brightness, too cold to care for beauty. The bright,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> beautiful +creatures dash themselves to pieces against the bars of age's forging, +against law, custom, duty, and those inventions of cold blood which +youth thinks cold and age knows to be wise.</p> + +<p>Man cannot quote a minute from some hour of passion when the moon shone +and many nightingales were singing. He can hold out some flower that +blossomed then, saying, "this scent will tell you." The beauty of this +play is of that kind. The lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Come, civil night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou sober-suited matron, all in black"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and the most exquisite, unmatchable lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And death's pale flag is not advancèd there"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>show with what a tender beauty the great mind feels when touched.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Nurse gives an animal comedy to some of the scenes. She is a +tragical figure. She is the person to whom Juliet has to turn for help +at dangerous moments. There are few things sadder than the sight of the +fine soul turning to the vulgar soul in moments of need. One of the few +things sadder is the sight of wisdom failing to stop tragedy, as it +fails here, through hotness of the blood and unhappy chance. Some have +felt that the spark, Mercutio, is drawn from Shakespeare's self. Every +character in the play is drawn from Shakespeare's self. Shakespeare +found Goneril and Juliet in his mind, just as he found Mercutio and +Friar Laurence. If he may be identified with any of his characters, it +must be with those whose wisdom is like the many-coloured wisdom that +gives the plays their unity. He is in calm, wise, gentle people who +speak largely, from a vision detached from the world, as Friar Laurence +speaks—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For nought so vile that on the earth doth live<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But to the earth some special good doth give;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span><span class="i0"> Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from that fair use,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And vice sometimes by action dignified."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>King John.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Shakespeare's tragedy is founded on a play +called <i>The Troublesome Raigne of King John</i> (author not known), +which was printed (after stage performance) in 1591. Some people +think that Shakespeare wrote <i>The Troublesome Raigne</i>. There are +some glimmerings of his mind here and there in it; but not many. +Whether he wrote it or not he certainly made free use of it in +writing <i>King John</i>. He took from it with a bold hand, whenever he +wished to spare himself mechanical labour. His other sources were +the historians, Raphael Holinshed, Edward Hall, and Fabian.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> King John has made himself King of England. Prince +Arthur, who claims to be the rightful king (he is the son of King +John's elder brother), causes the French King to support his claim. +King John declares war against the French King.</p> + +<p>After some fighting in France the two kings patch up a peace. +Arthur's claim is set aside. King John's niece is to marry the +French King's son.</p> + +<p>At this point the Pope's legate causes the French King to break off +the negotiations. The war begins again. King John captures Prince +Arthur, and gives order that secretly he be put to death. England +is in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>a disturbed condition. The French resolve to attempt the +conquest of England.</p> + +<p>The report that Arthur has been murdered by the King's order sets +England in turmoil. The French land in Kent. The lords find +Arthur's dead body outside Northampton castle. They are convinced +that King John has caused him to be murdered.</p> + +<p>King John finds that he cannot fight longer. He makes his +submission to the Pope's legate, trusting that the legate may make +the French King come to terms. The French King cannot be moved to +peace. John summons up his forces, and gives successful battle to +him. The English lords, who have allied themselves to the French +King, break off and make their submission to King John. Without +their help, the army is too weak. The French invasion comes to +nothing. The Pope's legate makes peace. King John dies of poison +given to him by a monk.</p></div> + +<p>Like the best Shakespearean tragedies, <i>King John</i> is an intellectual +form in which a number of people with obsessions illustrate the idea of +treachery. The illustrations are very various. Perhaps the most +interesting of them are those subtle ones that illustrate treachery to +type, or want of conformity to a standard imagined or established.</p> + +<p>In the historical plays, Shakespeare's mind broods on the idea that our +tragical kings failed because they did not conform to a type<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> lower than +themselves. Henry V conforms to type. He has the qualities that impress +the bourgeoisie. He is a success. Henry VI does not conform to type. He +has the qualities of the Christian mystic. He is stabbed in the Tower. +Edward IV conforms to type. He has the qualities that impress the +rabble. He is a success. Richard II does not conform to type. He is a +man of ideas. He is done to death at Pomfret. King John does not conform +to type. His intellect is bigger than his capacity for affairs. He is +poisoned by a monk at Swinstead.</p> + +<p>King John presents that most subtle of all the images of treachery, a +man who cannot conform to the standard of his own ideas. He fails as a +king because his intellect prompts him to attempt what is really beyond +the powers of his nature to perform. By his side, with an irony that is +seldom praised, Shakespeare places the figure of the Bastard, the man +who ought to have been king, the man fitted by nature to rule the +English, the man without intellect but with a rough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> capacity, the man +whom we meet again, as a successful king, in the play of <i>Henry V</i>.</p> + +<p>King John is placed throughout the play in treacherous relations with +life. He is a traitor to his brother's son, to his own ideas, to the +English idea, and to his oath of kingship. He has a bigger intellect +than any one about him. His brain is full of gusts and flaws that blow +him beyond his age, and then let him sink below it. Persistence in any +one course of treachery would give him the greatness of all well-defined +things. He remains a chaos shooting out occasional fire.</p> + +<p>The play opens with a scene that displays some of the human results of +treachery. John's mother, Elinor, has been treacherous to one of her +sons. John has usurped his brother's right, and, in following his own +counsel, has been treacherous to his mother. These acts of treachery +have betrayed England into a bloody and unjust war. The picture is +turned suddenly. Another of the results of human treachery appears in +the person of the Bastard, whose mother confesses that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> was seduced +by the "long and vehement suit" of Cœur de Lion. The Bastard's +half-brother, another domestic traitor, does not scruple to accuse his +mother of adultery in the hope that, by doing so, he may obtain the +Bastard's heritage.</p> + +<p>The same breaking of faith for advantage gives points to the second act, +where the French and English Kings turn from their pledged intention to +effect a base alliance. They arrange to marry the Dauphin to Elinor's +niece, Blanch of Castile. In the third act, before the fury of the +constant has died down upon this treachery, the French King adds another +falseness. He breaks away from the newly-made alliance at the bidding of +the Pope's legate. The newly-married Dauphin treacherously breaks with +his wife's party. In the welter of war that follows, the constant, human +and beautiful figures come to heartbreak and death. The common people of +England begin to betray their genius for obedience by preparing to rise +against the man in power.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>The fourth act begins with the famous scene in which Hubert fails to +blind Prince Arthur. Even in the act of mercy he is treacherous. He +breaks faith with King John, to whom he has vowed to kill the Prince. +Later in the act, King John, thinking that the murder has been done, +breaks faith with Hubert, by driving him from his presence. In the last +act, the English nobles, who have been treacherous to John, betray their +new master, the French King. King John is a broken man, unable to make +head against misfortune. He betrays his great kingly idea, that the Pope +shall not rule here, by begging the Legate to make peace. At this point +death sets a term to treachery. A monk treacherously poisons John at a +moment when his affairs look brighter. The play ends with the Bastard's +well-known brag about England—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"Naught shall make us rue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If England to itself do rest but true."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This thought is one among many thoughts taken by Shakespeare from the +play of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span><i>The Troublesome Raigne</i>, and taken by the author of that play +direct from Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>.</p> + +<p>Comedy deals with character and accident; tragedy with passionate moods +of the soul in conflict with fate. In this play, as in nearly all +poetical plays, the characters that are most minutely articulated are +those commoner, more earthy characters, perceived by the daily mind, not +uplifted, by brooding, into the rare state of passionate intellectual +vision. These characters are triumphant creations; but they come from +the commoner qualities in Shakespeare's mind. He did them easily, with +his daily nature. What he did on his knees, with contest and bloody +sweat, are his great things. The great scheme of the play is the great +achievement, not the buxom boor who flouts the Duke of Austria, and +takes the national view of his mother's dishonour.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare, like other sensitive, intelligent men, saw that our +distinctive products, the characters that we set most store by, are very +strange. That beautiful kindness, high courage, and devoted service +should go so often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> with real animal boorishness and the incapacity to +see more than one thing at a time (mistaken for stupidity by stupid +people) puzzled him, as it puzzles the un-English mind to-day. A reader +feels that in the figure of the Bastard he set down what he found most +significant in the common English character. With the exceptions of Sir +Toby Belch and Justice Shallow, the Bastard is the most English figure +in the plays. He is the Englishman neither at his best nor at his worst, +but at his commonest. The Englishman was never so seen before, nor +since. An entirely honest, robust, hearty person, contemptuous of the +weak, glad to be a king's bastard, making friends with women (his own +mother one of them) with a trusty, good-humoured frankness, fond of +fighting, extremely able when told what to do, fond of plain +measures—the plainer the better, an honest servant, easily impressed by +intellect when found in high place on his own side, but utterly +incapable of perceiving intellect in a foreigner, fond of those sorts of +humour which generally lead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> to blows, extremely just, very kind when +not fighting, fond of the words "fair play," and nobly and exquisitely +moved to deep, true poetical feeling by a cruel act done to something +helpless and little. The completeness of the portrait is best seen in +the suggestion of the man's wisdom in affairs. The Bastard is trying to +find out whether Hubert killed Arthur, whose little body lies close +beside them. He says that he suspects Hubert "very grievously." Hubert +protests. The Bastard tests the protest with one sentence: "Go bear him +in thine arms." He utters the commonplace lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I am amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Among the thorns and dangers of the world"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>while he watches Hubert's face. Hubert stands the test (the emotional +test that none but an Englishman would apply), he picks up the body. +Instantly the Bastard is touched to a tenderness that lifts Hubert to a +spiritual comradeship with him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"How easy dost thou take all England up."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This tragedy of the death of a child causes nearly all that is nobly +poetical in the play.</p> + +<p>All the passionately-felt scenes are about Arthur or his mother. Some +have thought that Shakespeare wrote the play in 1596, shortly after the +death of his little son Hamnet, aged eleven. The supposition accuses +Shakespeare of a want of heart, of a want of imagination, or of both +wants together. He wrote like every other writer, from his sense of what +was fitting in an imagined situation. It was no more necessary for him +to delay the writing of Prince Arthur till his son had died than it was +for Dickens to wait till he had killed a real Little Dorrit by slow +poison.</p> + +<p>There is a great change in the manner of the poetical passages. The +poetry of the <i>Henry VI</i> plays is mostly in bright, sweetly running +groups of rhetorical lines. In <i>King John</i> it is either built up +elaborately into an effect of harmony several lines long, or it is put +into a single line or couplet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>The rhetoric is compressed—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That shakes the rotten carcase of old Death,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The finest poetry is intensely compressed—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I will instruct my sorrows to be proud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> For grief is proud,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have heard you say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> If that be true, I shall see my boy again,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When I shall meet him in the court of heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> I shall not know him."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The characters in this truly noble play daunt the reader with a sense of +their creator's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> power. It is difficult to know intimately any human +soul, even with love as a lamp. Shakespeare's mind goes nobly into these +souls, bearing his great light. It is very wonderful that the mind who +saw man clearest should see him with such exaltation.</p> + + +<p><i>King Richard II.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1597.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot</i>. The lives of King Richard II and King Henry +IV in Raphael Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> I. The Duke of Gloucester, uncle of King Richard, has +died under suspicious circumstances at Calais, after an accusation +of treachery. Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, the King's +cousin, accuses Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, of treachery to +the King and of the murder of the Duke of Gloucester. The King +appoints a day on which the two disputants may try their cause by +combat. On their arrival at the lists he banishes them both, +Bolingbroke for six years, Mowbray for ever. After they have gone +to fulfil their sentence, the King plans to subdue the rebels in +Ireland. He prays that the death of his uncle, John of Gaunt, the +wisest man about him, may occur, so that he may take his money to +equip soldiers.</p> + +<p>II. Gaunt dies. Richard seizes his estate (lawfully the property of +Bolingbroke) and proceeds upon his Irish war. Bolingbroke lands +from exile to claim his father's estate and title. Richard's Welsh +forces grow weary of waiting for their king. They disband +themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>III. Bolingbroke's party prospers. Richard is taken and deposed.</p> + +<p>IV. Bolingbroke makes himself king.</p> + +<p>V. Richard, after sorrowing alone, and inspiring a hopeless attempt +at restoration, is killed, desperately fighting, at Pomfret.</p></div> + +<p>Treachery in some form is at the root of all Shakespearean tragedy. In +this play it takes many forms, among which two are principal, the +treachery of a king to his duty as a king, and the treachery of a +subject to his duty as a subject. As usual in Shakespearean tragedy, the +play is filled full by the abundant mind of the author with +illustrations of his idea. The apricocks at Langley are like King +Richard, the sprays of the trees like Bolingbroke, the weeds like the +King's friends. Everybody in the play (even the horse in the last act) +is in passionate relation to the central idea.</p> + +<p>King Richard is of a type very interesting to Shakespeare. He is wilful, +complex, passionate, with a beauty almost childish and a love of +pleasure that makes him greedy of all gay, light, glittering things. He +loves the music that does not trouble with passion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> and the thought not +touched with the world. He loves that kind of false, delicate beauty +which is made in societies where life is too easy. There is much that is +beautiful in him. He has all the charm of those whom the world calls the +worthless. His love is a woman, as beautiful and unreal as himself. He +fails because, like other rare things, he is not common. The world cares +little for the rare and the interesting. The world calls for the rough +and common virtue that guides a plough in a furrow, and sergeantly +chaffs by the camp fires. The soul that suffers more than other souls is +little regarded here. The tragedy of the sensitive soul, always acute, +becomes terrible when that soul is made king here by one of the +accidents of life. As a king, Richard neglects his duties with that kind +of wilfulness which the world never fails to punish. The wilfulness +takes the form of a shutting of the eyes to all that is truly kingly. He +rebukes devotion to duty by banishing Bolingbroke, who tries to rid him +of a traitor. He rebukes old age and wisdom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> in the truly great person +of old John of Gaunt. Worst, and most unkingly of all, he is incapable +of seeing and rewarding the large generosity of mind that makes +sacrifices for an idea. Richard, who likes beautiful things, cannot see +the beauty of old, rough, dying Gaunt, who condemns his own son to exile +rather than betray his idea of justice. Bolingbroke, who cares intensely +for nothing but justice (and could not give even that caring a name, if +questioned), is deeply and nobly generous to York, who would condemn his +own son, and to the Bishop of Carlisle, who would die rather than not +speak his mind. Men who sacrifice themselves are a king's only props. +Richard allies himself with men who prefer to sacrifice the country.</p> + +<p>It is a proof of the greatness of Shakespeare's vision, that Richard is +presented to us both as the traitor and the betrayed. He is the anointed +king false to his coronation oaths; he is the anointed king deposed by +traitors. He is not fitted for kingship, but life has made him a king. +Life, quite as much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> as temperament, is to blame for his tragedy. When +life and temperament have thrust him from kingship, this wilful, +passionate man, so greedy and heady in his hurry to be unjust, is unlike +the monster that office made him. He is no monster then, but a man, not +even a man like ourselves, but a man of singular delicacy of mind, +sensitive, strangely winning, who wrings our hearts with pity by his +sense of his tragedy—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And here have I the daintiness of ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> To check time broke in a disorder'd string;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But for the concord of my state and time<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Had not an ear to hear my true time broke."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Part of his tragedy is due to his being too late. Had he landed from +Ireland one day earlier he would have found a force of Welshmen ready to +fight for him. At the end of the play he discovers, too late, that he is +weary of patience. He strikes out like a man, when he has no longer a +friend to strike with him. He is killed by a man who finds, too late, +that the murder was not Bolingbroke's intention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>As in all the tragedies, there is much noble poetry. John of Gaunt's +speech about England is often quoted. Shakespeare's mind is our triumph, +not a dozen lines of rhetoric. Less well known are the couplets—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My inch of taper will be burnt and done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And blindfold death not let me see my son."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"... let him not come there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seek out sorrow that dwells everywhere."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Those scenes in the last acts which display the mind of the deposed king +are all exquisite, though their beauty is not obvious to the many. There +is a kind of intensity of the soul, so intense that it is obscure to the +many till it is interpreted. Writers of plays know well how tamely words +intensely felt may read. They know, too, how like fire upon many souls +those words will be when the voice and the action give them their +interpretation. <i>Richard II</i>, like other plays of spiritual tragedy, +needs interpretation. When he wrote it, Shakespeare had not wholly the +power that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> afterwards he achieved, of himself interpreting his vision +by many-coloured images. It is not one of the beloved plays.</p> + +<p>Bolingbroke has been praised as a manly Englishman, who is not "weak" +like Richard, but "strong" and a man of deeds. In Act IV he shows his +English kindness of mind and love of justice by a temperate wisdom in +the trying of a cause and by saying that he will call back from exile +his old enemy Norfolk. The Bishop of Carlisle tells him that that cannot +be. Norfolk having worn himself out in the wars in Palestine has retired +himself to Italy, and there, at Venice, given</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"His body to that pleasant country's earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Under whose colours he had fought so long."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is instructive to note how Bolingbroke takes the news—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Bol.</i> Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Carl.</i> As surely as I live, my lord.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Bol.</i> Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom<br /></span> +<span class="i2"> Of good old Abraham. Lords appellants,<br /></span> +<span class="i2"> Your differences, etc.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The feeling that the poet's mind saw the clash as the clash between the +common and the uncommon man is strengthened by the Queen's speech to +Richard as he is led to prison—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"thou most beauteous inn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodged in thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When triumph is become an alehouse guest?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>King Richard III.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1594 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1597.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The play is founded on the lives of Edward +IV, Edward V, and Richard III, as given (on the authorities of +Edward Hall and Sir Thomas More) in Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>. +Shakespeare may have seen a worthless play (<i>The True Tragedy of +Richard III</i>) which was published in 1594, by an unknown author.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Act I. The play begins in the last days of King Edward +IV, when the King's two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, are +debating who shall succeed to the throne when the King dies. In the +first scene Clarence is led to the Tower under suspicion of +plotting to succeed. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the cause of the +committal, pretends to grieve for him, but hastens to compass his +death. In the next scene Richard woos the Lady Anne (widow of the +dead son of Henry VI, and daughter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>of the Earl of Warwick), who is +likely to be useful to him for the moment as an ally (she being of +the house of Lancaster). The third scene displays the passionate +quarrelling of the Court factions. The Queen, her brothers and +Richard's party, are cursed by Margaret of Anjou. In the fourth +scene Clarence is murdered in the Tower.</p> + +<p>Act II. King Edward IV dies, having patched up a seeming truce +between the factions. His son is to succeed him. Before this can +happen, Richard strikes down the leaders of the Queen's party, and +lays a deep scheme to secure the crown for himself.</p> + +<p>Act III. There is a deeply tragical scene in which the unsuspecting +Hastings, who is faithful to Edward's memory, is hurried out of +life. Afterwards, through the management of Buckingham, Richard is +proclaimed King.</p> + +<p>Act IV. Richard makes himself sure by casting off Buckingham and +causing the murder of Edward's sons in the Tower. He plots to marry +Edward's daughter. But by this time the land is in upheaval against +him. Buckingham and Richmond lead forces against him.</p> + +<p>Act V. Buckingham is taken and put to death; but Richmond's forces +gather head. Richard leads his army to oppose them. The armies +front each other at Bosworth Field near Leicester. The night before +the battle the ghosts of the many slain during the progress of the +Wars of the Roses menace Richard and promise victory to Richmond. +In the battle that follows Richard is slain. Richmond takes oath to +end the Wars of the Roses by marrying Edward's daughter, so that +the two royal houses may at last be joined.</p></div> + +<p><i>Richard III</i> is the last of the great historical +<a name="corr2" id="corr2"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn2" title="changed from 'play'">plays</a> +about the Wars +of the Roses. The subject of the wars had occupied Shakespeare's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> mind +for many months. He had traced them from their beginning in the long ago +to their end among the dead at Bosworth. All that bloodiness of misery +was due to a forgotten marriage and the chance that Edward III had seven +sons, the eldest of whom died before his father. In this great tragic +vision Shakespeare saw the wheel come full circle, with that giving of +justice which life renders at last, though it may be to the dead, or the +mad, or the broken.</p> + +<p>Largely, this play deals with the coming of that justice. Much that is +most wonderful in the play comes from the faith that blood cruelly or +unjustly spilt cries from the ground, and that the human soul, wrought +to an ecstasy, has power, as the blood has power, to draw God's hand +upon the guilty. But Shakespeare's mind was also occupied with the +knowledge that self-confident intellect is terrible and tragical. One of +the truths of the play is the very sad one that being certain is in +itself a kind of sin, sure to be avenged by life. The obsession of +self-confidence betrays<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> person after person, to misery or death. All +the heads that lift themselves proudly go bloody to the dust or bow in +anguish. Only one man moves by other light than his own. He is the only +one who achieves quiet triumph. Nothing in the play is more impressive +than the speech in which the intellect that has ended the bloodshed +prays humbly that God may bless and help England with peace.</p> + +<p>It was said of Napoleon that he was as great as a man can be without +virtue. The intellect of Richard III is like that of Napoleon. It is +restless, swift, and sure of its power. It is sure, too, that the world +stays as it is from something stupid in the milky human feelings. +Richard is a "bloody dog" let loose in a sheep-fold. It is a part of the +tragedy that he is nobler than the sheep that he destroys. His is the +one great intellect in the play. Intellect is always rare. In kings it +is very rare. When a great intellect is made bitter by being cased in +deformity one has the tragedy of intellect turned upon itself. Had +Richard been born without his deformed shoulder he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> could have known +human sympathy, and human intercourse. Without human intercourse he goes +gloating, clutching himself, biting his lip, muttering at the twist in +his shadow. This warped, starved mind knows himself stronger than the +minds near him. It is tragical to be deformed, it is tragical to have an +intellect too great for people to understand. But the deformed and +bitter intellect would suffer tragedy indeed if he, the one constant +Yorkist, were to be ruled by a gentle, half-witted Lancastrian saint +like Henry VI, or by Clarence the perjurer, or by the upstart Woodville, +a commoner made noble because his sister took the King's fancy, or by +the Queen herself, the housewife who caused great Warwick's death, or by +one of her sons, who are pert to the man who had spilt his blood to make +their father king. The snarling intellect bites rather than suffer that. +It is very terrible, but how if he had not bitten? The vision of all +this bloodiness is less terrible than that vision of the sheep +triumphing, so dear to us moderns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Strength by limping sway disabled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And art made tongue-tied by authority,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As in all Shakespeare's greater plays, a justice brings evil upon the +vow breaker. Curses called down in the solemn moment come home to roost +when the solemnity is forgotten or thrust aside. Clarence, who broke his +oath to the House of Lancaster, is done to death by his brother. Anne, +cursing the killer of her husband, curses the woman who shall marry him, +is, herself, that woman, and dies wretchedly. Grey, Rivers, Dorset, +Buckingham and Hastings make oaths of amity, call down curses on him +that breaks them, themselves break them, and die wretchedly. Richard, +too wise to make oaths, too strong to curse, dies, as his mother +foretells, "by God's just ordinance," when the measure of the blood of +his victims becomes too great, and when his victims' curses, after +wandering from heart to heart, get them into human bodies and walk the +world, executing justice.</p> + +<p>All through the play there are warnings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> against human certainty. Of all +the dangerous pronouncements of man that to the fountain, "Fountain, of +thy water I will never drink," is one of the most dangerous. There are +terrible examples of certainty betrayed. Richard is certain as only fine +intellect can be that he will triumph. It is a part of his tragedy that +it is not intellect that triumphs in this world, but a stupid, though a +righteous something, incapable of understanding intellect. Rivers and +Grey are certain that Richard is friendly to them. They are hurried to +Pomfret and put to death. Hastings "Knows his state secure," and "goes +triumphant." He is rushed out of life at a moment's notice, one hour a +lord, giving his opinion at a council, the next a corpse in its grave. +Buckingham thinks himself secure. A moment's nicety of conscience sends +him flying to death. The little Princes lay down to sleep—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"girdling one another<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within their innocent alabaster arms.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span><span class="i0">Their lips were four red roses on a stalk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which in their summer beauty kissed each other"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>when their waking time came they were stamped down under the stones at +the stair foot.</p> + +<p>The poetry of this play is that of great and high spiritual invention. +There is much that stays in the mind as exquisitely said and beautifully +felt. But the wonder of the work is in the greatness of the conception. +That is truly great, both as poetry and as drama. The big and burning +imaginings do not please, they haunt.</p> + +<p>The dream of Clarence, the wooing of the Lady Anne, the scene in +Baynard's Castle, and the ghost scene in the tents at Bosworth, have +been praised and re-praised. They are in Shakespeare's normal mood, +neither greater nor less than twenty other scenes in the mature plays. +The really grand scene of the calling down of the curses (Act I, sc. +iii), when the man's mind, after brooding on this event for months, sees +it all, for a glowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> hour, as the just God sees it, is the wonderful +achievement. Think of this scene, and think of the scenes played nightly +now in the English theatres, and ask whether all is well with the +nation's soul.</p> + +<p>There are many superb Shakespearean openings. No poet in history opens a +play with a more magnificent certainty. The opening of this play—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now is the winter of our discontent<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Made glorious summer by this sun of York,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is one of the most splendid of all. There is no need to pick out +fragments from the rest of the play, but the march of the line—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"then came wandering by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shadow like an angel, with bright hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dabbled in blood; and he squeaked out aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury'"—<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>the exquisitely tender lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And there the little souls of Edward's children<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Whisper the spirits"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and the orders of Richard in the last act, for white Surrey to be +saddled, ink and paper to be brought, and a bowl of wine to be filled, +show that the poet's great confident manner was formed, on all the four +sides of its perfection. The years only brought it to a deeper glow.</p> + + +<p><i>The Merchant of Venice.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1600.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The ancient story of the merciless Jew is +told in the <i>Gesta Romanorum</i>, and re-told, with delicate grace, by +Giovanni Fiorentino, a fourteenth-century Italian writer, in his +<i>Il Pecorone</i> (the simpleton), a collection of novels, or, as we +should call them, short stories. The story of the three caskets is +also told in the <i>Gesta Romanorum</i>. Other incidents in the play are +taken from other sources, possibly from other plays. It is thought +by some that the character of Shylock was suggested by the case of +the Spanish Jew, Lopez, who was hanged, perhaps unjustly, for +plotting to poison Queen Elizabeth, in 1594. The main source of the +dramatic fable is Fiorentino's story.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Portia, the lady of Belmont, has three caskets, one of +gold, one of silver, one of lead. She is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>vowed to marry the man +who, on viewing the caskets, guesses which of them contains her +portrait. Various attempting suitors fail to guess rightly.</p> + +<p>Bassanio, eager to try the hazard, obtains money from his friend +Antonio, to equip him. Antonio borrows the money from the Jew, +Shylock, on condition that, should he fail to repay the debt by a +fixed day, a pound of his flesh shall be forfeit to the Jew.</p> + +<p>Bassanio guesses rightly and weds Portia.</p> + +<p>Antonio fails to repay the debt, and is lodged in prison. Bassanio +hears of his friend's disaster. Portia bids him fly to Antonio with +money enough to pay the debt threefold. Shylock refuses the offer. +He clamours for his pound of flesh. The case comes to trial.</p> + +<p>At the hearing of the case in the Duke's court, Portia, disguised +as a judge, gives sentence, that Shylock may have his pound of +flesh; but that if he shed Christian blood in the taking of it, his +life will be forfeit. Shylock is confounded further by a charge of +endangering a Christian's life. He is fined and humbled. Portia, +still in disguise, asks as her fee a ring that she has given to +Bassanio. Bassanio, hesitating, at last gives the ring, and returns +home without it. Portia's pretended indignation at the loss of the +ring ends the last act with comedy.</p></div> + +<p>The play resolves itself into a simple form. It illustrates the clash +between the emotional and the intellectual characters, the man of heart +and the man of brain. The man of heart, Antonio, is obsessed by a +tenderness for his friend. The man of brain is obsessed by a lust to +uphold intellect in a thoughtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> world that makes intellect bitter in +every age. Shylock is a man of intellect, born into a despised race. It +is his tragedy that the generous Gentiles about him can be generous to +everything except to intellect and Jewish blood. Intellect and Jewish +blood are too proud to attempt to understand the Gentiles who cannot +understand.</p> + +<p>Shylock is a proud man. The Gentiles, who are neither proud nor +intellectual, spit upon him and flout him. One of them beguiles his +daughter and teaches her to rob him. Another of them signs a mad bond to +help an extravagant friend to live in idleness. Bitter, lonely brooding +upon these things strengthen the Jew's obsession, till the words, "I can +cut out the heart of my enemy," become the message of his entire nature. +Half the evils in life come from the partial vision of people in states +of obsession. Shylock's obsession grows till he is in the Duke's court, +whetting his knife upon his shoe, before what Pistol calls "incision."</p> + +<p>Portia has been much praised during two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> centuries of criticism. She is +one of the smiling things created in the large and gentle mood that +moved Shakespeare to comedy. The scene in the fifth act, where the two +women, coming home from Venice by night, see the candle burning in the +hall, as they draw near, is full of a naturalness that makes beauty +quick in the heart. Shakespeare enjoyed the writing of this play. The +construction of the last two acts shows that his great happy mind was at +its happiest in the saving of these creatures of the sun from something +real.</p> + + +<p><i>The Taming of the Shrew.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The induction and that part of the play which +treats of Petruchio and Katharina is based upon a play, published +in 1594, under the title <i>The Taming of A Shrew</i>, author not known. +The other part is based on <i>The Supposes</i> of George Gascoigne, a +comedy adapted from Ariosto's <i>I Suppositi</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Christopher Sly, a tinker lying drunk by a tavern, is +found by a lord, who causes him to be put to bed and treated, on +waking, as a nobleman newly cured of madness. Part of the treatment +is the performance of this play before him.</p> + +<p>The play has two plots. In one of them, Petruchio woos and tames +the shrew Katharina; in the other, Katharina's sister Bianca is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +wooed by lovers in disguise. The two plots have little connection +with each other. That which relates to Petruchio and Katharina is +certainly by Shakespeare. The other seems to be by a dull man who +did not know his craft as a dramatist.</p></div> + +<p>In the Induction, and in the speech of Biondello (in Act III) +Shakespeare enters a mood of memory of the country. In the song at the +end of <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> he showed a matchless sense of country +life. That sense, at once robust and sweet, now gives life to a few +scenes in the plays. These scenes are mostly in prose; but they have the +rightness of poetry. In writing them, he wrought with his daily nature, +from something intimately known, or inbred in him, during childhood. Man +can only write happily from a perfect understanding. All men can +describe with point and colour what they knew as children. These country +scenes in Shakespeare are happier than anything else in the plays +because they come, not from anything read or heard, but from the large, +genial nature made by years of life among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> the farms and sheep-walks at +the western end of the Cotswolds.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Sly.</i> Y' are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in the +chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore <i>paucas +pallabris</i>; let the world slide: <i>Sessa!</i></p> + +<p><i>Hostess.</i> You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?</p> + +<p><i>Sly.</i> No, not a denier. Go by, Jeronimy: go to thy cold bed, and +warm thee.</p></div> + +<p>In the third act, Biondello's description of the appearance of +Petruchio's horse has the abundance of the great mind.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>" ... possessed with the glanders and like to mose in the chine; +troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of +wind-galls, sped with spavins, rayed with the yellows, past cure of +the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, +swayed in the back and shoulder-shotten; near legged before and +with a half-cheeked bit and a headstall of sheep's leather."</p></div> + +<p>It is something no longer possible in a city theatre. Neither the +dramatist nor the audi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>ence of to-day knows a horse as the Elizabethan +had to know him. The speech sets one wondering at the art of the unknown +Elizabethan actor who first spoke hurriedly this speech of strange words +full of sibilants.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's share in the play (the scenes in which the shrew and her +tamer appear) is farce with ironic philosophical intention. He indicates +the tragedy that occurs when a manly spirit is born into a woman's body. +Katharina is vexed and plagued by forced submission to a father who +cannot see her merit, and by jealousy of a gentle, useless sister. She, +who is entirely honest, sees the brainless Bianca, whom no amount of +schooling will make even passably honest, preferred before her. Lastly, +she is humbled into the state of submissive wifely falsehood by a boor +who cares only for his own will, her flesh, and her money. In a page and +a half of melancholy claptrap broken Katharina endeavours to persuade us +that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Such duty as the subject owes the prince,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Even such a woman oweth to her husband."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Perhaps it is the way of the world. Women betray womanhood as much by +mildness as by wiles. Meanwhile, what duty does a man owe to a fine, +free, fearless spirit dragged down to his by commercial bargain with a +father who is also a fool?</p> + + +<p><i>King Henry IV, Part I.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1598.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Most of the comic scenes are the fruit of +Shakespeare's invention. A very popular play, <i>The Famous Victories +of Henry V</i>, by an unknown hand, gave him the suggestion for an +effective comic scene. In the historical scenes he follows closely +the <i>Chronicles</i> of Holinshed.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The play treats of the rising of Henry Hotspur, Lord +Percy, against Henry IV of England, and of the turning of the mind +of Henry, Prince of Wales, from low things to things more worthy +his birth. It ends with the killing of Hotspur, by the Prince of +Wales, on the battlefield at Shrewsbury. Hotspur is an uncommon +man, whose uncommonness is unsupported by his father at a critical +moment. Henry, Prince of Wales, is a common man, whose commonness +props his father, and helps him to conquer. The play is about a son +too brilliant to be understood, and a son too common to understand.</p></div> + +<p>The play treats of a period some four years after the killing of King +Richard II. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> opens at a time when the oaths of Henry Bolingbroke, to +do justice, have been broken on all sides, lest the injustice of his +assumption of kingship should be recognised and punished by those over +whom he usurps power. The King is no longer the just, rather kind, man +of affairs who takes power in the earlier, much finer play. He is a +swollen, soured, bullying man, with all the ingratitude of a king and +all the baseness of one who knows his cause to be wrong. Opposed to him +is a passionate, quick-tempered man, ready to speak his mind, on the +instant, to any whom he believes to be unjust or false.</p> + +<p>This quick-tempered man, Lord Percy, has done the King a signal service. +Instead of asking for reward he tries to persuade the King to be just to +a man who has suffered wounds and defeat for him. The King calls him a +liar for his pains.</p> + +<p>Percy, stung to the quick, rebels. Others rebel with him, among them +some who are too wise to be profitable on a council of war. War does not +call for wisdom, but for swift<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>ness in striking. Percy, who is framed +for swiftness in striking, loses half of his slender chance because his +friends are too wise to advise desperate measures. Nevertheless, his +troops shake the King's troops. The desperate battle of Shrewsbury is +very nearly a triumph for him. Then the Prince meets him and kills him. +He learns too late that a passionate longing to right the wrong goes +down before the rough and stupid something that makes up the bulk of the +world. He learns that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thought's the slave of life, and life, time's fool;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And time, that takes survey of all the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Must have a stop"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and dies. The man who kills him says a few trite lines over his body, +and leaves the stage talking of Falstaff's bowels.</p> + +<p>Prince Henry, afterwards Henry V, has been famous for many years as +"Shakespeare's only hero." Shakespeare was too wise to count any man a +hero. The ways of fate moved him to vision, not heroism. If we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> be +sure of anything in that great, simple, gentle, elusive brain, we can be +sure that it was quickened by the thought of the sun shining on the just +and on the unjust, and shining none the less golden though the soul like +clay triumph over the soul like flame. Prince Henry is not a hero, he is +not a thinker, he is not even a friend; he is a common man whose +incapacity for feeling enables him to change his habits whenever +interest bids him. Throughout the first acts he is careless and callous +though he is breaking his father's heart and endangering his father's +throne. He chooses to live in society as common as himself. He talks +continually of guts as though a belly were a kind of wit. Even in the +society of his choice his attitude is remote and cold-blooded. There is +no good-fellowship in him, no sincerity, no whole-heartedness. He makes +a mock of the drawer who gives him his whole little pennyworth of sugar. +His jokes upon Falstaff are so little good-natured that he stands upon +his princehood whenever the old man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> would retort upon him. He impresses +one as quite common, quite selfish, quite without feeling. When he +learns that his behaviour may have lost him his prospective crown he +passes a sponge over his past, and fights like a wild cat for the right +of not having to work for a living.</p> + +<p>There is little great poetry in the play. The magnificent image—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Baited like eagles having lately bathed"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the speech of Worcester (in Act V, sc. i) when he comes with a trumpet +to speak with the King, and the call of Hotspur to set on battle—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sound all the lofty instruments of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And by that music let us all embrace"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>are all noble.</p> + +<p>To many, the play is remarkable because it introduces Sir John Falstaff, +the most notable figure in English comedy. Falstaff is that deeply +interesting thing, a man who is base because he is wise. Our justest, +wisest brain dwelt upon Falstaff longer than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> upon any other character +because he is the world and the flesh, able to endure while Hotspur +flames to his death, and the enemies of the devil are betrayed that the +devil may have power to betray others.</p> + + +<p><i>The Second Part of King Henry IV.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1597 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1600.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The play of <i>The Famous Victories of Henry +V</i>. Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Northumberland and the other conspirators against the +King learn that Hotspur, their associate, whom they failed to +support, has been defeated and killed. The King's forces are now +free to act against themselves. Northumberland retires to Scotland. +The others under a divided command, make head against the King's +troops under John of Lancaster. They are betrayed, taken and put to +death. Northumberland, venturing out from Scotland, is defeated. +King Henry's position is assured.</p> + +<p>His safety comes too late to be pleasant to him. He is dying, and +the conduct of his son gives him anxiety. He sees no chance of +permanent peace. He counsels his son to begin a war abroad, to +distract the attention of his subjects. Having done this, he dies.</p> + +<p>Prince Henry begins his reign as Henry V by casting off all his old +associates.</p></div> + +<p>The second part of the play of <i>King Henry IV</i> is Shakespeare's ending +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> tragedy of <i>Richard II</i>. The deposition of Richard was an act of +violence, unjust, as violence must be, and offensive, as injustice is, +to the power behind life. The blood of the dead king, and of all those +killed in fighting for him, calls upon that power, and asks justice of +it. Slowly, in many secret ways, the tide sets against the slayer, till +he is a worn, old, heart-broken, haunted man, dying with the knowledge +that all the bloodshed has been useless, because the power so hardly won +will be tossed away by his successor, the youth with "a weak mind and an +able body," the "good, shallow young fellow," who "would have made a +good pantler," who comes in noisily to his father's death-bed with news +of the beastliest of all the treacheries of the reign. Just as the play +of <i>Richard III</i> completes the action of the Wars of the Roses, this +play completes the action of the killing of the Duke of Gloucester at +Calais. The wheel comes full circle, crushing many that looked to be +brought high, making friends enemies and enemies friends. Life was +never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> so brooded on since man learned to think, as in this cycle of +tragedies. In this fragment of the whole we are shown the two classes in +human life, the people of instinct and the people of intellect, being +preyed on by two men, one of them greedy for present ease, the other for +temporal power. Both men obtain their will. Those who give up everything +for one thing often obtain that thing. But it is a law of life that +nothing must be paid for with too great a share of the imaginative +energy. All excess of the kind is unjust, as violence must be, and +offensive, as injustice is, to the power behind life. King Henry IV +fails in the hour of his triumph from his manifold failures in life +during the struggle for triumph. Falstaff fails in the same way. The +prize of life falls to the careless and callous man who has struggled +only in two minutes of his life, once, when he played a practical joke +upon some thieves, and a second time when he killed Hotspur, the +brilliant intellect, the "miracle of men."</p> + +<p>Many scenes in this play are great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> Shakespeare's instinctive power was +as large and as happy as his intellectual power. In this play he +indulged it to the full. The Falstaff scenes are all wonderful. That in +which the drunken Pistol is driven downstairs is the finest tavern scene +ever written. Those placed in Gloucestershire are the perfect poetry of +English country life. The talk of old dead Double, who could clap "i' +the clout at twelvescore," and is now dead, as we shall all be soon; the +casting back of memory to Jane Nightwork, still alive, though she +belongs to a time fifty-five years past, when a man, now old, heard the +chimes at midnight; the order to sow the headland, Cotswold fashion, +with red Lammas wheat; the kindness and charm of the country servants, +so beautiful after the drunken townsmen, are like the English country +speaking. The earth of England is a good earth and bears good fruit, +even the apple of man. These scenes are like an apple-loft in some old +barn, where the apples of last year lie sweet in the straw.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>All of those scenes seem to have been written easily, out of the fulness +of an instinctive power. In the other scenes Shakespeare wrote with +intense mental effort after brooding intensely on human destiny—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"how chances mock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And changes fill the cup of alteration<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With divers liquors,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and on the truth that—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There is a history in all men's lives,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Figuring the nature of the times deceased;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The which observed, a man may prophesy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> With a near aim, of the main chance of things<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As not yet come to life."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There are two scenes of deep tragedy in the play, both awful. +Shakespeare never wrote anything more terrible. They are the scene in +the fourth act, where John of Lancaster tricks and betrays the rebels, +and the scene at the end where the young King cuts his old friends, with +a word to the Lord Justice to have them into banishment. The words of +Scripture, "Put not your trust in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> princes," must have rung in +Shakespeare's head as he wrote these scenes.</p> + +<p>Richard II flung down his warder at Coventry rather than let his friend +venture in battle for him. From that act of mercy came his loss of the +crown, his death, Mowbray's death, Hotspur's death, the murder of the +leaders at Gaultree and the countless killings up and down England. At +the end of this play the slaughter stops for a while so that a callous +young animal may bring his country into a foreign war to divert men's +minds from injustice at home.</p> + +<p>At the end of the play there is an epilogue in prose, touching for this +reason, that it is one of the few personal addresses that Shakespeare +has left to us. In the plays the characters speak with a detachment +never relaxed. They belong to the kingdom of vision, not to the mind +through which they came. In this epilogue Shakespeare speaks for all +time directly to his hearers, whoever they may be.</p> + +<p>Who are his hearers? Not the English.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our prophet is not honoured here. This series of historical plays is one +of the most marvellous things ever done by man. The plays of which it is +composed have not been played in London, in their great processional +pageant of tragedy, within the memory of man.</p> + + +<p><i>King Henry V.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1598 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, imperfectly, 1600; as we now have it, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The play of <i>The Famous Victories of Henry +V</i>. Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>. (Possibly) an earlier play, now lost.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The play describes the determination of Henry V to +fight with France, his progress in France, the battle of Agincourt, +the articles of peace between the French and English, and the +courtship of the King with Katharine, daughter of the French King. +It is a chronicle of the coming, seeing, and conquering of the +"fellow" "whose face was not worth sun-burning."</p></div> + +<p>The play bears every mark of having been hastily written. Though it +belongs to the great period of Shakespeare's creative life, it contains +little either of clash of character, or of that much tamer thing, +comparison of character. It is a chronicle or procession,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> eked out with +soldiers' squabbles. It seems to have been written to fill a gap in the +series of the historical plays. Perhaps the management of the Globe +Theatre, where the play was performed, wished to play the series +through, from <i>Richard II</i> to <i>Richard III</i>, and persuaded Shakespeare +to write this play to link <i>Henry IV</i> to <i>Henry VI</i>. The lines of the +epilogue show that Shakespeare meant the play to give an image of +worldly success between the images of failure in the other plays.</p> + +<p>The play ought to be seen and judged as a part of the magnificent tragic +series. Detached from its place, as it has been, it loses all its value. +It is not greatly poetical in itself. It is popular. It is about a +popular hero who is as common as those who love him. But in its place it +is tremendous. Henry V is the one commonplace man in the eight plays. He +alone enjoys success and worldly happiness. He enters Shakespeare's +vision to reap what his broken-hearted father sowed. He passes out of +Shakespeare's vision<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> to beget the son who dies broken-hearted after +bringing all to waste again.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hear him but reason in divinity,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>cries the admiring archbishop. Yet this searcher of the spirit woos his +bride like a butcher, and jokes among his men like a groom. He has the +knack of life that fits human beings for whatever is animal in human +affairs.</p> + +<p>His best friend, Scroop, plots to kill him, but is detected and put to +death. Henry accuses Scroop of cruelty and ingratitude. He forgets those +friends whom his own cruelty has betrayed to death and dishonour. +Falstaff dies broken-hearted. Bardolph, whose faithfulness redeems his +sins, is hanged. Pistol becomes a cutpurse. They were the prince's +associates a few months before. He puts them from his life with as +little feeling as he shows at Agincourt, when he orders all the +prisoners to be killed.</p> + +<p>He has a liking for knocks. Courage tempered by stupidity (as in the +persons of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> Fluellen, etc.) is what he loves in a man. He, himself, has +plenty of his favourite quality. His love of plainness and bluntness +makes him condemn sentiment in his one profound speech—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All other devils that suggest by treasons<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Do botch and bungle up damnation<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> From glistering semblances of piety."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The scenes between Nym and Pistol, and the account of Falstaff's death, +are the last of the great English scenes. This (or the next) was +Shakespeare's last English play, for Lear and Cymbeline are British, not +English. When he laid down his pen after writing the epilogue to this +play he had done more than any English writer to make England sacred in +the imaginations of her sons.</p> + + +<p><i>The Merry Wives of Windsor.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1599 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in a mutilated form, 1602; in a complete form, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> A tale in Straparola's <i>Notti</i> (iv. 4). +Tarleton's <i>News out of Purgatorie</i>. Giovanni Florentino's <i>Il +Pecorone</i>. Kinde Kit of Kingston's <i>Westward for Smelts</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Falstaff makes love to Mistress Ford, the wife of a +Windsor man. Mistress Ford, despising Falstaff, plots with her +friend, Mrs. Page, to make him a mock. News of Falstaff's passion +is brought to Ford, who, needlessly jealous, resolves to search the +house for him.</p> + +<p>Falstaff woos Mrs. Ford. She holds him in play till she hears that +her husband is coming. Falstaff, alarmed at his approach, bundles +into a clothes basket, is carried past the unsuspecting husband, +and soused in the river.</p> + +<p>He is gulled into the belief that Mrs. Ford expects him again. He +goes, is nearly caught by Ford, but escapes, disguised as an old +woman, at the cost of a cudgelling.</p> + +<p>Still believing in Mrs. Ford's love for him, he keeps a third +assignation, this time in Windsor Forest, in the disguise of Herne +the hunter. On this occasion he is pinched and scorched by little +children disguised as fairies. He learns that Mrs. Ford has tricked +him, is mocked by all, and then forgiven.</p> + +<p>The play is eked out by other actions. Chief of these is the wooing +of Anne Page, Mrs. Page's daughter, by three men—a foreigner, Dr. +Caius; an idiot, Master Slender; and the man of her heart, Fenton. +There are also scenes between Falstaff, Nym, Bardolph and Pistol, +and between Dr. Caius, Sir Hugh Evans, Shallow, Slender, the Host +and Mrs. Quickly.</p></div> + +<p>An old tradition says that this play was written in a fortnight by +command of Queen Elizabeth. There can be no doubt (<i>a</i>) that it was +written hurriedly, (<i>b</i>) that it nicely suited the Tudor sense of +humour. It is the least interesting of the genuine plays.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> It is almost +wholly the work of the abundant instinctive self working in the high +spirits that so often come with the excitement of hurry. None of the +characters has time for thought. The play is full of external energy. +The people bustle and hurry with all their animal natures.</p> + +<p>It is the only Shakespearean play which treats exclusively of English +country society. As a picture of that society it is true and telling. +Country society alters very little. It is the enduring stem on which the +cities graft fashions. It is given to few to see English country society +so much excited as it is in this play, but drama deals with excessive +life. Shakespeare's people are always intensely excited or interested or +passionate. Each play tells of the great moments in half-a-dozen lives. +The method of this play is the same, though the lives chosen are lower +and the interests stupider. Falstaff is interested in cuckoldry, Mrs. +Ford in mockery, Ford, Evans and Caius in jealousy and rivalry, Bardolph +is going to be a tapster, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> others are plying their suits. Even in +this his most trivial play, Shakespeare's idea that punishment follows +oath-breaking is expressed (whimsically enough) by Falstaff—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"I never prospered since I forswore myself at primero."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>His other idea, that obsession is a danger to life, is expressed later +in the words—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 'tis upon ill +employment."</p></div> + +<p>There is little poetry in the play. The most poetical passage is the +account of Herne the hunter—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There is an old tale goes, that Herne the Hunter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Some time a keeper here in Windsor Forest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> In a most hideous and dreadful manner."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Modern poets would describe Herne's dress and appearance. The creative +poet describes his actions.</p> + +<p>It is possible that when this play was written Shakespeare had thoughts +of consecrating himself to the writing of purely English plays. There +are signs that he had reached a point of achievement that is always a +critical point to imaginative men. He had reached the point at which the +personality is exhausted. He had worked out his natural instincts, the +life known to him, his predilections, his reading. He had found a +channel in which his thoughts could express themselves. Writing was no +longer so pleasant to him as it had been. He had done an incredible +amount of work in a few years. The personality was worn to a husk. It +may be that a very little would have kept him on this side of the line, +writing imitations of what he had already done. He was at the critical +moment which separates the contemplative from the visionary, the good +from the excellent, the great from the supreme. All writers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> according +to their power, come to this point. Very few have the fortune to get +beyond it. Shakespeare's mind stood still for a moment, in this play and +in the play that followed, before it went on triumphant to the supreme +plays.</p> + + +<p><i>As You Like It.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1600 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Thomas Lodge's novel of <i>Rosalynde</i>, Euphues' +<i>Golden Legacie</i> (published in 1590) supply the fable. The tale is +that tale of Gamelyn, wrongly attributed to Chaucer. The <i>Practise</i> +(Saviolo's "Practise") of Vincentio Saviolo, an Italian master of +arms, gave hints for Touchstone's account of the lie. The rest of +the play seems to have been the fruit of Shakespeare's invention.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Orlando, basely used by his elder brother Oliver, +leaves home, annoys the usurping Duke Frederick, and is advised to +leave the country.</p> + +<p>Rosalind, child of the rightful Duke, and Celia, the child of Duke +Frederick, fly from home together in search of the rightful Duke, +who has taken to the wild wood. Rosalind, dressed as a man, gives +out that Celia is her sister. They set up as shepherds in Arden.</p> + +<p>Orlando joins the rightful Duke in Arden. He is in love with +Rosalind. He meets her in the forest, but does not recognise her in +her disguise. Oliver, cast out by Frederick, comes to Arden, is +reconciled to Orlando, and falls in love with Celia. There are a +few passages of the comedy of mistake, due to Rosalind's disguise. +In the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>end, the rightful Duke and Oliver are restored to their +possessions. Orlando marries Rosalind; the minor characters are +married as their hearts desire, and all ends happily.</p></div> + +<p>The play treats of the gifts of Nature and the ways of Fortune. Orlando, +given little, is brought to much. Rosalind and Celia, born to much, are +brought to little. The Duke, born to all things, is brought to nothing. +The usurping Duke, born to nothing, climbs to much, desires all, and at +last renounces all. Oliver, born to much, aims at a little more, loses +all, and at last regains all. Touchstone, the worldly wise, marries a +fool. Audrey, born a clown, marries a courtier. Phebe, scorning a man, +falls in love with a woman.</p> + +<p>Jaques, the only wise one, is the only one not moved by Fortune. Life +does not interest him; his interest is in his thoughts about life. His +vision of life feasts him whatever life does. Passages in the second +act, in the subtle seventh scene, corrupt in a most important line, show +that in the character of Jaques Shakespeare was expounding a philo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>sophy +of art. The philosophy may not have been that by which he, himself, +wrought; but it is one set down by him with an extreme subtlety of care, +and opposed, as all opinions advanced in drama must be, by an extreme +earnestness of opposition.</p> + +<p>The wisest of Shakespeare's characters are often detached from the +action of the play in which they appear. Jaques holds aloof from the +action of this play, though he is perhaps the best-known character in +the cast. His thought is the thought of all wise men, that wisdom, being +always a little beyond the world, has no worldly machinery by which it +can express itself. In this world the place of chorus, interpreter or +commentator is not given to the wise man, but to the fool who has +degraded the office to a profession. Jaques, the wise man, finds the +place occupied by one whose comment is platitude. Wisdom has no place in +the social scheme. The fool, he finds, has both office and uniform.</p> + +<p>Seeing this, Jaques wishes, as all wise men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> wish, not to be counted +wise but to have as great liberty as the fool to express his thought—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"weed your better judgments<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all opinion that grows rank in them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I am wise. I must have liberty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withal, as large a charter as the wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To blow on whom I please; for so fools have.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">... give me leave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speak my mind, and I will through and through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleanse the foul body of the infected world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If they will patiently receive my medicine."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He is answered that, having learned of the world's evil by libidinous +living, he can only do evil by exposing his knowledge. He replies, +finely expressing Shakespeare's invariable artistic practice, that his +aim will be at sin, not at particular sinners.</p> + +<p>In the middle of his speech Orlando enters, raging for food. It is +interesting to see how closely Shakespeare follows Jaques' mind in the +presence of the fierce animal want of hunger. He is too much interested +to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> of help. The Duke ministers to Orlando. Jaques wants to know "of +what kind this cock should come of." He speaks banteringly, the Duke +speaks kindly. The impression given is that Jaques is heartless. The +Duke's thought is "here is one even more wretched than ourselves." +Jaques' thought, always more for humanity than for the individual, is a +profound vision of the world.</p> + +<p>The play is a little picture of the world. The contemplative man who is +not of the world, is yet a part of the picture. We are shown a company +of delightful people, just escaped from disaster, smilingly taking the +biggest of hazards. The wise man, dismissing them to their fates with +all the authority of wisdom, gives up his share in the game to listen to +a man who has given up his share of the world. Renunciation of the world +is attractive to all upon whom the world presses very heavily, or very +lightly.</p> + +<p>Rosalind and Phebe are of the two kinds of woman who come much into +Shakespeare's early and middle plays. Rosalind, like Portia,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> is a +golden woman, a daughter of the sun, smiling-natured, but limited. +Phebe, like Rosalind, is black-haired, black-eyed, black-eyebrowed, with +the dead-white face that so often goes with cruelty. Shortly after this +play was written he began to create types less external and less +limited.</p> + + +<p><i>Much Ado about Nothing.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1600.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The greater part of the fable seems to have +been invented by Shakespeare. The Hero and Claudio story is found +in the twenty-second novel of Bandello, and in at least three other +books (one of them Spenser's <i>Faerie Queene</i>). It was also known to +the Elizabethans in a play now lost.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Benedick, a lord of Padua, pledges himself to +bachelorhood. Beatrice, a disdainful lady, is scornful of men.</p> + +<p>Claudio plans to marry Hero.</p> + +<p>Don John, enemy of Claudio, plans to thwart the marriage by letting +it appear that Hero is unchaste.</p> + +<p>Don Pedro and Claudio make Benedick believe that Beatrice is dying +of love for him.</p> + +<p>Ursula and Hero make Beatrice believe that Benedick is dying of +love for her.</p> + +<p>The disdainful couple make friends. Don John thwarts the marriage +of Claudio by his tale of Hero's unchastity. Claudio casts off Hero +at the altar. Hero swoons, and is conveyed away as dead. Beatrice +and Benedick are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>brought into close alliance by their upholding of +Hero's cause.</p> + +<p>Proof is obtained that Hero has been falsely accused. She is +recovered from her swoon. Claudio marries her. Benedick and +Beatrice plight troth.</p></div> + +<p>In this play Shakespeare writes of the power of report, of the thing +overheard, to alter human destiny. Antonio's man, listening behind a +hedge, overhears Don Pedro telling Claudio that he will woo Hero. The +report of his eavesdropping conveys no notion of the truth, and leads, +no doubt, to a bitter moment for Hero. Borachio, hiding behind the +arras, overhears the truth of the matter. The report of his +eavesdropping leads to the casting off of Hero at the altar. Don John +and Borachio vow to Claudio that they overheard Don Pedro making love to +Hero. The report gives Claudio a bitter moment. Benedick, reporting to +the same tune, intensifies his misery.</p> + +<p>Benedick, overhearing the report of Beatrice's love for him, changes his +mind about marriage. Beatrice, hearing of Benedick's love for her, +changes her mind about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> men. Claudio, hearing Don John's report of Hero, +changes his mind about his love. The watch, overhearing Borachio's +report of his villainy, are able to change the tragedy to comedy. +Leonato, hearing Claudio's report of Hero, is ready to cast off his +child. Report is shown to be stronger than any human affection and any +acquired quality, except the love of one unmarried woman for another, +and that strongest of all earthly things, the fool in authority. The +wisdom of Shakespeare is greater and more various than the brains of +little men can imagine. It is one of the tragical things, that this +great man, who interpreted the ways of fate in glorious, many-coloured +vision, should be set aside in our theatres for the mockers and the +accusers, whose vision scatters dust upon the brain and sand upon the +empty heart.</p> + +<p>Though the play is not one of the most passionate of the plays, it +belongs to Shakespeare's greatest creative period. It is full of great +and wonderful things. The character-drawing is so abundant and precise +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> those who know how hard it is to convey the illusion of character +can only bow down, thankful that such work may be, but ashamed that it +no longer is. Every person in the play is passionately alive about +something. The energy of the creative mood in Shakespeare filled all +these images with a vitality that interests and compels. The wit and +point of the dialogue—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Don Pedro.</i> I think this is your daughter.</p> + +<p><i>Leonato.</i> Her mother hath many times told me so.</p> + +<p><i>Benedick.</i> Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?</p> + +<p><i>Leonato.</i> Signior Benedick, no; for then you were a child;</p></div> + +<p>or (as in the later passage)—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Beatrice.</i> I may sit in a corner and cry heigh ho for a husband.</p> + +<p><i>Don Pedro.</i> Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.</p> + +<p><i>Beatrice.</i> I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath +your Grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent +husbands, if a maid could come by them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Don Pedro.</i> Will you have me, lady?</p> + +<p><i>Beatrice.</i> No, my lord, unless I might have another for working +days: your Grace is too costly to wear every day—</p></div> + +<p>is plain to all; but it is given to few to see with what admirable, +close, constructive art this dialogue is written for the theatre. Of +poetry, of understanding passionately put, there is comparatively +little. The one great poetical scene is that at the opening of the fifth +act. The worst lines of this scene have become proverbial; the best are</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"'tis all men's office to speak patience<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To those that wring under the load of sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But no man's virtue nor sufficiency,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be so moral when he shall endure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The like himself."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There is little in the play written thus, but there are many scenes +throbbingly alive. The scene in the church shows what power to +understand the awakened imagination has. The scene is a quivering eight +minutes in as many lives. Shakespeare passes from thrilling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> soul to +thrilling soul with a touch as delicate as it is certain.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's fun is liberally given in the comic scenes. In the last +act there is a beautiful example of the effect of lyric to heighten a +solemn occasion.</p> + + +<p><i>Twelfth Night.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1600 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story of Orsino, Viola, Olivia and +Sebastian is to be found in the "Historie of Apolonius and Silla" +as told by Barnabe Riche in the book <i>Riche his Farewell to +Militarie Profession</i>. Riche took the tale from Bandello's Italian, +or from de Belleforest's French translation from it. Three +sixteenth-century Italian plays are based on this fable. All of +these sources may have been known to Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>The sub-plot, and the characters contained in it, seem to be +original creations.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Viola, who thinks that she has lost her brother +Sebastian by shipwreck, disguises herself as a boy, and calls +herself Cesario. She takes service with the Duke Orsino, who is in +love with the lady Olivia. She carries love messages from the Duke +to Olivia.</p> + +<p>Olivia, who is in mourning for her brother, refuses the Duke's +suit, but falls in love with Cesario.</p> + +<p>In her house is Malvolio, the steward, who reproves her uncle, Sir +Toby Belch, for rioting at night with trivial companions. The +trivial companions forge a letter, which causes Malvolio to think +that his mistress is in love <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>with him. The thought makes his +behaviour so strange that he is locked up as a madman.</p> + +<p>Sir Toby Belch finds further solace for life in making his gull, +Sir Andrew, challenge Cesario to a duel. The duel is made dangerous +by the sudden appearance of Sebastian, who is mistaken for Cesario. +He beats Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, and encounters the lady Olivia. +Olivia woos him as she has wooed Cesario, but with better fortune.</p> + +<p>They are married. The Duke marries Viola. Malvolio is released from +prison. Sir Toby marries Maria, Olivia's waiting-woman. Sir Andrew +is driven out like a plucked pigeon. Malvolio, unappeased by his +release, vows to be revenged for the mock put upon him.</p></div> + +<p>This is the happiest and one of the loveliest of all the Shakespearean +plays. It is the best English comedy. The great mind that mixed a +tragedy of intellect with a tragedy of stupidity, here mixes mirth with +romantic beauty. The play is so mixed with beauty that one can see it +played night after night, week after week, without weariness, even in a +London theatre.</p> + +<p>The play presents images of self-deception, or delusional +sentimentality, by means of a romantic fable and a vigorous fable. It +shows us three souls suffering from the kind of sickly vanity that feeds +on day-dreams.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> Orsino is in an unreal mood of emotion. Love is an +active passion. Orsino is in the clutch of its dangerous passive enemy +called sentimentality. He lolls upon a couch to music when he ought to +be carrying her glove to battle. Olivia is in an unreal mood of mourning +for her brother. Grief is a destroying passion. Olivia makes it a form +of self-indulgence, or one sweet the more to attract flies to her. +Malvolio is in an unreal mood of self-importance. Long posing at the +head of ceremony has given him the faith that ceremony, of which he is +the head, is the whole of life. This faith deludes him into a life of +day-dreams, common enough among inactive clever people, but dangerous to +the indulger, as all things are that distort the mental vision. At the +point at which the play begins the day-dream has brought him to the +pitch of blindness necessary for effective impact on the wall.</p> + +<p>The only cure for the sickly in the mind is reality. Something real has +to be felt or experienced. Life that is over-delicate and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> remote +through something unbalanced in the mind is not life but decay. The +knife, the bludgeon, the practical joke, and the many-weaponed figure of +Sorrow are life's remedies for those who fail to live. We are the +earth's children; we have no business in limbo. Living in limbo is like +living in the smoke from a crater: highly picturesque, but too near +death for safety.</p> + +<p>Orsino is cured of sentiment by the sight of Sebastian making love like +a man. He rouses to do the like by Viola. Olivia is piqued out of +sentiment by coming to know some one who despises her. She falls in love +with that person. Malvolio is mocked out of sentiment by the knowledge +that other minds have seen his mind. He has not the happiness to be +rewarded with love at the end of the play; but he has the alternative of +hate, which is as active a passion and as real. All three are roused to +activity by the coming of something real into their lives; and all +three, in coming to the active state, cease to be interesting and +beautiful and pathetic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<p>Shakespeare's abundant power created beings who look before and after, +even while they keep vigorous a passionate present. It is difficult to +praise that power. Even those who know how difficult art is find it hard +to praise perfect art. Art is not to be praised or blamed, but +understood. This play will stand as an example of perfect art till a +greater than Shakespeare set a better example further on. It is</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All beauty and without a spot."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The scene of the roisterers, rousing the night-owl in a catch, rouses +the heart, as all real creation does, with the thought that life is too +wonderful to end. The next, most lovely scene, where the Duke and Viola +talk of love that keeps life from ending, and so often brings life down +into the dust, assures the heart that even if life ends for us it will +go on in others.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"the song we had last night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spinsters and the knitters in the sun<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span><span class="i0">And the free maids that weave their thread with bones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dallies with the innocence of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the old age."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In his best plays Shakespeare used a double construction to express by +turn the twofold energy of man, the energy of the animal and of the +spirit. The mind that brooded sadly in</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For women are as roses, whose fair flower<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and in</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"She never told her love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>belonged to earth, and got a gladness from earth. Within two minutes of +the talk of the woman who died of love he showed Contemplation making a +rare turkey-cock of the one wise man in his play.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> + + +<p><i>All's Well that Ends Well.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story of Helena's love for Bertram is +found in the <i>Decamerone</i> of Boccaccio (giorn. 3, nov. 9). +Shakespeare may have read it in the <i>Palace of Pleasure</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Helena, orphan daughter of a physician, has been +brought up, as a dependant, in the house of the Countess of +Rousillon. She falls in love with Bertram, the son of the Countess +and the King's ward.</p> + +<p>Bertram goes to the French Court, on his way to the wars. He finds +the King dangerously ill. Helena, hearing of the King's illness, +comes to the Court as a physician. She offers to cure the King with +one of her father's remedies, on condition that, when cured, he +will give her in marriage the man of her choice. The King accepts +these conditions; she cures him; she chooses for her husband +Bertram.</p> + +<p>Bertram, the King's ward, has to do the King's bidding. He +grudgingly accepts her; they are married. He leaves her, and goes +to the wars in the service of the Duke of Florence, designing to +see her no more. Helena withdraws from the Countess's house, and +comes to Florence disguised.</p> + +<p>Bertram woos Diana, a maid of Florence. Helena impersonates her, +receives her unsuspecting husband at night, takes from him a ring, +and gives, in exchange, a ring given to her by the King of France. +At the end of the war, Bertram, hearing that Helena is dead, +returns to France, wearing the ring. The King sees it and +challenges it. Bertram can give no just account of how he got it. +Helena, quick with child by him, confronts him, with the ring that +he left with her at Florence. Diana, the Florentine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>maid, gives +evidence that Helena impersonated her on the night of Bertram's +visit at Florence. Bertram accepts Helena as his wife, and the play +ends happily.</p></div> + +<p>This play (whenever written) was extensively revised during the ruthless +mood that gave birth to <i>Measure for Measure</i>. The alterations were made +in a mood so much deeper than the mood of its first composition that +they make the play uneven. Something, perhaps some trick of health, that +made the mind clearer than the imagination, gave to Shakespeare for a +short time another (and pitiless) view of human obsessions.</p> + +<p>It was a part of his belief that treachery is generally caused by +blindness, blindness generally by some obsession of passion. In this +play he treats of the removal of an obsession by making plain to the +obsessed, by pitiless judicial logic, the ugliness of the treachery it +causes.</p> + +<p>Bertram is a young man fresh from home. He does not want to marry. He is +eager to see the world and to win honour. He has been accustomed to look +down on Helena as a poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> dependant. He does not like her, and he does +not like being ordered. He is suddenly ordered to marry her. He has been +trapped by a woman's underhand trick. He sees himself brought into +bondage with all the plumes of his youth clipped close. There is no way +of escape; he has to marry her; but the King's order cannot quench his +rage against the woman who has so snared him. His rage burns inward into +a brooding, rankling ill-humour that becomes an obsession. It is one of +the tragedies of life that an evil obsession blinds the judgment on more +sides than one. The obsessed are always without criticism. A way of +destruction may be as narrow as a way of virtue; but all the other ways +of destruction run into it. Bertram in blinkers to the good in Helena is +blind to the faults in himself and in Parolles his friend. Wilfully, as +the sullen do, he thinks himself justified in doing evil because evil +has been done to him. Hot blood is running in him. Temptation, never far +from youth, is always near the unbalanced. He takes an unworthy +confidant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> as the obsessed do, and goes in over the ears. His sin is +the giving of salutation to sportive blood, it is love, it is "natural +rebellion," it is young man's pastime. But looked at coldly and +judicially, with the nature of the confidant laid bare, and the lies of +the sinner made plain, it is an ugly thing. Passion is sweet enough to +seem truth, the only truth. Let the eyes be opened a little, and it will +blast the heart with horror. What man thought true is then seen to be +this, this thing, this devil of falseness who gives man this kind of +friend, makes him tell this kind of lie, and brands him with this kind +of shame.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare is just to Bertram. The treachery of a woman is often the +cause of a man's treachery to womanhood. Helena's obsession of love +makes her blind to the results of her actions. She twice puts the man +whom she loves into an intolerable position, which nothing but a king +can end. The fantasy is not made so real that we can believe in the +possibility of happiness between two so married. Helena has been praised +as one of the noblest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> of Shakespeare's women. Shakespeare saw her more +clearly than any man who has ever lived. He saw her as a woman who +practises a borrowed art, not for art's sake, nor for charity, but, +woman fashion, for a selfish end. He saw her put a man into a position +of ignominy quite unbearable, and then plot with other women to keep him +in that position. Lastly, he saw her beloved all the time by the +conventionally minded of both sexes.</p> + +<p>The play is full of effective theatrical situations. It contains much +fine poetry. Besides the poetry there are startling moments of insight—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My mother told me just how he would woo<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As if she sat in's heart...."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now, God delay our rebellion! as we are ourselves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> What things are we! Merely our own traitors."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I would gladly have him see his company anatomised,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That he might take a measure of his own judgments."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"Our rash faults<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make trivial price of serious things we have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not knowing them until we know their grave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Destroy our friends and after weep their dust."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>Julius Cæsar.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1601 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The Lives of Antonius, Brutus and Julius +Cæsar in Sir Thomas North's <i>Plutarch</i>.</p> + +<p>A tragedy of Julius Cæsar, now lost, was performed by Shakespeare's +company in 1594. Shakespeare must have known this play.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Cassius, fearing that Julius Cæsar is about to +extinguish all trace of Republican rule in Rome, persuades Brutus +and others to plot a change. They decide to murder Cæsar.</p> + +<p>On the morning chosen for the murder, Cæsar is warned by many omens +not to stir abroad. He is persuaded to ignore the omens. He goes to +the Senate House, and is there killed. Mark Antony, his friend, +obtains leave from the murderers to make a public oration over the +corpse.</p> + +<p>In his speech he so inflames the populace against the murderers +that they are compelled to leave Rome.</p> + +<p>Joining himself to Octavius, he takes the field against Brutus and +Cassius, and helps to defeat them at Philippi.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Cassius is killed by his servant when he sees that all is lost. +Brutus, seeing the battle go against him, kills himself.</p></div> + +<p>The modern play climbs to its culmination by a series of interruptions +or crises. The modern playwright tries to end his acts at an arresting +or splendid moment, artfully delayed, and carefully prepared. He tries +to end his play by a gradual knitting together of all the energies of +his characters into a situation, happier or more haunting, than any that +has preceded it in the course of the action. The art by which this is +done, when it is done, is called dramatic construction. There are many +kind of dramatic construction. Each age tends to form a new one. Each +writer uses many. In art a subject can only be expressed in the form +most fitting to it. In the art of the theatre a mistake in the choice of +the form, or in the right handling of it when chosen leads infallibly to +the irritation of the audience and the failure of the play. When a play +is badly constructed the actors cannot so interpret the author's emotion +that it will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> dominate the collective emotion in the audience.</p> + +<p>It is often said, by those who ought to know better (it was said to +Racine by Frenchmen), that dramatic construction cannot matter, if the +passion or spirit with which the author writes, be abundant and sincere. +The powder in a cartridge may be abundant and the bullet at the end may +be sincerely meant, yet neither will do execution till they are put +properly into the proper weapon, rightly aimed, and judgingly fired. So +with passion in the arts. Without art, inspiration is breath and a +feeding of the wind. In the theatre, inspiration without art is as a +sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes maintained in print, by those saddened or maddened by +bad modern performances of the plays, that Shakespeare "could not +construct," that he is constantly "rambling," "chaotic," or +"intolerable," and that he is only played to-day because of his +"poetry." Those who maintain these things forget that an Elizabethan +play was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> constructed for a theatre much unlike the modern theatre, and +performed in a manner suited to that theatre, but less well suited to +the theatre of our times. Shakespeare's plays were constructed closely +and carefully to be effective on the Elizabethan stage. On that stage +they were highly and nobly effective. On the modern stage, produced in +the modern manner, they are less effective. There are many reasons why +they should be less effective on the modern stage. During the last +thirty years there has been a tendency towards naturalism in the +theatre. Modern audiences have learned not to care for poetry on the +stage unless it is made "natural" by realistic scenery. Modern audiences +are accustomed to the modern forms of dramatic construction, which are +unlike the Elizabethan forms. They know that modern playwrights put a +strong scene at the end of an act and a great scene at the end of the +play. They have learned to expect a play to be arranged in that manner, +and to count as ill constructed the play not so arranged. As it is +frequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> said that the last acts of <i>Julius Cæsar</i> make anti-climax +and spoil the play, it is necessary to consider Shakespeare's +constructive practice in this and in some other plays.</p> + +<p>The Greek tragic poets ended the action of their plays in the modern +manner, at the great scene, but, unlike us, they delayed the departure +of the audience for some minutes more, generally by a chorus of men and +women who expounded the moral value of the action in noble verse. The +audience came away calmed. If a Greek had constructed <i>Julius Cæsar</i>, he +would have ended the action at the murder. A chorus of senators would +then have chanted something noble about the results of pride, the vanity +of human glory, and the strangeness of the ways of the gods. A modern +writer would have caused the curtain to fall at the murder, for to-day, +when the brains are out the play dies and there an end. Shakespeare +carries on his play for two acts after Cæsar is dead. In <i>Macbeth</i> he +constructs the last half of his play in much the same manner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> + +<p>In both plays he is considering the conception, the doing, and the +results of a violent act. In both plays this act is the murder of the +head of a State. In neither case is he deeply interested in the victim. +Duncan, in <i>Macbeth</i>, is a generous gentleman; Cæsar, in this play, is a +touchy man of affairs whose head is turned. Shakespeare's imagination +broods on the fact that the killers were deluded into murder, Macbeth by +an envious wife and the belief that Fate meant him to be king, Brutus by +an envious friend and the belief that he was saving Rome. In both cases +the killers show base personal ingratitude and treachery. In both plays, +an avenging justice makes even the scales. The mind of the poet follows +them from the moment when the guilty thought is prompted, through the +agony and exultation of dreadful acts, to the unhappiness that dogs the +treacherous, till Fate's just sword falls in vengeance. His imagination +is most keenly stirred just as ours is, by the great event, the murder +of the victim: but his subject is not the murder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> nor yet the tragical +end of a ruler. His subject in both plays is the working of Fate who +prompts to murder, uses the murderer, and then destroys him. We are +interested in crisis and in topic. The Elizabethans, with a wider +vision, could not detach an act from its place in the pageant of +history. In a modern play the heroine is put into an unpleasant +position, or an evil is exposed, or our faults are made visible and +laughable. The point of view is that of the sympathiser, reformer, and +moralist looking on from the window near by. The field of vision is +restricted and the object brought near. In this great play, as in +<i>Macbeth</i>, Shakespeare strove to present a violent act and its +consequences from the point of view of a great just spirit outside life.</p> + +<p>The play is generally considered to be the earliest of the supreme +plays. Little more can be said of it at this time than that it is +supreme. There is a majesty in the conception that makes it like +gathering and breaking storm. The cause of the murder is a great +personal treachery inspired by an unselfish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> idea. Though it seems +inevitable, it is a very little thing that makes it possible. Both +Cæsar's murder and Brutus' downfall are almost prevented. A hand +stretches out to save both of them. A little domestic treachery inspired +by a selfish idea puts aside the interposing hand in both instances. +Cæsar will not listen to his wife because he is sure of himself. Brutus +will not answer his wife for the same reason. They go on to the +magnificent hour which makes the one fine soul in the play a haunted and +unhappy soul till he snatches at Death at Philippi.</p> + +<p>The verse is calm, like the noble art that shapes the scenes. It is full +of majesty. Lines occur in which single unusual words are charged with +an incalculable power of meaning.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Against the Capitol I met a lion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Who glazed upon me and went surly by."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"It is the bright day that brings forth the adder."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Shakespeare's intensest and most solemn thought, the Law that directed +the creation of some of his greatest work, is spoken by Brutus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Between the acting of a dreadful thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And the first motion, all the interim is<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Like a phantasma or a hideous dream:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The Genius and the mortal instruments<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Are then in council, and the state of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Like to a little kingdom, suffers then<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The nature of an insurrection."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1601-2.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in an imperfect form, 1603; more perfectly, 1604.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> A play upon the subject of Hamlet, now lost, +seems to have been popular in London during the last decades of the +sixteenth century. Some think that it was an early work of +Shakespeare's. No evidence supports this theory. He probably knew +the play, and may have acted in it.</p> + +<p>The story is told by Saxo Grammaticus in his <i>Historia Danica</i>. +Francis de Belleforest printed a version of it in his <i>Histoires +Tragiques</i>. An English translation from de Belleforest, called the +<i>Hystorie of Hamblet</i>, was published (or perhaps reprinted) in +London in 1608. Shakespeare seems to have known both de Belleforest +and the <i>Hystorie</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Claudius, brother to the King of Denmark, conniving +with Gertrude the Queen, poisons his brother, and seizes the +throne. Soon afterwards he marries Gertrude. At this point the play +begins.</p> + +<p>Hamlet, son of the murdered king, sick at heart at his mother's +hasty re-marriage, and troubled by his love for Ophelia, returns to +Denmark. The ghost of his father <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>reveals the manner of the murder +to him, and makes him swear to be revenged. The revelation so +affects him that the murderers begin to fear him. He cannot bring +himself to kill Claudius. In a play he shows them that he knows +their guilt.</p> + +<p>While speaking with his mother, he discovers and kills a spy hidden +behind the arras. The spy is Polonius, father of Laertes and of +Ophelia.</p> + +<p>Claudius causes Hamlet to sail for England, on the pretext that the +killing of Polonius has brought him into danger with the populace. +He plans that Hamlet shall be killed on his arrival. Hamlet +discovers the treacherous purpose and returns unhurt to Denmark.</p> + +<p>During Hamlet's absence at sea, Laertes learns how Polonius was +killed and swears to be revenged on Hamlet. Hamlet's return gives +him his opportunity.</p> + +<p>Claudius suggests that the revenge be taken at a fencing-bout. +Laertes shall fence with Hamlet, using a poisoned foil. If this +fails, Hamlet shall be given poisoned wine.</p> + +<p>In a scuffle during the fencing-bout the fencers change foils. +Gertrude, by mistake, drinks the poisoned wine and dies. Laertes, +hurt by the poisoned foil, dies. Hamlet, also hurt by the poisoned +foil, kills Claudius and dies too.</p></div> + +<p><i>Hamlet</i> is the most baffling of the great plays. It is the tragedy of a +man and an action continually baffled by wisdom. The man is too wise. +The dual action, pressing in both cases to complete an event, cannot get +past his wisdom into the world. The action in one case is a bad one. It +is simply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> murder. In the other, and more important case, it is, +according to our scheme, also a bad one. It is revenge, or, at best, the +taking of blood for blood. In the Shakespearean scheme it is not +revenge, it is justice, and therefore neither good nor bad but +necessary. The situation which causes the tragedy is one very common in +Shakespeare's system. Life has been wrenched from her course. Wrenching +is necessary to bring her back to her course or to keep her where she +is. Hamlet is a man who understands too humanly to wish to wrench either +this way or that, and too shrewdly to be himself wrenched by grosser +instruments of Fate.</p> + +<p>The action consists in the baffling of action. Mostly, it consists in +the baffling of life's effort to get back to her course. All through the +play there is the uneasiness of something trying to get done, something +from outside life trying to get into life, but baffled always because +the instrument chosen is, himself, a little outside life, as the wise +must be. This baffling of the purpose of the dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> leads to a baffling +of the living, and, at last, to something like an arrest of life, a +deadlock, in which each act, however violent, makes the obscuring of +life's purpose greater.</p> + +<p>The powers outside life send a poor ghost to Hamlet to prompt him to an +act of justice. After baffled hours, often interrupted by cock-crow, he +gives his message. Hamlet is charged with the double task of executing +judgment and showing mercy. It is a charge given to many people +(generally common people) in the system of the plays. It is given to two +other men in this play. It is nothing more than the fulfilling of the +kingly office, so bloodily seized by Claudius before the opening of the +play. At this point, it may be well to consider the society in which the +kingly office is to be exercised.</p> + +<p>The society is created with Shakespeare's fullest power. It is not an +image of the world in little, like the world of the late historical +plays. It is an image of the world as intellect is made to feel it. It +is a society governed by the enemies of intellect, by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> sensual and +the worldly, by deadly sinners and the philosophers of bread and cheese. +The King is a drunken, incestuous murderer, who fears intellect. The +Queen is a false woman, who cannot understand intellect. Polonius is a +counsellor who suspects intellect. Ophelia is a doll without intellect. +Laertes is a boor who destroys intellect. The courtiers are parasites +who flourish on the decay of intellect. Fortinbras, bright and noble, +marching to the drum to win a dunghill, gives a colour to the folly. The +only friends of the wise man are Horatio, the schoolfellow, and the +leader of a cry of players.</p> + +<p>The task set by the dead is a simple one. All tasks are simple to the +simple-minded. To the delicate and complex mind so much of life is bound +up with every act that any violent act involves not only a large +personal sacrifice of ideal, but a tearing-up by the roots of half the +order of the world. Wisdom is founded upon justice; but justice, to the +wise man, is more a scrupulous quality in the mind than the doing of +expedient acts upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> sinners. Hamlet is neither "weak" nor +"unpractical," as so many call him. What he hesitates to do may be +necessary, or even just, as the world goes, but it is a defilement of +personal ideals, difficult for a wise mind to justify. It is so great a +defilement, and a world so composed is so great a defilement, that death +seems preferable to action and existence alike.</p> + +<p>The play at this point presents a double image of action baffled by +wisdom. Hamlet baffles the dealing of the justice of Fate, and also the +death plotted for him by his uncle. His weapon, in both cases, is his +justice, his precise scrupulousness of mind, the niceness of mental +balance which gives to all that he says the double-edge of wisdom. It is +the faculty, translated into the finer terms of thought, which the ghost +seeks to make real with bloodshed. Justice, in her grosser as in her +finer form, is concerned with the finding of the truth. The first half +of the play, though it exposes and develops the fable, is a dual image +of a search for truth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> of a seeking for a certainty that would justify +a violent act. The King is probing Hamlet's mind with gross human +probes, to find out if he is mad. Hamlet is searching the King's mind +with the finest of intellectual probes, to find out if he is guilty. The +probe used by him, the fragment of a play within a play, is the work of +a man with a knowledge of the impotence of intellect—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Our wills and fates do so contrary run<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That our devices still are overthrown"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and a faith in the omnipotence of intellect—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To this man, five minutes after the lines have exposed the guilty man, +comes a chance to kill his uncle. Hamlet "might do it pat" while he is +at prayers. The knowledge that the sword will not reach the real man, +since damnation comes from within, not from without, arrests his hand. +Fate offers an instant for the doing of her purpose. Hamlet puts the +instant by, with his baffling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> slowness, made up of mercy and wisdom. +Fate, or the something outside life which demands the King's blood, so +that life may go back to her channel, is foiled. The action cannot bring +itself to be. A wise human purpose is, for the moment, stronger than the +eternal purpose of Nature, the roughly just.</p> + +<p>It is a part of this play's ironic teaching that life must not be +baffled; but that, when she has been wrenched from her course, she must +either be wrenched back to it or kept violently in the channel to which +she has been forced.</p> + +<p>In <i>Macbeth</i>, a not dissimilar play, the life violently altered is kept +in the strange channel by a succession of violent acts. In <i>Hamlet</i>, +when Hamlet's merciful wisdom has decided that the life violently +altered shall not be wrenched back, his destroying wisdom decides that +she shall not be kept in the strange channel. The King, just in his way, +seeks to find out if Hamlet be sane. If Hamlet be sane, he must die. His +death will secure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> the King's position. By his death life will be kept +in the strange channel. Polonius, the King's agent, learns that Hamlet +is sane and something more. Fate demands violence this way if she may +not have it in the other. She offers an instant for the doing of her +purpose. Hamlet puts the instant by with his baffling swiftness, which +strikes on the instant, when the Queen's honour and his own life depend +on it. The first bout in this play of the baffling of action falls to +Hamlet. The second bout, in which the King's purpose is again baffled, +by the sending of the two courtiers to their death in England, also +falls to Hamlet. The bloody purpose from outside life and the bloody +purpose from within life are both baffled and kept from being by the two +extremes so perfectly balanced in the wise nature.</p> + +<p>Extremes in the Shakespearean system are tragical things. In +Shakespeare, the pathway of excess leads, not as with Blake, to the +palace of wisdom, but to destruction. The two extremes in Hamlet, of +slowness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> and swiftness, set up in life the counter forces which destroy +extremes, so that life, the common thing, may continue to be common. The +mercy of Hamlet leaves the King free to plot his death. The swiftness of +Hamlet gives to the King a hand and sword to work his will.</p> + +<p>In other plays, the working of extremes to the punishment dealt by life +to all excess is simple and direct. In this play, nothing is simple and +direct. Fate's direct workings are baffled by a mind too complex to be +active on the common planes. The baffling of Fate's purpose leads to a +condition in life like the "slack water" between tides. Laertes, when +his father is killed, raises the town and comes raving to the presence +to stab the killer. He is baffled by the King's wisdom. Ophelia, +"incapable of her own distress," goes mad and drowns herself. The play +seems to hesitate and stand still while the energies spilled in the +baffling of Fate work and simmer and grow strong, till they combine with +Fate in the preparation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> of an end that shall not be baffled. Even so, +"the end men looked for cometh not." The end comes to both actions at +once in the squalor of a chance-medley. Fate has her will at last. Life, +who was so long baffled, only hesitated. She destroys the man who +wrenched her from her course, and the man who would neither wrench her +back nor let her stay, and the women who loved these men, and the men +who loved them. Revenge and chance together restore life to her course, +by a destruction of the lives too beastly, and of the lives too hasty, +and of the lives too foolish, and of the life too wise, to be all +together on earth at the same time.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to praise the poetry of <i>Hamlet</i>. Nearly all the play is +as familiar by often quotation as the New Testament. The great, wise, +and wonderful beauty of the play is a part of the English mind for ever. +It is difficult to live for a day anywhere in England (except in a +theatre) without hearing or reading a part of <i>Hamlet</i>. Lines that are +little quoted are the lines to quote here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"this fell sergeant, death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is strict in his arrest."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"O proud death!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou so many princes, at a shot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So bloodily hast struck?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The last speech, great as the speech at the end of Timon, and noble, +like that, with a music beyond the art of voices, is constructed on a +similar metrical basis.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Let four captains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he was likely, had he been put on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soldier's music and the rites of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speak loudly for him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take up the bodies: such a sight as this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, bid the soldiers shoot."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>Troilus and Cressida.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> After publication.</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1609.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Geoffrey Chaucer's poem of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +<i>Troilus and +Creseide</i>. John Lydgate's <i>Troy Boke</i>. William Caxton's translation +of the French book of the <i>Recuyels of Troy</i>. George Chapman's +translation of Homer's <i>Iliad</i>.</p> + +<p>Among many other possible sources may be mentioned a now lost play +of <i>Troilus and Cressida</i> (produced in 1599) by the poets Thomas +Dekker and Henry Chettle.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The scene is Troy. Cressida is a Trojan woman, whose +father, Calchas, has gone over to the Greeks. She is beloved by the +youth Troilus. Her uncle, Pandarus, seeks to bring her to accept +Troilus. Hector, brother to Troilus, challenges a Greek champion to +single combat.</p> + +<p>In the Greek camp there is much disaffection. Achilles, the chief +Greek champion, conceiving himself wronged, makes a mock of the +other leaders. To teach him his place the leaders plan that Ajax +shall be chosen in his stead to take up Hector's challenge.</p> + +<p>Pandarus succeeds in bringing Cressida to love Troilus.</p> + +<p>Calchas, in the Greek camp, sends to Troy for Cressida. She is +delivered over to the Greeks. Forgetting Troilus, she entangles one +of the Greeks with her wiles.</p> + +<p>Ajax takes up Hector's challenge. They fight a friendly bout and +then go to feast, where the moody Achilles insults Hector.</p> + +<p>The next day, Hector and Troilus come to the field, the one to +avenge Achilles' insults, the other to kill the man who has won +Cressida. Hector is cruelly and cowardly killed by Achilles. +Troilus is left unhurt, cursing.</p></div> + +<p><i>Troilus and Cressida</i> is the dialogue scenario of a play that was never +finished. It seems to have been written before 1603, then laid aside, +incomplete, until the mood that inspired it had died. Conflicting +evidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> makes it doubtful whether it was acted during Shakespeare's +life. It was published, under mysterious circumstances, a year or two +before he retired to Stratford.</p> + +<p>Two or three scenes are finished. The rest is indicated in the crudest +dialogue, written so hastily that it is often undramatic and nearly +always without wit or beauty. The finished scenes are among the grandest +ever conceived by Shakespeare, but the grandeur is that of thought, not +of action. They make it plain to us why the play was never completed. +The subject is this: a light woman throwing over a boy. The setting, the +Trojan war: a light woman overthrowing a city, is so much bigger than +the subject that it overshadows it. Another subject arises in the +circumstance of the Trojan war. Achilles, the man of action, without +honour or imagination, sulks. The wise man, Ulysses, suggests that he be +brought from his sulks by mockery. The result of this wise counsel is +that Hector, the one bright and noble soul in the play, is killed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +cruelly and sullenly, by the boor thus mocked.</p> + +<p>The two subjects and the setting are not and cannot be brought into +unity. Shakespeare's mind wandered from his real subject to brood upon +the obsession of Helen that betrayed Troy to the fire, and upon the +tragical working of wisdom that brought about an end so foul. Other, and +bigger, subjects for plays tempted him from the work. He put it aside +before it was half alive. As it stands, it has neither life nor meaning. +It oppresses the mind into making gloomy interpretation. Tragedy in its +imperfect form cannot but be gloomy. It is nothing but the record of a +fatal event. But Shakespearean tragedy is tragedy in its perfect form. +It is an exultation of the soul over the husks of life and the winds +that blow them. This play, had it ever been finished, would have been +like the other tragedies of the great years. That it is not finished is +our misfortune.</p> + +<p>The finished scenes are full of wisdom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> A great-sized monster of ingratitude:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As fast as they are made, forgot as soon<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As done: perseverance, dear my lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Quite out of fashion."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"O, let not virtue seek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remuneration for the thing it was."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And sometimes we are devils to ourselves."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Some have thought that this play was written by Shakespeare to ridicule +the two poets, Ben Jonson (in the person of Ajax) and John Marston (in +the person of Thersites). Those two poets were engaged, with others, in +the years 1601-2, in what is called the War of the Theatres, that is, +they wrote plays to criticise and mock each other. These plays are often +scurrilous and seldom amusing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> During the course of the war the two +chief combatants came to blows.</p> + +<p>It is sad that Shakespeare should be credited with the paltriness of +lesser men. His view of his task is expressed in <i>Timon of Athens</i> with +the perfect golden clearness of supreme power—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"my free drift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Halts not particularly, but moves itself<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a wide sea of wax: no levell'd malice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infects one comma in the course I hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving no tract behind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He held that view throughout his creative life, as a great poet must. At +the time during which this play was written his thought was more rigidly +kept to the just survey of life than at any other period. Creative art +has been so long inglorious that the practice and ideas of supreme poets +have become incomprehensible to the many. This play is a great hint of +something never, now, to be made clear. Those who count it a mark of +Shakespeare's littleness expose their own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + + +<p><i>Measure for Measure.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1603-4 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story is founded on an event that is said +to have taken place in Ferrara, during the Middle Ages. Shakespeare +took it from a collection of novels, the <i>Hecatomithi</i>, by Giraldi +Cinthio; from the play, <i>The rare Historie of Promos and +Cassandra</i>, founded on Cinthio's novel, by one George Whetstone, +and from Whetstone's prose rendering of the story in his book <i>The +Heptameron of Civil Discourses</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> The Duke of Vienna, going on a secret mission, leaves +his power in the hands of Angelo, a man of strict life.</p> + +<p>Angelo enforces old laws against incontinence. He arrests Claudio +and sentences him to be beheaded. Claudio's sister, Isabella, +pleads with Angelo for her brother's life. Being moved to lust, +Angelo tempts Isabella. He offers to spare Claudio if she will +submit to him. Claudio begs her to save him thus. She refuses.</p> + +<p>The Duke returns to Vienna disguised, hears Isabella's story, and +resolves to entrap Angelo. He causes her to make an appointment to +that end. He causes Mariana, a maid who has been jilted by Angelo, +to personate Isabella, and keep the appointment. Mariana does so.</p> + +<p>He contrives to check Angelo's treachery, that would have caused +Claudio's death in spite of the submission.</p> + +<p>Lastly he reveals himself, exposes Angelo's sin, compels him to +marry Mariana, pardons Claudio, and makes Isabella his Duchess.</p></div> + +<p>This play is now seldom performed. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> is one of the greatest works of +the greatest English mind. It deals justly with the case of the man who +sets up a lifeless sentimentality as a defence against a living natural +impulse. The spirit of Angelo has avenged itself on Shakespeare by +becoming the guardian spirit of the British theatre.</p> + +<p>In this play Shakespeare seems to have brooded on the fact that the +common prudential virtues are sometimes due, not to virtue, but to some +starvation of the nature. Chastity may proceed from a meanness in the +mind, from coldness of the emotions, or from cowardice, at least as +often as from manly and cleanly thinking. Two kinds of chastity are set +at clash here. The one springs from a fire in the personality that +causes Isabella to think death better than contamination, and gives her +that whiteness of generosity which fills nunneries with living +sacrifice; the other comes from the niggardliness that makes Angelo jilt +Mariana rather than take her without a dower. Both are obsessions; both +exalt a part of life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> above life itself. Like other obsessions, they +come to grief in the presence of something real.</p> + +<p>These two characters make the action. The play is concerned with the +difficulty of doing justice in a world of animals swayed by rumour. The +subject is one that occupied Shakespeare's mind throughout his creative +life. Wisdom begins in justice. But how can man be just, without the +understanding of God? Who is so faultless that he can sit in judgment on +another? Who so wise that he can see into the heart, weigh the act with +the temptation and strike the balance?</p> + +<p>Sexual sin is the least of the sins in Dante. It is allied to love. It +is an image of regeneration. No sin is so common, none is more glibly +blamed. It is so easy to cry "treacherous," "base," and "immoral." But +who, while the heart beats, can call himself safe from the temptation to +this sin? It is mixed up with every generosity. It is a flood in the +heart and a blinding wave over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> the eyes. It is the thorn in the side +under the cloak of the beauty of youth. In Shakespeare's vision it is a +natural force, incident to youth, as April is incident to the year. The +young men live as though life were oil, and youth a bonfire to be burnt. +Life is always wasteful. Youth is life's test for manhood. The clown +finds in the prison a great company of the tested and rejected, calling +through the bars for alms. In spite of all this choice, another victim +is picked by tragical chance. Lucio, a butterfly of the brothel, a +dirtier soul than Claudio, is spared. Claudio is taken and condemned. +The beautiful, vain, high-blooded youth, so quick with life and glad of +the sun, is to lie in earth, at the bidding of one less full of April.</p> + +<p>Angelo, the man whose want of sympathy condemns Claudio, is in the state +of security that precedes so much Shakespearean tragedy. He has received +the name of being more than human because (unlike his admirers) he has +not shown himself to be considerably less. He has come through youth +unsinged. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> has not been betrayed by his "gross body's treason." Both +he and those about him think that he is proof against temptation to +sexual sin. Suddenly his security is swept away. He is betrayed by the +subtler temptation that would mean nothing to a grosser man. He is moved +by the sight of the beauty of a distressed woman's mind. The sight means +nothing to Claudio, and less than nothing to Lucio. The happy animal +nature of youthful man has a way of avoiding distressed women. The +cleverer man, who has shut himself up in the half life of sentiment, +cannot so escape. He is attacked suddenly by the unknown imprisoned side +of him as well as by temptation. He falls, and, like all who fall, he +falls not to one sin, but to a degradation of the entire man. The sins +come linked. "Treason and murder ever kept together." When he is once +involved with lust, treachery and murder follow. He is swiftly so +stained that when the wise Duke shows him as he is, he shrinks from the +picture, with a cry that he may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> put out of the way by some swift +merciful death so that the horror of the knowledge of himself may end, +too.</p> + +<p>The play is a marvellous piece of unflinching thought. Like all the +greatest of the plays, it is so full of illustration of the main idea +that it gives an illusion of an infinity like that of life. It is +constructed closely and subtly for the stage. It is more full of the +ingenuities of play-writing than any of the plays. The verse and the +prose have that smoothness of happy ease which makes one think of +Shakespeare not as a poet writing, but as a sun shining.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">" ... It deserves with characters of brass<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The thought of the play is penetrating rather than impassioned. The +poetry follows the thought. There are cold lines like Death laying a +hand on the blood. The faultless lyric, "Take, O take those lips away" +occurs. Some say Fletcher wrote it, some Bacon. "Love talks with better +knowledge, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> knowledge with dearer love." The music of the great +manner rings—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Merciful Heaven!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Drest in a little brief authority,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> His glassy essence, like an angry ape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As make the angels weep."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The prose accompaniment to what is unrestrained in youth provides a +cruel comedy.</p> + + +<p><i>Othello, the Moor of Venice.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1604 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in quarto, and in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The tale appears in <i>The Hecatomithi</i> of G. +B. Giraldi Cinthio. Shakespeare follows Cinthio in the main; but a +few details suggest that he knew the story in an ampler version.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Iago, ensign to Othello, the Moor of Venice, is +jealous of Cassio, his lieutenant. He plots to oust Cassio from the +lieutenancy.</p> + +<p>Othello marries Desdemona, and sails with her to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>wars in +Cyprus. Iago resolves to make use of Desdemona to cause Cassio's +downfall.</p> + +<p>He procures Cassio's discharge from the lieutenancy by involving +him in a drunken brawl. Cassio beseeches Desdemona to intercede +with Othello for him. Iago hints to Othello that she has good +reason to wish Cassio to be restored. He suggests that Cassio is +her lover. Partly by fortune, partly by craft, he succeeds in +establishing in Othello's mind the conviction that Desdemona is +guilty.</p> + +<p>Othello smothers Desdemona, learns, too late, that he has been +deceived, and kills himself. Cassio's character is cleared. Iago is +led away to torture.</p></div> + +<p>A man's greatest works differ from his lesser works in degree, not in +kind. They may be more perfect, but they express similar ideas. "A man +grows, he does not become a different man." In this play of <i>Othello</i> +the ideas are those that inspire nearly all the plays, that life seeks +to preserve a balance, and that obsessions, which upset the balance, +betray life to evil.</p> + +<p>These ideas are in the earliest work of all, in <i>Venus and Adonis</i>. In +<i>Othello</i> they are expressed with the variety and power of the great +period. The obsession chosen for illustration is that of jealous +suspicion. It is displayed at work in a mean mind and in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> generous +mind. The varying quality of its working makes the action of the play.</p> + +<p>As in <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, the chief character is a man of +intellect who has been warped out of humanity by the world's injustice. +Iago is a man of fine natural intellect who has not been trained in the +personal qualities that bring preferment. An educated man is advanced +above him, as in life it happens. He broods over the injustice and +schemes to be revenged. A groundless suspicion that the Moor has wronged +him further, determines him to be revenged upon his employer as well as +upon his supplanter. A weak intellect who comes to him for help serves +him as a tool. He begins to persuade his employer that the supplanter +and the newly-married wife are lovers.</p> + +<p>He succeeds in this, through his natural adroitness, the working of +chance, and the generosity of Othello, who has too much passion to be +anything but blind under passionate influence like love or jealousy. The +mean man's want of emotion keeps always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> the conduct of the vengeance +precise and clear. Cassio is disgraced. Roderigo, having been fooled to +the top of his bent, is killed. Desdemona is smothered. Othello is +ruined.</p> + +<p>That working of an invisible judge, which we call Chance, "life's +justicer," lays the villainy bare at the instant of its perfection. +Emilia, Iago's wife, a common nature, with no more intelligence than a +want of illusion, enters a moment too late to stay the slaughter, but +too soon for Iago's purpose. She is the one person in the play certain +to be loyal to Desdemona. She is the one person in the play who, judging +from her feelings, will judge rightly. The finest part of the play is +that scene in which her passionate instinct sees through the web woven +about Othello by an intellect that has put aside all that is passionate +and instinctive.</p> + +<p>The influence and importance of the little thing in the great event is +marked in this scene as in half-a-dozen other scenes in the greater +tragedies. We are all or may at any time become immensely important to +the play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> of the world. Had Emilia come a minute sooner or a minute +later the end of the play would have been very different. Desdemona +would have lived to repent her marriage at leisure, or she would have +gone to her grave branded.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare brooded much upon all the tragedies of intellect. In this +play, as in <i>Richard III</i> and <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, he brooded upon +the power of a warped intellect to destroy generous life. When he +created Iago he wrote in a cooler spirit than when he created the +earlier characters. Iago is therefore much more perfectly a living being +but much less passionately alive than the soul burnt out at Bosworth, or +the soul flouted in the Duke's Court. He is drawn with a sharp and wiry +line. Like all sinister men, he tells nothing of himself. We see only +his intellect. What he is in himself is as mysterious as life. Life is +clear, up to a point, but beyond that point it is always baffling. +Shakespeare's task was to look at life clearly. Looking at it clearly he +was as baffled by what he saw, as we, who only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> see by his aid. He found +in Iago an image like life itself, a power and an activity, prompted by +something secret and silent.</p> + +<p>Much ink has been wasted about the "duration of time" in this play. The +action of the play is one. It matters not if the time be divided into +ten or fifty. In London and the University towns where writing is mostly +practised, the play is seldom played. It is almost never played as +Shakespeare meant it to be played. Those who write about it write after +reading it. This is a reading age. Shakespeare's was an active age. That +those who care most for his tragedies should be ignorant of the laws +under which he worked is our misfortune and our fault and our disgrace.</p> + +<p>The point is not insisted on; but some passages in the play suggest that +when Shakespeare began to write it he was minded to make the action the +falling of a judgment upon Desdemona for her treachery to her father. +The treachery caused the old man's death. The too passionate and hasty +things always bring death in these plays. Violent delights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> have violent +ends and bring violent ends to others.</p> + +<p>The poetry of <i>Othello</i> is nearly as well known as that of <i>Hamlet</i>. +Many quotations from the play have passed into the speech of the people. +A play of intrigue does not give the fullest opportunity for great +poetry; but supreme things are spoken throughout the action. Othello's +cry—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"It is the very error of the moon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> She comes more near the earth than she was wont<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And drives men mad,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is one of the most perfect of all the perfect things in the tragedies.</p> + + +<p><i>King Lear.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1605-6.</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1608.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story of Lear is told in Holinshed's +<i>Chronicles</i>, in a play by an unknown hand, <i>The True Chronicle +History of King Leir</i>, and in a few stanzas of the tenth canto of +the second Book of Spenser's <i>Faerie Queene</i>.</p> + +<p>The character of Gloucester seems to have been suggested by the +character of a blind king in Sir Philip Sidney's <i>Arcadia</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> King Lear, in his old age, determines to give up his +kingdom to his three daughters. Before he does so, he tries to +assure himself of their love for him. The two elder women, Goneril +and Regan, vow that they love him intensely; the youngest, +Cordelia, can only tell him that she cares for him as a daughter +should. He curses and casts off Cordelia, who is taken to wife by +the King of France.</p> + +<p>Gloucester, deceived by his bastard Edmund, casts off Edgar his +son.</p> + +<p>King Lear, thwarted and flouted by Goneril and Regan, goes mad, and +wanders away with his Fool. Gloucester, trying to comfort him +against the wishes of Goneril and Regan, is betrayed by his bastard +Edmund, and blinded. He wanders away with Edgar, who has disguised +himself as a madman.</p> + +<p>Regan's husband is killed. Seeking to take Edmund in his stead, she +rouses the jealousy of Goneril, who has already made advances to +him.</p> + +<p>Cordelia lands with French troops to repossess Lear of his kingdom. +She finds Lear, and comforts him. In an engagement with the +sisters' armies, she and Lear are captured.</p> + +<p>Edmund's baseness is exposed. He is attainted and struck down. +Goneril poisons Regan, and kills herself. Edmund, before he dies, +reveals that he has given order for Lear and Cordelia to be killed. +His news comes too late to save Cordelia. She is brought in dead. +Lear dies over her body.</p> + +<p>Albany, Goneril's husband, Kent, Lear's faithful servant, and +Edgar, Edmund's slayer, are left to set the kingdom in order.</p></div> + +<p>The play of <i>King Lear</i> is based upon a fable and a fairy story. It +illustrates the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> most terrible forms of treachery, that of child against +father, and father against child. It is the most affecting and the +grandest of the plays.</p> + +<p>The evil which makes the action springs from two sources, both fatal. +One is the blindness or fatuity in Lear, which makes him give away his +strength and cast out Cordelia. The other, equally deadly, but more +cruel in its results, springs from an unrepented treachery, done long +before by Gloucester, when he broke his marriage vows to beget Edmund. +Memory of the sweetness of that treachery gives to Gloucester a +blindness to the boy's nature, just as a sweetness, or ease, in the +treachery of giving up the cares of kingship (against oath and the +kingdom's good) helps to blind Lear to the natures of his daughters.</p> + +<p>The blindness in the one case is sentimental, in the other wilful. Being +established, fate makes use of it. One of the chief lessons of the plays +is that man is only safe when his mind is perfectly just and calm. Any +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>justice, trouble or hunger in the mind delivers man to powers who +restore calmness and justice by means violent or gentle according to the +strength of the disturbing obsession. This play begins at the moment +when an established blindness in two men is about to become an +instrument of fate for the violent opening of their eyes. The blindness +in both cases is against the course of nature. It is unnatural that Lear +should give his kingship to women, and that he should curse his youngest +child. It is unnatural that Gloucester should make much of a bastard son +whom he has hardly seen for nine years. It is deeply unnatural that both +Lear and Gloucester should believe evil suddenly of the youngest, best +beloved, and most faithful spirits in the play. As the blindness that +causes the injustice is great and unnatural, so the working of fate to +purge the eyes and restore the balance is violent and unnatural. Every +person important to the action is thrust into an unnatural way of life. +Goneril and Regan rule their father, commit the most ghastly and beastly +cruelty, lust<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> after the same man, and die unnaturally (having betrayed +each other), the one by her sister's hand, the other by her own. Lear is +driven mad. The King of France is forced to war with his wife's sisters. +Edmund betrays his half-brother to ruin and his father to blindness. +Cornwall is stabbed by his servant. Edgar kills his half-brother. +Gloucester, thrust out blind, dies when he finds that his wronged son +loves him. Cordelia, fighting against her own blood, is betrayed to +death by one who claims to love her sisters. The honest mild man, +Albany, and the honest blunt man, Kent, survive the general ruin. Had +Kent been a little milder and Albany a little blunter in the first act, +before the fates were given strength, the ruin would not have been. All +the unnatural treacherous evil comes to pass, because for a few fatal +moments they were true to their natures.</p> + +<p>The play is an excessive image of all that was most constant in +Shakespeare's mind. Being an excessive image, it contains matter nowhere +else given. It is all schemed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> controlled with a power that he shows +in no other play, not even in <i>Macbeth</i> and <i>Hamlet</i>. The ideas of the +play occur in many of the plays. Many images, such as the blasted oak, +water in fury, servants insolent and servile, old honest men and young +girls faithful to death, occur in other plays. That which each play +added to the thought of the world is expressed in the single figure of +someone caught in a net. Macbeth is a ruthless man so caught. Hamlet is +a wise man so caught. Othello is a passionate and Antony a glorious man +so caught. All are caught and all are powerless, and all are superb +tragic inventions. King Lear is a grander, ironic invention, who hurts +far more than any of these because he is a horribly strong man who is +powerless. He is so strong that he cannot die. He is so strong that he +nearly breaks the net, before the folds kill him.</p> + +<p>No image in the world is so fierce with imaginative energy. The stormy +soul runs out storming in a night of the soul as mad as the elements. +With him goes the invention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> of the Fool, the horribly faithful fool, +like conscience or worldly wisdom, to flick him mad with ironic comment +and bitter song.</p> + +<p>The verse is as great as the invention. It rises and falls with the +passion like music with singing. All the scale of Shakespeare's art is +used; the terrible spiritual manner of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as well as the instinctive manner of a prose coloured to the height with +all the traditions of country life.</p> + +<p>Dramatic genius has the power of understanding half-a-dozen lives at +once in tense, swiftly changing situations. This power is shown at its +best in the last act of this play. One of the most wonderful and least +praised of the inventions in the last scene is that of the dying Edmund. +He has been treacherous to nearly every person in the play. His last +treachery, indirectly the cause of his ruin, is still in act, the +killing of Cordelia and the king.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> He has been stricken down. "The wheel +has come full circle." He has learned too late that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Make instruments to plague us."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He can hardly hope to live for more than a few minutes. The death of his +last two victims cannot benefit him. A word from him would save them. No +one else can save them. Yet at the last minute, his one little glimmer +of faithfulness keeps the word unspoken. He is silent for Goneril's +sake. If he ever cared for any one in the world, except himself, he may +have cared a little for Goneril. He thinks of her now. She has gone from +him. But she is on his side, and he trusts to her, and acts for her. He +waits for some word or token from her. He waits to see her save him or +avenge him. The death of Lear will benefit her. It will be to her +something saved from the general wreck, something to the good, in the +losing bout. An impulse stirs him to speak, but he puts it by. He keeps +silent about Lear, till one comes saying that Goneril<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> has killed +herself. Still he does not speak. The news pricks the vanity in him. He +strokes his plumes with a tender thought for the brightness of the life +that made two princesses die for love of him. When he speaks of Lear, it +is too late, the little, little instant which alters destiny has passed. +Cordelia is dead. No mist stains the stone. She will come no more—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Never, never, never, never, never."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The heart-breaking scene at the end has been blamed as "too painful for +tragedy." Shakespeare's opinion of what is tragic is worth that of all +his critics together. He gave to every soul in this play an excessive +and terrible vitality. On the excessive terrible soul of Lear he poured +such misery that the cracking of the great heart is a thing of joy, a +relief so fierce that the audience should go out in exultation singing—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"O, our lives' sweetness!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we the pain of death would hourly die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather than die at once!"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Tragedy is a looking at fate for a lesson in deportment on life's +scaffold. If we find the lesson painful, how shall we face the event?</p> + + +<p><i>Macbeth.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1605-6 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Raphael Holinshed tells the story of Macbeth +at length in his <i>Chronicle of Scottish History</i>. He indicates the +character of Lady Macbeth in one line.</p> + +<p>When Shakespeare wrote the play, London was full of Scotchmen, +brought thither by the accession of James I. Little details of the +play may have been gathered in conversation.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Macbeth, advised by witches that he is to be a king, +is persuaded by his wife to kill his sovereign (King Duncan) and +seize the crown. King Duncan, coming to Macbeth's castle for a +night, is there killed by Macbeth and his lady. Duncan's sons fly +to England. Macbeth causes himself to be proclaimed king.</p> + +<p>Being king, he tries to assure himself of power by destroying the +house of Banquo, of whom the witches prophesied that he should be +the father of a line of kings. Banquo is killed; but his son +escapes.</p> + +<p>The witches warn Macbeth to beware of Macduff.</p> + +<p>Macduff escapes to England, but his wife and children are killed by +Macbeth's order.</p> + +<p>Macduff persuades Duncan's son, Malcolm, to attempt the recovery of +the Scottish crown.</p> + +<p>Malcolm and Macduff make the attempt. They attack Macbeth and kill +him.</p></div> + +<p>Macbeth is one of the seven supreme Shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>spearean plays. In the order +of composition it is either the fourth or the fifth of the seven. In +point of merit it is neither greater nor less than the other six. It is +different from them, in that it belongs more wholly to the kingdom of +vision.</p> + +<p>Like most Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth is the tragedy of a man +betrayed by an obsession. Cæsar is betrayed by an obsession of the +desire of glory, Antony by passion, Tarquin by lust, Wolsey by worldly +greed, Coriolanus and Timon by their nobleness, Angelo by his +righteousness, Hamlet by his wisdom. All fail through having some hunger +or quality in excess. Macbeth fails because he interprets with his +worldly mind things spiritually suggested to him. God sends on many men +"strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie." Othello is one such. +Many things betray men. One strong means of delusion is the half-true, +half-wise, half-spiritual thing, so much harder to kill than the lie +direct. The sentimental treacherous things, like women who betray by +arousing pity, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> the dangerous things because their attack is made in +the guise of great things. Tears look like grief, sentiment looks like +love; love feels like nobility; spiritualism seems like revelation.</p> + +<p>Among these things few are stronger than the words spoken in unworldly +states, in trance, in ecstasy, by oracles and diviners, by soothsayers, +by the wholly excited people who are also half sane, by whoever obtains +a half knowledge of the spirit by destruction of intellectual process.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"to win us to our harm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The instruments of darkness tell us truths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Win us with honest trifles, to betray's<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In deepest consequence."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Coming weary and excited from battle, on a day so strange that it adds +to the strangeness of his mood, Macbeth hears the hags hail him with +prophecy. The promise rankles in him. The seed scattered in us by the +beings outside life comes to good or evil according to the sun in us. +Macbeth, looking on the letter of the prophecy, thinks only of the +letter of its fulfilment, till it becomes an obsession with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> him. +Partial fulfilment of the prophecy convinces him that all will be +fulfilled. The belief that the veil over the future has been lifted for +him gives him the recklessness of one bound in the knots of fate. So +often, the thought that the soul is in a trap, playing out something +planned of old, makes man take the frantic way, when the smallest belief +in life would lead to peace. This thought passes through his mind. Then +fear that it is all a contriving of the devils makes him put it manfully +from his mind. The talk about the Cawdor whose place he holds is a +thrust to him. That Cawdor was a traitor who has been put to death for +treachery. The king had an "absolute trust" in him; but there is no +judging by appearances. This glimpse of the ugliness of treachery makes +Macbeth for an instant free of all temptation to it. Then a word stabs +him again to the knowledge that if he take no step the king's young son +will be king after Duncan. Why should the boy rule? From this point he +goes forward, full of all the devils of indecision, but inclining +towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> righteousness, till his wife, girding and railing at him with +definite aim while all his powers are in mutiny, drives him to the act +of murder.</p> + +<p>The story of the double treachery of the killing of a king, who is also +a guest, is so written that we do not feel horror so much as an +unbearable pity for Macbeth's mind. The horror is felt later, when it is +made plain that the treachery does not end with that old man on the bed, +but proceeds in a spreading growth of murder till the man who fought so +knightly at Fife is the haunted awful figure who goes ghastly, killing +men, women and little children, till Scotland is like a grave. At the +end, the "worthy gentleman," "noble Macbeth," having fallen from depth +to depth of degradation, is old, hag-haunted, sick at heart, and weary. +He has no friends. He knows himself silently cursed by every one in his +kingdom. His queen is haunted. There is a curse upon the pair of them. +The birds of murder have come to roost. All that supports him is his +trust in his reading of the words of the hags. He knows himself secure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And you all know security<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Is mortal's chiefest enemy,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He has supped full with horrors. His bloody base mind is all a blur with +gore. But he is resolute in evil still. At the end he sees too late that +he has been tricked by—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"the equivocation of the fiend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lies like truth."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His queen has killed herself. All the welter of murder has been useless. +All that he has done is to damn his soul through the centuries during +which the line of Banquo will reign. He dies with a courage that is half +fury against the fate that has tricked him.</p> + +<p>No play contains greater poetry. There is nothing more intense. The mind +of the man was in the kingdom of vision, hearing a new speech and seeing +what worldly beings do not see, the rush of the powers, and the fury of +elemental passions. No play is so full of an unspeakable splendour of +vision—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"his virtues<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span><span class="i0">"And pity, like a naked new-born babe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Upon the sightless couriers of the air."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And prophesying with accents terrible."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In the great hand of God I stand."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A falcon towering in her pride of place<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and killed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And Duncan's horses—a thing most strange and certain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> War with mankind.<br /></span> +<span class="i10"> 'Tis said they eat each other."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"the time has been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, when the brains were out, the man would die."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>All the splendours and powers of this great play have been praised and +re-praised. Noble inventions, like the knocking on the door and the +mutterings of the hags, have thrilled thousands. One, not less noble, is +less noticed. It is in Act IV, sc. i, Macbeth has just questioned the +hags for the last time. He calls in Lennox, with the words—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"I did hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The galloping of horse: who was't came by?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was the galloping of messengers with the news that Macduff, who is to +be the cause of his ruin, has fled to England. An echo of the galloping +stays in the brain, as though the hoofs of some horse rode the night, +carrying away Macbeth's luck for ever.</p> + + +<p><i>Antony and Cleopatra.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1607-8 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The life of Antonius in Sir Thomas North's +translation of Plutarch's <i>Lives</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Antony, entangled by the wiles of Cleopatra, shakes +himself free so that he may attend to the conduct of the world. He +makes a pact with the young Cæsar, by marrying Cæsar's sister +Octavia. Soon afterwards, being tempted from his wife by Cleopatra, +he falls into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>wars with Cæsar. Being unhappy in his fortune and +deserted by his friends, he kills himself. Cleopatra having lost +her lover, and fearing to be led in triumph by Cæsar, also kills +herself.</p></div> + +<p>In this most noble play, Shakespeare applies to a great subject his +constant idea, that tragedy springs from the treachery caused by some +obsession.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Strange it is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That nature must compel us to lament<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our most persisted deeds."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It cannot be said that the play is greater than the other plays of this +period. It can be said that it is on a greater scale than any other +play. The scene is the Roman world. The men engaged are struggling for +the control of all the power of the world. The private action is played +out before a grand public setting. The wisdom and the beauty of the +poetry answer the greatness of the subject.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's later tragedies, <i>King Lear</i>, <i>Coriolanus</i>, <i>Othello</i>, and +this play differ from some of the early tragedies in that the subject is +not the man of intellect, hounded down by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> the man of affairs, as in +<i>Richard II</i>, <i>Richard III</i>, and <i>Henry IV</i>, but the man of large and +generous nature hounded down by the man of intellect. In all four plays +the destruction of the principal character is brought about partly by a +blindness in a noble nature, but very largely by a cool, resolute, +astute soul who can and does take advantage of the blindness. Edmund, +the tribunes, Iago, and (in this play) Octavius Cæsar are such souls. +All of them profit by the soul they help to destroy. They leave upon the +mind the impression that they have a tact for the gaining of profit from +human frailty. All of them show the basest ingratitude under a +colourable cloak of human excuse.</p> + +<p>The obsession of lust is illustrated in half-a-dozen of Shakespeare's +plays; but in none of them so fully as here. The results of that +obsession in treachery and tragedy brim the great play. Antony is +drunken to destruction with a woman like a raging thirst. A fine stroke +in the creation of the play sweeps him clear of her and offers him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> a +way of life. He uses the moment to get so far from her that his return +to her is a deed of triple treachery to his wife, to Cæsar, and to his +country. His intoxication with the woman degrades him to the condition +of blindness in which the woman-drunken staggers. It is a part of all +drunkenness that the drunkard thinks himself a king, though he looks and +is a sot. Shakespeare's marvellous illustration of this blindness (in +the third act) is seldom praised as it should be. Antony, crushingly +defeated, owing to the treachery of all debauched natures, calls upon +Octavius to meet him in single combat.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"men's judgments are<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do draw the inward quality after them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To suffer all alike."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"when we in our viciousness grow hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O misery on't—the wise gods seel our eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Adore our errors; laugh at's while we strut<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To our confusion."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The cruel bungling suicide which leaves him lingering in dishonour is +one of the saddest things in the plays. This was Antony who ruled once, +this mutterer dying, whom no one loves enough to kill. Once before, in +Shakespeare's vision, he came near death, in the proud scene in the +senate house, before Cæsar's murderers. He was very great and noble +then. Now</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"The star is fall'n<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And time is at his period."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The god Hercules, whom Antony loved,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>has moved away with his hautboys and all comes to dust again.</p> + +<p>The minds of most writers would have been exhausted after the creation +of four such acts. The splendour of Shakespeare's intellectual energy +makes the last act as bright a torch of beauty as the others. The cry—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span><span class="i0"> And make Death proud to take us ...<br /></span> +<span class="i6">.... we have no friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But resolution and the briefest end,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>begins a song of the welcoming of death, unlike anything in the plays. +Shakespeare seldom allows a woman a great, tragical scene. Cleopatra is +the only Shakespearean woman who dies heroically upon the stage. Her +death scene is not the greatest, nor the most terrible, but it is the +most beautiful scene in all the tragedies. The words—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And we are for the dark,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and those most marvellous words, written at one golden time, in a gush +of the spirit, when the man must have been trembling—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"O eastern star!<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Peace, peace!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sucks the nurse asleep?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>are among the most beautiful things ever written by man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>.</p> + + +<p><i>Coriolanus.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1608 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The life of Coriolanus in Sir Thomas North's +translation of Plutarch's <i>Lives</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Marcius, a noble Roman, of an excessive pride, +bitterly opposes the rabble.</p> + +<p>In the war against the Volscians he bears himself so nobly that he +wins the title of Coriolanus. On his return from the wars he seeks +the Consulship, woos the voices of the multitude, is accepted, and +then cast by them. For his angry comment on their behaviour the +tribunes contrive his banishment from the city.</p> + +<p>Being banished, he makes league with the Volscians. He takes +command in the Volscian army and invades Roman territory.</p> + +<p>Coming as a conqueror to the walls of Rome, his mother and wife +persuade him to spare the city. He causes the Volscians to make +peace. The Volscians return home dissatisfied.</p> + +<p>On his return to the Volscian territory Coriolanus is impeached as +a traitor, and stabbed to death by conspirators.</p></div> + +<p>Shakespeare's tragical characters are all destroyed by the excess of +some trait in them, whether good or ill matters nothing. Nature cares +for type, not for the excessive. Sooner or later she checks the +excessive so that the type may be maintained. She is stronger than the +excessive, though she may be baser. To Nature, progress, though it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> be +infinitesimal, must be a progress of the whole mass, not a sudden +darting out of one quality or one member.</p> + +<p>Timon of Athens is betrayed by an excessive generosity. Coriolanus is +betrayed by an excessive contempt for the multitude. He is one born into +a high tradition of life. He has the courage, the skill in arms, and the +talent for affairs that come with high birth in the manly races. He has +also the faith in tradition that makes an unlettered upper class narrow +and obstructionist. Like the rich in France before the Revolution, he +despises the poor. He denies them the right to complain of their hunger. +Rather than grant them that right, or the means of urging redress, he +would take a short way with them, as was practised here, at Manchester +and elsewhere.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And let me use my sword, I'ld make a quarry<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> As I could pick my lance."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Like all conservative, aristocratic men, he sees in the first granting +of political power to the people the beginning of revolution.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"It will in time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Win power upon and throw forth greater themes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For insurrection's arguing."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He regards the people as a necessary, evil-smelling, many-headed beast, +good enough, under the leadership of men like himself, to make inferior +troops to be spent as the State pleases. It is possible that Napoleon +and Bismarck looked upon the mob with similar scorn. The ideas are those +of an absolute monarch or super-man. The country squire holds those +ideas, though want of power and want of intellect combine to keep him +from applying them. The sincerity of the ideas is tested from time to +time, in free countries, by general elections.</p> + +<p>Much of the pride of Coriolanus springs from a sense of his superiority +to others in the gifts of fortune. Much of it comes from the knowledge +that he is superior in himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> Leading, as becomes his birth, in the +war against the Volscians he shows himself so much superior to others +that the campaign is his triumph. He is "the man" whom Napoleon counted +"everything in war." The knowledge of his merit is so bright within +himself that he is unable to see that it is less bright in others. He is +willing to become the head of the State if the post may be given to him +as a right due to merit, not as a favour begged. He has no lust for +power. But knowing himself to be the best man in Rome, he thinks that +his merit is sufficiently great to excuse him from the indignity of +sueing for it. The laws of free countries prescribe that he who wishes +to be elected must appeal to the electors whether he love them or loathe +them. Instead of appealing to them, Coriolanus insults them with such +arrogance that they drive him from the city.</p> + +<p>He fails as a traitor, because he is too noble to be fiercely +revengeful. A lesser man, a Richard III, or an Iago, would have exacted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +a bloody toll from Rome. Coriolanus cannot bring himself to be stern, in +the presence of his old mother and his wife. Something generous and +truly aristocratic in him makes him a second time a traitor, this time +to his hosts the Volscians. He spares Rome by the sacrifice of those who +have given him a shelter and a welcome. Treachery (even from a noble +motive) is never forgiven in these plays. It is always avenged, seldom +mercifully. The Volscians avenge themselves on Coriolanus by an act of +treachery that brings the noble heart under the foot of the traitor.</p> + +<p><i>Coriolanus</i> is one of the greatest of Shakespeare's creations. Much of +the glory of the creation is due to Plutarch. There can be no great art +without great fable. Great art can only exist where great men brood +intensely on something upon which all men brood a little. Without a +popular body of fable there can be no unselfish art in any country. +Shakespeare's art was selfish till he turned to the great tales in the +four most popular books of his time, Holinshed, North's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> Plutarch, +Cinthio, and De Belleforest. Since the newspaper became powerful, topic +has supplanted fable, and subject comes to the artist untrimmed and +unlit by the vitality of many minds. In reading <i>Coriolanus</i> and the +other plays of the great period a man feels that Shakespeare fed his +fire with all that was passionate in the thought about him. He appears +to be his age focussed. The great man now stands outside his age, like +Timon.</p> + +<p><i>Coriolanus</i> is a play of the clash of the aristocratic temper with the +world. It contains most of the few speeches in Shakespeare which ring +with what seems like a personal bitterness. Hatred of the flunkey mind, +and of the servile, insolent mob mind, "false as water," appears in +half-a-dozen passages. Some of these passages are ironic inventions, not +prompted by Plutarch. The great mind, brooding on the many forms of +treachery, found nothing more treacherous than the mob, and nothing more +dog-like, for good or evil, than the servant.</p> + +<p>Greatness is sometimes shown in very little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> things. Few things in +Shakespeare show better the fulness of his happy power than the +following—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +(<i>Corioli. Enter certain Romans with spoils.</i>)<br /> +<br /> +<i>1st Roman.</i> This will I carry to Rome.<br /> +<br /> +<i>2nd Roman.</i> And I this.<br /> +<br /> +<i>3rd Roman.</i> A murrain on't. I took this for silver.<br /> +</div> + + +<p><i>Timon of Athens.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1606-8 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>. 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> William Paynter's <i>Palace of Pleasure</i>. +Plutarch's <i>Life of Antonius</i>. Lucian's <i>Dialogue</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Timon of Athens, a wealthy, over-generous man, gives +to his friends so lavishly that he ruins himself. He finds none +grateful for his bounty. In his ruin all his friends desert him. +None of them will lend to him or help him. He falls into a loathing +of the world and retires to die alone. Alcibiades of Athens, +finding a like ingratitude in the State, openly makes war upon it, +reduces it to his own terms, and rules it. He finds Timon dead.</p></div> + +<p><i>Timon of Athens</i> is a play of mixed authorship. Shakespeare's share in +it is large and unmistakable; but much of it was written by an unknown +poet of whom we can decipher this, that he was a man of genius, a +skilled writer for the stage, and of a marked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> personality. It cannot +now be known how the collaboration was arranged. Either the unknown +collaborated with Shakespeare, or the unknown wrote the play and +Shakespeare revised it.</p> + +<p>Ingratitude is one of the commonest forms of treachery. It is the form +that leads most quickly to the putting back of the world, because it +destroys generosity of mind. It creates in man the bitter and +destructive quality of misanthropy, or a destroying passion of revenge. +In this play the two authors show the different ways in which the human +mind may be turned to those bitter passions.</p> + +<p>Apemantus is currish, because others are not. He has wit without +charity. Alcibiades makes war on his city because others have not the +rough-and-ready large practical justice of men used to knocks. He has a +large good humour without idealism. Timon, the great-natured, truly +generous man, whose mind is as beneficial as the sun, cannot be currish, +nor stoop to the baseness of revenge. Finding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> men base, he removes +himself from them, and ministers with bitter contempt to the baseness +that infects them. The flaming out of his anger against whatever is +parasitic in life makes the action of the last two acts. The exhibition +of the baseness of parasites and of the wrath of a noble mind +embittered, is contrived, varied and heightened with intense dramatic +energy. The character of Flavius, Timon's steward, his only friend, +shows again, as in so many of the plays, Shakespeare's deep sense of the +noble generosity in faithful service.</p> + +<p>Some think the play gloomy, others that it is autobiography. +Shakespeare's completed work is never gloomy. A great mind working with +such a glory of energy cannot be gloomy. This generation is gloomy and +unimaginative in its conception of art. Shakespeare, reading the story +of Timon, saw in him an image of tragic destiny that would flood the +heart of even an ingrate with pity. Great poets have something more +difficult and more noble to do than to pin their hearts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> on their +sleeves for daws to peck at. Shakespeare wrought the figure of Timon +with as grave justice as he wrought Alcibiades. He wrought both from +something feeling within himself, as he wrought Cleopatra, and Macbeth, +and Sir Toby Belch. They are as much autobiographical, and as little, as +the hundred other passionate moods that built up the system of his soul.</p> + +<p>The poetry of the play is that of the great late manner—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"will these moss'd trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And skip when thou point'st out?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come not to me again: but say to Athens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Timon hath made his everlasting mansion<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Upon the beached verge of the salt flood:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Who, once a day with his embossed froth<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The turbulent surge shall cover."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The final speech, spoken by Alcibiades after he has read the epitaph, +with which Timon goes down to death, like some hurt thing shrinking even +from the thought of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> passers, is one of the most lovely examples of the +power and variety of blank verse as a form of dramatic speech.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Alcib.</i> (reading) <i>Pass by and curse thy fill; +but pass, and stay not here thy gait.</i></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These well express in thee thy latter spirits:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scorned'st our brain's flow and those our droplets which<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is noble Timon: of whose memory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will use the olive with my sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prescribe to other as each other's leech.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let our drums strike.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>Pericles, Prince of Tyre.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1607-8 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published.</i> 1608.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The plot is taken from an English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>prose +version of a Latin translation of a fifth century Greek romance. +This version was published by Lawrence Twine, in the year 1576, +under the name of <i>The Patterne of Paynfull Adventures</i> (etc., +etc.). It was reprinted in 1607. An adaptation from the Latin story +was made by John Gower for the eighth book of his <i>Confessio +Amantis</i>. This adaptation was known to the authors of the play.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Act I. Pericles, Prince of Tyre, comes to Antioch to +guess a riddle propounded by the King. If he guess rightly, he will +be rewarded by the hand of the Princess in marriage. If he guess +wrongly, he will be put to death. The riddle teaches him that the +Princess is living incestuously with her father. He flies from +Antioch to Tyre, and there takes ship to avoid the King's +vengeance. Coming to Tarsus he relieves a famine by gifts of corn.</p> + +<p>Act II. He is wrecked near Pentapolis, recovers his armour, goes +jousting at the King's court, wins the King's daughter Thaisa, and +marries her.</p> + +<p>Act III. While bound for Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter, +dies, and is thrown overboard. The body drifts ashore at Ephesus, +and is restored to life by a physician. Thaisa, thinking Pericles +dead, becomes a votaress at Diana's temple. Pericles leaves Marina, +the newly born babe, in the care of the King and Queen of Tarsus. +He then returns to Tyre.</p> + +<p>Act IV. The years pass. Marina grows up to such beauty and charm +that she passes the Queen of Tarsus' own daughter. The Queen, +deeply jealous for her own child, hires a murderer to kill Marina. +Pirates surprise him in the act and carry off Marina to a brothel +in Mitylene, from which she escapes. She becomes a singer and +musician.</p> + +<p>Act V. Pericles, wandering, by sea, to Mitylene, in great +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>melancholy for the loss of wife and child, hears Marina sing. He +learns that she is his daughter. The goddess Diana bids him go to +her temple at Ephesus. He goes, and finds Thaisa. The play ends +happily with the reuniting of the family.</p></div> + +<p>The acts are opened by rhyming prologues designed to be spoken by John +Gower. The prologues to each of the three first acts are followed by +Dumb Shows, an invention of the theatre to explain those things not +easily to be shown in action. The prologues, the invention of the dumb +shows, and the first two acts, are not by Shakespeare. They are like the +poetical work of George Wilkins, who published a prose romance of <i>The +Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre</i> in the year 1608, +probably after the play had been produced.</p> + +<p>The construction of the last three acts makes it likely that the play +(in its original state) was by the constructor of the first two acts. It +is not known how it came to pass that Shakespeare took the play in hand. +From the comparative feebleness of his work upon it, it may be judged +that it was not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> labour of love. The impression given is that nothing +in the piece is wrought with more than the mechanical power of the great +mind, that Shakespeare was not deeply interested in the play, but that +he re-wrote the last three acts so that his company might play the piece +and make money by it. The play has often succeeded on the stage, and the +knowledge that it would succeed may have weighed with the manager of a +theatre on which many depended for bread.</p> + +<p>There is little that is precious in the play. The scenes in the brothel +at Mitylene (in Act IV) have power. Many find their unpleasantness an +excuse for saying that Shakespeare never wrote them. They are certainly +by Shakespeare. Cant would always persuade itself that the power to see +clearly ought not to be turned upon evil. Those who can read—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Bawd.</i> ... they are so pitifully sodden.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Pandar.</i> ... The poor Transylvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Boult.</i> Ay ... she made him roast-meat for worms—<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>with disgust at Shakespeare's foulness, yet without horror of heart that +the evil still goes on among human beings, must be strangely made. These +scenes, the very vigorous sea scenes, including the account of the storm +at sea, put into the mouth of Marina—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My father, as nurse said, did never fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But cried 'Good seamen!' to the sailors, galling<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> His kingly hands, haling ropes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That almost burst the deck....<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Never was waves nor wind more violent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And from the ladder-tackle washes off<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> A canvas-climber. 'Ha,' says one, 'wilt out?'<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And with a dropping industry they skip<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> From stem to stern; the boatswain whistles, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The master calls and trebles their confusion"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and the scene in which Cerimon, the man withdrawn from the world to +study the bettering of man, revives the body of Thaisa, are the most +lovely things in the play.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + + +<p><i>Cymbeline.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i> tell of Cymbeline +and the Roman invasion. A story in Boccaccio's <i>Decameron</i> (giorn. +2, nov. ix) retold in English in Kinde Kit's <i>Westward for Smelts</i>, +and popular in many forms and many literatures, tells of the woman +falsely accused of adultery.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Cymbeline, King of Britain, has lost his two sons. His +only remaining child, a daughter named Imogen, is married to +Posthumus. His second wife, a cruel and scheming woman, plots to +destroy Posthumus so that her son, the boorish Cloten, may marry +Imogen.</p> + +<p>Posthumus in Rome wagers with Iachimo that Imogen is of an +incomparable chastity. Iachimo comes to England, and by a trick +obtains evidence that convinces Posthumus that Imogen is unchaste. +Imogen, cast off by her husband, comes to the mountains where +Belarius rears Cymbeline's two lost sons. Cloten, pursuing her, is +killed by one of the sons.</p> + +<p>The Romans land to exact tribute. The valour of Belarius and the +two boys obtains a British victory. The Romans are vanquished. +Cymbeline's queen kills herself. Posthumus is taught that Iachimo +deceived him. Imogen is restored to him. The lost sons are restored +to Cymbeline. Prophecy is fulfilled and pardon given. All ends +happily.</p></div> + +<p>It seems possible that Cymbeline was begun as a tragedy during the great +mood of tragical creation, then laid aside unfinished, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> some +failure in the vision, or change in the creative mood, and brought to an +end later in a new spirit, perhaps in another place, in the country, +away from the life which makes writing alive. It is the least perfect of +the later plays. The least soft of Shakespeare's critics calls it +"unresisting imbecility." It is perhaps the first composed of the +romantic plays with which Shakespeare ended his life's work.</p> + +<p>Though the writing is so careless and the construction so loose that no +one can think of it as a finished play, it has dramatic scenes, one +faultless lyric, and many marks of beauty. It deals with the +Shakespearean subject of craft working upon a want of faith for personal +ends, and being defeated, when almost successful, by something simple +and instinctive in human nature. It is thus not unlike <i>Othello</i>; but in +<i>Othello</i> the subject is simple, and the treatment purely tragic. In +<i>Cymbeline</i> the subject is only partly extricated, and the treatment is +coloured with romance, with that strange, touching, very Shakespearean +romance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> of the thing long lost beautifully recovered before the end, +so that the last years of the chief man in the play may be happy and +complete. The end of life would be as happy as the beginning if the dead +might be given back to us. Shakespeare had lost a child.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that when the play was first conceived, the craft +of the queen, working upon the insufficient faith of Cymbeline, was +designed to be as important to the action as the craft of Iachimo +working upon the insufficient faith of Posthumus. This was never wrought +out. The play advances and halts. As in all unfinished works of art one +sees in it something fine trying to get free but failing.</p> + +<p>The lyric "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" is the most lovely thing in +the play. The most powerful moment is that which exposes the poisoning +of a generous mind by false report. Posthumus believes Iachimo's lie and +breaks out railing against women.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"For there's no motion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That tends to vice in man but I affirm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is the woman's part."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Noble instants are marked in the lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Be not, as in our fangled world, a garment<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Nobler than that it covers,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and in the symbol of the eagle—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"the Roman eagle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From south to west on wing soaring aloft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lessen'd herself and in the beams o' the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So vanished."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><i>The Winter's Tale.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1610-11.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> The story appears in Robert Greene's romance +of <i>Pandosto</i>. Shakespeare greatly improves the fable by completing +it. Greene ends it. Greene makes the story an accident with an +unhappy end. Shakespeare makes it a vision of the working of fate +with the tools of human passion.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Leontes, King of Sicilia, suspecting that his wife +Hermione is guilty of adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia, +tries her on that count. He causes her daughter to be carried to a +desert place and there exposed.</p> + +<p>The oracle of Apollo declares to him that Hermione is innocent, +that he himself is a jealous tyrant, and that he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>will die without +an heir should he fail to recover the daughter lost. The truth of +the oracle is confirmed by the (apparent) death of Hermione and the +real death of Mamillius, his son. Repenting bitterly of his +obsession of jealousy he goes into mourning.</p> + +<p>The little daughter is found by country people who nourish and +cherish her. She grows up to beautiful and gracious girlhood. +Florizel, the son of Polixenes, falls in love with her, and seeks +to marry her without his father's knowledge. Being discovered by +Polixenes, he flies with her to the sea. Taking ship, the couple +come to Leontes' court, where it is proved that the girl is the +lost princess. She is married to Florizel. Leontes is reconciled to +Polixenes. Hermione completes the general happiness by rejoining +the husband who has so long mourned her.</p></div> + +<p>Dr. Simon Forman, the first critic of this play, made note to "remember" +two things in it, "how he sent to the orakell of Appollo," and "also the +rog that cam in all tottered like Coll Pipci." He drew from it this +moral lesson, that one should "Beware of trustinge feined beggars or +fawninge fellouse."</p> + +<p>The moral lesson is still of value to the world, and it is most +certainly one which Shakespeare strove to impress. Shakespeare's mind +was always brooding on the working of fate. He was always watching the +results of some obsession upon an individual and the people con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>nected +with him. He saw that a blindness falling upon a person suddenly, for no +apparent reason, except that something strikes the something not quite +sound in the nature, has the power to alter life violently. It was his +belief that life must not be altered violently. Life is a thing of +infinitely gradual growth, that would perfect itself if the blindness +could be kept away. Any deceiving thing, like a passion or a feigned +beggar, is a cause of the putting back of life, indefinitely.</p> + +<p>In this play, he followed his usual practice, of showing the results of +a human blindness upon human destiny. The greater plays are studies of +treachery and self-betrayal. This play is a study of deceit and +self-deception. Leontes is deceived by his obsession, Polixenes by his +son, the country man by Autolycus, life, throughout, by art. In the last +great scene, life is mistaken for art. In the first great scene a true +friendship is mistaken for a false love.</p> + +<p>It may be called the gentlest of Shakespeare's plays. It is done with a +tenderer hand than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> the other works. The name, <i>A Winter's Tale</i>, is +taken from a scene in the second act. Hermione sits down with her son, +by the winter fire, to listen to his story. It is the last time she ever +sees her son. He has hardly opened his lips when Leontes enters to +accuse her of adultery. She is hurried off to prison, and Mamillius dies +before the oracle's message comes to clear her. The sudden shocks and +interruptions of life, which play so big a part in the action of these +late romances, have full power here. The winter's tale is interrupted. +The rest of the play results from the interruption. Much of it is very +beautiful. To us, the wonderful thing is the strangeness of the +tenderness which makes some scenes in the fifth act so passionate with +grief for old injustice done to the dead. The cry of Leontes remembering +the wronged dead woman's eyes—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"Stars, stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all eyes else dead coals,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is haunting and heart-breaking. All his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> longing of remorse gives to the +last great scene, before the supposed statue, an intensity of beauty +hardly endurable.</p> + +<p>The passion of remorse is a romantic, not a tragic passion. It is the +mood which follows the tragic mood. Shakespeare's creative life is like +a Shakespearean play. It ends with an easing of the strain and a making +of peace.</p> + +<p>It is said that an old horse near to death turns towards the pastures +where he was foaled. It is true of human beings. Man wanders home to the +fields which bred him. A part of the romance of this poem is the turning +back of the poet's mind to the Cotswold country, of which he sang so +magically, in his first play, sixteen or eighteen years before. There +are fine scenes of shepherds at home, among the sheep bells and clean +wind. There is a very lovely talk of flowers—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"daffodils,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That come before the swallow dares, and take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span><span class="i0">But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That die unmarried, ere they can behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bright Phœbus in his strength."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To Shakespeare, the magically happy man, the going back to them must +have been a time for thanksgiving. But to the supremely happy man all +times are times of thanksgiving, deep, tranquil and abundant, for the +delight, the majesty and the beauty of the fulness of the rolling world.</p> + + +<p><i>The Tempest.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1610-11.</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> It is likely that many sources contributed to +the making of this plot. If Shakespeare took the fable from a +single source, that source is not now known. He may have taken +suggestions for it from the following books:—</p> + +<p>1st. From a little collection of novels by Antonio de Eslava, a +Spanish writer, whose book, <i>Noches de Invierno</i>, was published in +Barcelona in 1609. Three tales in this collection seem to have +given hints for the play. The fourth chapter, about "The Art Magic +of King Dardano," helped him more than the others. Whether the +title of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>the book suggested the title of <i>A Winter's Tale</i> is not +known.</p> + +<p>2nd. From a German play, <i>Die schöne Sidea</i>, by a Nuremberg +dramatist, named Jacob Ayrer.</p> + +<p>3rd. From the tracts relating to the discovery of the Bermuda +Islands in 1609. Of the known tracts, <i>A Discovery of the Bermuda +Islands</i>, by Sylvester Jourdain, gave Shakespeare the most hints.</p> + +<p>Several other books may have suggested lines and passages.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Prospero, Duke of Milan, having been driven from his +dukedom by Antonio his brother, flies to sea with his daughter +Miranda, lands on an island, and there lives, served by two +creatures, one an airy spirit, the other a loutish monster.</p> + +<p>By art magic, he brings to the island his usurping brother and the +king and heir of Naples. Miranda falls in love with the heir of +Naples. Prospero dismisses his spirits, reconciles himself with his +brother, and plans to sail at once for Milan.</p></div> + +<p>In this play, as in the two other original romantic plays, Shakespeare +follows the workings of a treacherous act from its performance to the +repentance of the sinner and the granting of the victim's forgiveness. +In the great plays the victim dies and the sinner does not repent. +Presently the wheel comes full circle, and a justice from outside life +smites him dead. In these plays the betrayed live to forgive the +traitors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Do I take part. The rarer action is<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> The sole drift of my purpose doth extend<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Not a frown further."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In this play, as in the other two and in <i>Pericles</i>, much is made of the +chances and accidents of life, and of the sudden changes of worldly +circumstance due to them. In this play, for the first and last time, +Shakespeare treats of the power of the resolved imagination to command +the brutish, the base, the noble and the spiritual for wise human ends.</p> + +<p>It is easy to interpret the play as allegory. Youth in this country has +reason to regard allegory as a clumsy man's way of introducing Sunday on +a weekday. It is so seldom successful that it may be called the literary +method of creative minds below the first rank. Shakespeare's method was +never allegorical. The <i>Tempest</i> is perhaps no more allegorical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> than +any other good romance. But the thought of it is so clear that the first +impression given is that it is thin. It is the study of a man of +intellect, who has been forced from power by a treacherous brother. +Living alone with his bright, unspoiled daughter, he attains, by +intellectual labour, to a power over destiny. Like the wise man of the +proverb, he learns to master his stars. He uses this power nobly to put +an end to ancient hatred and old injustice.</p> + +<p>The minor vision of the play is a study, often very amusing, but deeply +earnest, of the coming of the fifth part civilised to the mostly brutal. +In Shakespeare's time, men like the quite thoughtless and callous +Stephano and Trinculo, the "sea-dogs" who manned our ships, and of whom +Raleigh wrote that it was an offence to God to minister oaths to the +generality of them, were "spreading civilisation" in various parts of +the world. Shakespeare, looking at them gravely, saw them to be, +perhaps, more dangerous to the needs of life, to wisdom, and to unlit +animal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> strength than the base Sebastian and the treacherous Antonio.</p> + +<p>The exquisite lyrics, and the masque of the goddesses, show that the +taste of the audience of 1610-11 needed to be tickled. Times had changed +since the lion-like and ramping days, eighteen years before, when +"Jeronimy" was a new word, and Tamora a serious invention. The man who +had changed the times was thinking, like Prospero, that he had "got his +dukedom," and that now, having "pardoned the deceiver," he might go to +Stratford to enjoy it.</p> + + +<p><i>King Henry VIII</i>, or <i>All is True</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Written.</i> 1611-13 (?)</p> + +<p><i>Produced.</i> (?)</p> + +<p><i>Published</i>, in the first folio, 1623.</p> + +<p><i>Source of the Plot.</i> Holinshed's <i>Chronicles</i>. Hall's +<i>Chronicles</i>. Foxe's <i>Book of Martyrs</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Fable.</i> Act I. Two of the scenes in this act are by +Shakespeare. In the first, Cardinal Wolsey contrives the attainting +of his enemy, the Duke of Buckingham. In the other he procures to +bring Queen Katharine into disfavour.</p> + +<p>Act II. In this act, Buckingham is beheaded, the King <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>shows favour +to Anne Bullen, and Queen Katharine is brought to trial. It is hard +to believe that Shakespeare wrote any part of this act. He is often +credited with the third scene, apparently on the ground that though +it is bad it is still too good to be by Bacon.</p> + +<p>Act III. In this act, the King shows Wolsey that he has discovered +his plottings. About half of the second scene (all the masculine +part of it) is by Shakespeare. The rest (very beautiful) is by +Fletcher.</p> + +<p>Act IV. Anne Bullen is crowned. Wolsey dies. Queen Katharine dies. +None of this act is by Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>Act V. Cranmer escapes from his enemies in time to be godfather at +the christening of Anne Bullen's daughter Elizabeth. If any of this +act be by Shakespeare it can only be the first scene.</p></div> + +<p>Little of this play is by Shakespeare. The greater part of it is by John +Fletcher. Some scenes bear the marks of a third hand, like that of +Philip Massinger. The play reads as though the two lesser poets had +worked from a scenario of Shakespeare's less complete than the draft of +<i>Troilus and Cressida</i>. It is certain that they received no hint of the +lines on which Shakespeare meant to proceed after the end of Act III. +Not knowing what to do, they patched up a piece without any central +tragical idea, and hid their want of thought with much effective +theatrical invention,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> pageants, a trial, a coronation, a christening, +etc., and with bright, facile, vinous dialogue, of the kind that will +hold an uncritical audience. The play, when done, was mounted with +extreme splendour at the Globe Theatre. Wadding from the cannons +discharged in the first act set fire to the theatre, and burned it to +the ground, June 29, 1613.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's dramatic intention is indicated in the scenes written by +him. Knowing his practice, and having before us Holinshed, his +authority, it is easy to sketch out the kind of play that he would have +written by himself. Wolsey, eaten up by his obsession for worldly power, +betraying Buckingham to his fall, breaking the power of the Queen, and +ruling England, would have filled the first two acts. The third act +would have told (much more subtly than Fletcher has told) of his +downfall. Fletcher attributes the downfall to the chance discovery of +his attempt to thwart the king's marriage with Anne Bullen. That +discovery would have been put to full dramatic use by Shakespeare; but +it would have been repre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>sented as something working from beyond the +grave, the result of many unjust acts that have cried to God for justice +till God hears. The last acts would have exposed other sides of Wolsey's +character. The play would have been a fuller, nobler work than <i>Richard +II</i>, and of an ampler canvas than <i>Timon</i>. Shakespeare's share in the +play as we have it is all noble work. Wolsey, Katharine and the King are +drawn with the great, sharp, ample line of a master. The difference +between genius and supreme genius is shown very clearly in the first +act, where a great work, greatly begun, with the masterly power of +exposition that makes Shakespeare's first acts like daybreaks, is ended +by another spirit, without vision, but with a tremendous sense of Vanity +Fair.</p> + + +<p>WORK ATTRIBUTED TO SHAKESPEARE</p> + +<p>A play called <i>Cardenno</i>, or <i>Cardenna</i>, was acted at Court by +Shakespeare's company in 1613. It is thought that this play was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +<i>History of Cardenio</i>, described as "by Fletcher and Shakespeare," which +was licensed for publication in 1653 but never published. The play is +now lost. It was attributed to Fletcher and Shakespeare on very poor +authority.</p> + +<p><i>Arden of Feversham</i> is a domestic tragedy founded on a story told by +Holinshed. It was published anonymously in 1592. It is held by some to +be an early work of Shakespeare's, on the ground that no other known +poet, then living, could have written it. It is a strong play, but it is +the work of a joyless mind. It bears no single trace of Shakespeare's +mind. It could not have been written by him at any stage in his career.</p> + +<p><i>Edward III</i> is an historical chronicle play by at least two unknown +hands. It was published anonymously in 1596. Some think that part of Act +I and the whole of Act II (dealing with the King's obsession of passion +for the Countess of Salisbury) were by Shakespeare, on the grounds that +the writing is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> too good to be by anybody else then living, and that the +unknown author makes use of a line and a phrase which occur in the +genuine sonnets of Shakespeare. The scenes attributed to Shakespeare +contain several beautiful lines in something of the Shakespearean +manner. The construction of the scenes, and their relation to the rest +of the play is un-Shakespearean. It is unlikely that Shakespeare wrote +them.</p> + +<p><i>The Spanish Tragedy</i>, a play by Thomas Kyd, published in 1592 and +reprinted with many additions ten years later, contains in the additions +several magnificent scenes of the passion of grief raised to madness. +Some think that Ben Jonson wrote these scenes; others, that they are too +good to be by any one but Shakespeare. They are not like Shakespeare's +work.</p> + +<p><i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, a romantic tragedy on the subject of Chaucer's +<i>Knight's Tale</i>, was first published in 1634. It was described on the +title-page as the joint work of Fletcher and Shakespeare. Shakespeare's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +hand is plainly marked upon the play; but it seems likely that most of +the scenes usually credited to him are by Massinger. Few can have ears +dull enough to credit Shakespeare with all the scenes that are plainly +not by Fletcher.</p> + +<p>About a dozen other plays and parts of plays have been attributed to +Shakespeare, either by lying publishers, anxious to make money, or by +foolish critics eager to make a noise. "Evil men understand not +judgment: and he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." +There is not a glimmer of evidence in any line or scene to show that +Shakespeare had a hand in any of them.</p> + + +<p>THE POEMS</p> + +<p><i>Venus and Adonis.</i>—This poem was published in 1593 with a dedication +to the Earl of Southampton, then a youth. In the dedication Shakespeare +speaks of the poem as "the first heire of my invention," from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> which +some conclude that it was the first poem ever made public by him.</p> + +<p>Though it may be his earliest poem, the thought expressed by it is the +thought expressed in the greatest of the plays, that evil comes of +obsession.</p> + +<p>Venus, a lustful woman, pursuing her opposite, a chaste youth, comes to +misery. Adonis, a chaste youth, fleeing from her, comes to death.</p> + +<p>The poem is beautiful and wild blooded. It is fierce with the excelling +animal zest of something young and untainted.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The sun ariseth in his majesty<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Who doth the world so gloriously behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is full of the images of delicate quick-blooded things going swiftly +and lustily from the boiling of the April in them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><i>The Rape of Lucrece.</i>—This poem was published in 1594, with a +dedication to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> Earl of Southampton. Like so many of the works of +Shakespeare, it describes at length the prompting, acting, and results +of a treachery inspired by an obsession. Tarquin, hearing of Lucrece's +chastity, longs to attempt her. Coming stealthily to her home, in her +lord's absence, he foully ravishes her. She kills herself and he is +banished from Rome. The subject is not unlike that of <i>Venus and +Adonis</i>, with the sexes reversed. In both poems the subject is sexual +obsession and its results.</p> + +<p><i>Lucrece</i> is a wiser and a finer poem than <i>Venus and Adonis</i>. It is +constructed with the art of a man familiar with the theatre. The +delaying of the great moments so as to heighten the expectation, is +contrived with rapturous energy. The poem is heaped and overflowing with +the abundance of imaginative power. The wealth of the young man's mind +is poured out like life in June.</p> + +<p>It is strange that both Lucrece and Hamlet, in their moments of +distraction, turn to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> image of Troy blazing with the punishment of +treachery.</p> + +<p><i>The Passionate Pilgrim.</i>—This little collection of poems was published +in 1599, under Shakespeare's name, by William Jaggard, a dishonest +bookseller. It contains poems by Richard Barnfield, Bartholomew Griffin, +Christopher Marlowe, and one or more unknown hands. It also contains two +genuine Shakespearean sonnets, three more from the text of <i>Love's +Labour's Lost</i>, and three (less certainly his) on the subject of <i>Venus +and Adonis</i>, which have the ring of his freshest youthful manner. +Whether any others in the collection be by Shakespeare can only be a +matter of opinion. The nineteenth poem has a smack of his mind about it. +If it be by him it must be his earliest extant work.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><i>The Sonnets.</i>—<i>Written</i> between 1592 and 1609. <i>Published</i> +(piratically) 1609.</p> + +<p>These personal poems have puzzled many readers. Many writers have tried +to interpret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> them. Although their first editor tells us that they are +"serene, cleare, and elegantlie plaine (with) no intricate and cloudie +stuffe to trouble and perplex the intellect," much good and bad brain +work has been spent on them. Some have held that they are poetical +exercises. Others find that they are confessions. Others wrest from dark +lines dark meanings, till they have laid bare a story from them. Others +interpret spiritually. Others find evidence in them that Shakespeare was +guilty of an abnormal form of passion. The facts about them may be +stated—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. They are personal poems. Some of them are of great beauty; +others are unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>2. They were written in many moods. Some were written in a mood of +the intensest tranquil ecstasy, others in a fit of earthly passion, +others in a trivial mood.</p> + +<p>3. They were written to more than one person. Many were written to +an attractive, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>handsome, young, unmarried man, Shakespeare's dear +friend. Men with imagination enjoy sweeter and closer friendships +than the many know. The many, mulish as ever, therefore imagine +evil.</p> + +<p>4. Some of the sonnets were written to a woman, of the kind +described in two or three of the plays, viz. a black-haired, +black-eyed, white-faced, witty wanton, false to her marriage vows +and the cause of similar falseness in Shakespeare himself, and in +his friend.</p> + +<p>5. Many of them show that Shakespeare, loving this woman, against +his better nature, was wilfully betrayed by her to all the devils +of jealousy, craving and self-loathing, which follow the banner of +lechery. Among the objects of the jealousy another poet figured.</p></div> + +<p>No one knows who the friend, the lady and the rival poet were. The +discovery of letters and manuscripts may some day remove the mystery. +"Against that time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> if ever that time come," men of intellect would do +well to accept the sonnets as beautiful poems, and try to write as good +ones to their wives.</p> + +<p>Beautiful as many of the sonnets are, they are less wonderful +achievements and less important to the soul of man than the plays. Few +people thought much of them until the degradation of the English theatre +had hidden from English minds the greater glory of the creative system. +That they are now widely read while the plays are seldom acted, is +another proof that this age cares more for what was perishing and +personal in Shakespeare than for that which went winging on, in the +great light, surveying the eternal in man.</p> + +<p>What Shakespeare thought of his perishing self is expressed in the +noblest of the sonnets. Two syllables are missing from the second line.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> ( ) these rebel powers that thee array,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span><span class="i0"> Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Why so large cost, having so short a lease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And let that pine to aggravate thy store;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Buy terms divine with selling hours of dross;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Within be fed, without be rich no more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> And Death once dead, there's no more dying then."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The sonnets were piratically published in a quarto volume in 1609. At +the end of the volume a narrative poem was printed, under the name <i>A +Lover's Complaint</i>. It tells in the first person the story of a girl who +has been seduced by a plausible villain. It is a work of Shakespeare's +youth, fresh and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> felicitous as youth's work often is, and very nearly +as empty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><i>The Phœnix and The Turtle.</i>—This strange, very beautiful poem was +published in 1601 in an appendix to Robert Chester's <i>Love's Martyr, or +Rosalin's Complaint</i>, to which several famous poets contributed. In dark +and noble verse it describes a spiritual marriage, suddenly ended by +death. It is too strange to be the fruit of a human sorrow. It is the +work of a great mind trying to express in unusual symbols a thought too +subtle and too intense to be expressed in any other way. Spiritual +ecstasy is the only key to work of this kind. To the reader without that +key it can only be so many strange words set in a noble rhythm for no +apparent cause.</p> + +<p>Poetry moves in many ways. It may glorify and make spiritual some action +of man, or it may give to thoughts such life as thoughts can have, an +intenser and stranger life than man knows, with forms that are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> not +human and a speech unintelligible to normal human moods. This poem gives +to a flock of thoughts about the passing of truth and beauty the mystery +and vitality of birds, who come from a far country, to fill the mind +with their crying.</p> + + +<p>AUTHOR'S NOTE</p> + +<p>Shakespeare's plays were printed carelessly, often from imperfect, torn, +ill-written or stolen copies. When printed, they were seldom corrected. +When reprinted, the original errors were often made much worse. Thus, +"he met the night-mare," or "a met the night-mare," in the original +manuscript, was printed "a nellthu night more," and reprinted "anelthu +night Moore." Those who lightly read the modern editions seldom know +that years of mental toil went to the preparation of the texts so easily +read to-day.</p> + +<p>Many English minds have paid tribute to Shakespeare. Few of them deserve +more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> praise than the Cambridge Editors, whose six years of labour +cleared the text of countless errors and corruptions. The correction of +a corrupt text by collation and conjecture, is one of the most difficult +and least amusing tasks that a fine mind can have. The Cambridge +<i>Shakespeare</i>, the work of William George Clark and Dr. William Aldis +Wright, gives a text not likely to be improved until the poet's +corrected manuscripts are found.</p> + +<p>The <i>Life of William Shakespeare</i> has been ably written by Dr. Sidney +Lee, whose judgment equals his learning.</p> + +<p>Some of the dramatic methods of Shakespeare have been nobly studied by +Dr. A. C. Bradley in his <i>Shakespearean Tragedy</i>.</p> + +<p>To these books and to the Shakespearean Essays in Mr. W. B. Yeats's +<i>Ideas of Good and Evil</i>, I am deeply indebted, as all modern students +of Shakespeare must be.</p> + +<p>Our knowledge of Shakespeare is imperfect. It can only be increased by +minute and patient study, by the rejection of surmise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> about him, and by +the constant public playing of his plays, in the Shakespearean manner, +by actors who will neither mutilate nor distort what the great mind +strove to make just.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX_OF_CHARACTERS" id="INDEX_OF_CHARACTERS"></a>INDEX OF CHARACTERS</h2> + + +<p> +Achilles, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a><br /> +<br /> +Adonis, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a><br /> +<br /> +Adriana, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="corr3" id="corr3"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn3" title="changed from 'Ægon'">Ægeon</a>, +<a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a><br /> +<br /> +Aguecheek, Sir Andrew, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a><br /> +<br /> +Ajax, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a><br /> +<br /> +Albany, Duke of, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br /> +<br /> +Alcibiades, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a><br /> +<br /> +Angelo, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a><br /> +<br /> +Anne Bullen, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a><br /> +<br /> +Anne, Lady, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a><br /> +<br /> +Antipholus of Ephesus, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a><br /> +<br /> +Antipholus of Syracuse, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a><br /> +<br /> +Antonio (<i>Merchant of Venice</i>), <a href='#Page_103'>103</a><br /> +<br /> +Antonio (<i>Tempest</i>), <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a><br /> +<br /> +Antonio (<i>Two Gentlemen of Verona</i>), <a href='#Page_34'>34</a><br /> +<br /> +Apemantus, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a><br /> +<br /> +Armado, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a><br /> +<br /> +Arthur, Prince, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a><br /> +<br /> +Audrey, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br /> +<br /> +Austria, Lymoges, Duke of, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a><br /> +<br /> +Autolycus, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Banquo, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br /> +<br /> +Bardolph, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a><br /> +<br /> +Bassanio, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a><br /> +<br /> +Beatrice, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a><br /> +<br /> +Beaufort, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a><br /> +<br /> +Belarius, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a><br /> +<br /> +Belch, Sir Toby, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a><br /> +<br /> +Benedick, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br /> +<br /> +Bertram, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a><br /> +<br /> +Bianca, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a><br /> +<br /> +Biondello, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a><br /> +<br /> +Biron, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a><br /> +<br /> +Blanch of Spain, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a><br /> +<br /> +Borachio, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br /> +<br /> +Bottom, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Boyet, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a><br /> +<br /> +Brutus, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a><br /> +<br /> +Buckingham, Duke of (<i>Richard III</i>), <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +Buckingham, Duke of (<i>Henry VIII</i>), <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cade, Jack, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a><br /> +<br /> +Caius, Dr., <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a><br /> +<br /> +Calchas, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a><br /> +<br /> +Carlisle, Bishop of, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a><br /> +<br /> +Cassio, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a><br /> +<br /> +Cassius, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a><br /> +<br /> +Cawdor, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a><br /> +<br /> +Celia, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br /> +<br /> +Cerimon, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a><br /> +<br /> +Clarence, George, Duke of, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a><br /> +<br /> +Claudio (<i>Measure for Measure</i>), <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a><br /> +<br /> +Claudio (<i>Much Ado</i>), <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br /> +<br /> +Claudius (<i>Hamlet</i>), <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a><br /> +<br /> +Cleopatra, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a><br /> +<br /> +Cloten, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a><br /> +<br /> +Cordelia, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a><br /> +<br /> +Coriolanus, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a><br /> +<br /> +Cornwall, Duke of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br /> +<br /> +Costard, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span><br /> +Cranmer, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a><br /> +<br /> +Cressida, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a><br /> +<br /> +Cymbeline, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Demetrius, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Desdemona, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a><br /> +<br /> +Diana (<i>All's Well</i>), <a href='#Page_144'>144</a><br /> +<br /> +Diana (<i>Pericles</i>), <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a><br /> +<br /> +Don John, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br /> +<br /> +Don Pedro, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br /> +<br /> +Dorset, Marquess of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a><br /> +<br /> +Dromio of Ephesus, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a><br /> +<br /> +Dromio of Syracuse, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a><br /> +<br /> +Dumaine, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a><br /> +<br /> +Duncan, King, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Edgar, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br /> +<br /> +Edmund, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a><br /> +<br /> +Edward III, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a><br /> +<br /> +Edward IV, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a><br /> +<br /> +Edward, Prince of Wales (<i>Henry VI</i>), <a href='#Page_62'>62</a><br /> +<br /> +Edward, Prince of Wales (<i>Richard III</i>), <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +Eglamour, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a><br /> +<br /> +Elinor, Queen, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a><br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a><br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth, Princess, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a><br /> +<br /> +Emilia, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a><br /> +<br /> +Evans, Sir Hugh, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Falstaff, Sir John, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a><br /> +<br /> +Flavius, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br /> +<br /> +Florizel, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br /> +<br /> +Fluellen, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a><br /> +<br /> +Fool (<i>Lear</i>), <a href='#Page_192'>192</a><br /> +<br /> +Ford, Mistress, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a><br /> +<br /> +Fortinbras, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a><br /> +<br /> +Frederick, Duke, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a><br /> +<br /> +Friar Laurence, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gertrude, Queen, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a><br /> +<br /> +Ghost (<i>Hamlet</i>), <a href='#Page_158'>158</a><br /> +<br /> +Gloucester, Earl of, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br /> +<br /> +Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a><br /> +<br /> +Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, (<i>Henry VI</i>), <a href='#Page_61'>61</a><br /> +<br /> +Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, (<i>Richard III</i>), <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a><br /> +<br /> +Goneril, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a><br /> +<br /> +Grey, Lord, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hamlet, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a><br /> +<br /> +Hastings, Lord, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +Hector, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a><br /> +<br /> +Helen, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a><br /> +<br /> +Helena (<i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>), <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Helena (<i>All's Well</i>), <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry IV, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry V, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry VI, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry VIII, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry, Prince of Wales, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a><br /> +<br /> +Henry Bolingbroke, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a><br /> +<br /> +Hermia, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Hermione, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a><br /> +<br /> +Hero, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br /> +<br /> +Hippolyta, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Hotspur, Henry Percy, surnamed, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span><br /> +Hubert de Burgh, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Iachimo, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a><br /> +<br /> +Iago, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a><br /> +<br /> +Imogen, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a><br /> +<br /> +Isabella, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jaques, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a><br /> +<br /> +Joan of Arc, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a><br /> +<br /> +John, King of England, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a><br /> +<br /> +John of Gaunt, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br /> +<br /> +John of Lancaster, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a><br /> +<br /> +Julia, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a><br /> +<br /> +Juliet, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a><br /> +<br /> +Julius Cæsar, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Katharina, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a><br /> +<br /> +Katharine, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a><br /> +<br /> +Katharine of France, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a><br /> +<br /> +Katharine, Queen, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a><br /> +<br /> +Kent, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Laertes, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a><br /> +<br /> +Launce, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a><br /> +<br /> +Lear, King, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a><br /> +<br /> +Lennox, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a><br /> +<br /> +Leonato, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br /> +<br /> +Leontes, King of Sicilia, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a><br /> +<br /> +Lewis the Dauphin, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a><br /> +<br /> +Longaville, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a><br /> +<br /> +Lucio, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a><br /> +<br /> +Lucrece, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a><br /> +<br /> +Lysander, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Macbeth, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a><br /> +<br /> +Macbeth, Lady, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br /> +<br /> +Macduff, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a><br /> +<br /> +Malcolm, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a><br /> +<br /> +Malvolio, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a><br /> +<br /> +Mamillius, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a><br /> +<br /> +Marcius, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a><br /> +<br /> +Margaret of Anjou, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a><br /> +<br /> +Maria, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a><br /> +<br /> +Mariana, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a><br /> +<br /> +Marina, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a><br /> +<br /> +Mark Antony, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a><br /> +<br /> +Mercutio, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a><br /> +<br /> +Milan, Duke of, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a><br /> +<br /> +Miranda, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a><br /> +<br /> +Mortimer, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a><br /> +<br /> +Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl of, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a><br /> +<br /> +Nurse to Juliet, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a><br /> +<br /> +Nym, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Oberon, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Octavia, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a><br /> +<br /> +Octavius Cæsar, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a><br /> +<br /> +Olivia, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a><br /> +<br /> +Oliver, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br /> +<br /> +Ophelia, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a><br /> +<br /> +Orlando, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a><br /> +<br /> +Orsino, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a><br /> +<br /> +Othello, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Page, Anne, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +Page, Mistress, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +Pandarus, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a><br /> +<br /> +Pandulph, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a><br /> +<br /> +Paris, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a><br /> +<br /> +Pericles, Prince of Tyre, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a><br /> +<br /> +Petruchio, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span><br /> +Phebe, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a><br /> +<br /> +Philip the Bastard, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a><br /> +<br /> +Philip of France, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a><br /> +<br /> +Pistol, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +Polixenes, King of Bohemia, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a><br /> +<br /> +Polonius, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a><br /> +<br /> +Portia, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a><br /> +<br /> +Posthumus, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a><br /> +<br /> +Prospero, Duke of Milan, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a><br /> +<br /> +Proteus, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a><br /> +<br /> +Puck, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Pyramus, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Queen (<i>Cymbeline</i>), <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a><br /> +<br /> +Quickly, Mrs., <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Regan, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a><br /> +<br /> +Richard II, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a><br /> +<br /> +Richard III, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a><br /> +<br /> +Richard, Duke of York, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +Rivers, Earl, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a><br /> +<br /> +Roderigo, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a><br /> +<br /> +Romeo, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="corr4" id="corr4"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn4" title="Index entry for page 133 of Rosaline was moved to Rosalind">Rosalind</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a><br /> +<br /> +Rosaline, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Salisbury, Countess of, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a><br /> +<br /> +Scroop, Lord, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a><br /> +<br /> +Sebastian (<i>Tempest</i>), <a href='#Page_235'>235</a><br /> +<br /> +Sebastian (<i>Twelfth Night</i>), <a href='#Page_138'>138</a><br /> +<br /> +Shallow, Justice, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +Shylock, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a><br /> +<br /> +Silvia, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a><br /> +<br /> +Simpcox, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a><br /> +<br /> +Slender, Master, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a><br /> +<br /> +Sly, Christopher, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a><br /> +<br /> +Somerset, Earl of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a><br /> +<br /> +Stephano, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a><br /> +<br /> +Suffolk, Earl of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Talbot, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a><br /> +<br /> +Tamora, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a><br /> +<br /> +Tarquin, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a><br /> +<br /> +Thaisa, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a><br /> +<br /> +Thersites, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a><br /> +<br /> +Theseus, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a><br /> +<br /> +Thisbe, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Thurio, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a><br /> +<br /> +Timon of Athens, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a><br /> +<br /> +Titania, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br /> +<br /> +Titus Andronicus, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a><br /> +<br /> +Touchstone, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br /> +<br /> +Trinculo, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a><br /> +<br /> +Troilus, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a><br /> +<br /> +Tybalt, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ulysses, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a><br /> +<br /> +Ursula, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Valentine, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a><br /> +<br /> +Venus, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a><br /> +<br /> +Vienna, Duke of, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a><br /> +<br /> +Viola, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Warwick, Earl of, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a><br /> +<br /> +Wolsey, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="corr5" id="corr5"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn5" title="Index entry for page 92 was removed">York, Edmund of Langley, Duke of</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a><br /> +<br /> +York, Edward, Duke of, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a><br /> +<br /> +York, Richard, Duke of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a><br /> +</p> + + +<p><i>Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="fm1">Home University Library<br /></p> +<p class="fm2">of Modern<br /> +Knowledge<br /> +<br /> +<i>A Comprehensive Series of New<br /> +and Specially Written Books</i><br /></p> + +<div class="bb"></div> +<p class="fm4">EDITORS:<br /></p> +<p class="fm2"><span class="smcap">Prof. GILBERT MURRAY</span>, D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A.<br /> +HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON</span>, M.A.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Prof. WM. T. BREWSTER</span>, M.A.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="bb"></div> + +<p class="fm2">The Home University Library</p> + +<p class="fl1"> +"Is without the slightest doubt the pioneer in supplying serious +literature for a large section of the public who are interested in +the liberal education of the State."—<i>The Daily Mail.</i> +<br /><br /> +"The fact is," says the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, "that this remarkable +library helps to realise one of those functions of a true +University which English Universities have culpably neglected.... +This Library makes a most effective and useful beginning +in the popularisation of knowledge.... The scope of the series +is as wisely outlined as its methods are effective and praiseworthy." +<br /><br /> +"The Home University Library places within the reach of +every man, woman, or child with a shilling to spend fruitfully, +the products of the best brains of to-day in all departments of +modern knowledge."—<i>Morning Leader.</i> +<br /><br /> +"Each volume represents a three-hours' traffic with the talking-power +of a good brain, operating with the ease and interesting +freedom of a specialist dealing with his own subject.... A series +which promises to perform a real social service."—<i>The Times.</i> +<br /><br /> +"We can think of no series now being issued which better +deserves support."—<i>The Observer.</i> +<br /><br /> +"Certainly no publishing enterprise of our time is more +remarkable or better deserving of success."—<i>Manchester +Guardian.</i><br /> +<br /> +"Here is the world's learning in little, and none too poor to +give it house-room!"—<i>Daily Telegraph.</i><br /></p> + +<div class="bb"></div> + +<table summary="ADS"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"><p class="fm2"><b>1/- net in cloth</b></p></td> +<td class="tdl"><p class="fm2"><b>|</b></p></td> +<td class="tdc"><p class="fm2">256 Pages</p></td> +<td class="tdl"><p class="fm2"><b>|</b></p></td> +<td class="tdc"><p class="fm2"><b>2/6 net in leather</b></p></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="bbox1"><div class="bbox2"> +<p class="fm1"><i>History and Geography</i></p> +</div></div> + +<div class="u"><p>3. <i>THE FRENCH REVOLUTION</i></p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">Hilaire Belloc</span>, M.A. (With Maps.) "It is coloured with all the +militancy of the author's temperament."—<i>Daily News.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>4. <i>HISTORY OF WAR AND PEACE</i></p></div> + +<p>By G. H. <span class="smcap">Perris</span>. The Rt. Hon. <span class="smcap">James Bryce</span> writes: "I have read it with +much interest and pleasure, admiring the skill with which you have +managed to compress so many facts and views into so small a volume."</p> + +<div class="u"><p>8. <i>POLAR EXPLORATION</i></p></div> + +<p>By Dr W. S. <span class="smcap">Bruce</span>, F.R.S.E., Leader of the "Scotia" Expedition. (With +Maps.) "A very freshly written and interesting narrative."—<i>The Times.</i> +"A fascinating book."—<i>Portsmouth Times.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>12. <i>THE OPENING-UP OF AFRICA</i></p></div> + +<p>By Sir H. H. <span class="smcap">Johnston</span>, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.Sc, F.Z.S. (With Maps.) "The +Home University Library is much enriched by this excellent +work."—<i>Daily Mail.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>13. <i>MEDIÆVAL EUROPE</i></p></div> + +<p>By H. W. C. <span class="smcap">Davis</span>, M.A. (With Maps.) "A good specimen of the work of the +modern historian,"—<i>Christian World.</i> "One more illustration of the +fact that it takes a complete master of the subject to write briefly +upon it."—<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>14. <i>THE PAPACY & MODERN TIMES</i> (1303-1870)</p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">William Barry</span>, D.D. "Dr Barry has a wide range of knowledge and an +artist's power of selection."—<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>23. <i>HISTORY OF OUR TIME</i>, 1885-1911</p></div> + +<p>By G. P. <span class="smcap">Gooch</span>, M.A. "Mr Gooch contrives to breathe vitality into his +story, and to give us the flesh as well as the bones of recent +happenings."—<i>Observer.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>25. <i>THE CIVILISATION OF CHINA</i></p></div> + +<p>By H. A. <span class="smcap">Giles</span>, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University of +Cambridge. "In all the mass of facts, Professor Giles never becomes +dull. He is always ready with a ghost story or a street adventure for +the reader's recreation."—<i>Spectator.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>29. <i>THE DAWN OF HISTORY</i></p></div> + +<p>By J. L. <span class="smcap">Myres</span>, M.A., F.S.A., Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, +Oxford. "There is not a page in it that is not suggestive."—<i>Manchester +Guardian.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<div class="u"><p>33. <i>THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND</i>:</p></div> + +<p><i>A Study in Political Evolution</i>.</p> + +<p>By Prof. A. F. <span class="smcap">Pollard</span>, M.A. With a Chronological Table. "A vivid study +of tendencies, not a solid mass of facts.... It is a most stimulating, +energetic, and suggestive piece of work."—<i>Daily News.</i> "It takes its +place at once among the authoritative works on English +history."—<i>Observer.</i> "It is marked by the wealth of detail, the sanity +of outlook, the severe impartiality which we always find in Prof. +Pollard's writings."—<i>London Teacher.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>34. <i>CANADA</i></p></div> + +<p>By A. G. <span class="smcap">Bradley</span>. "Who knows Canada better than Mr A. G. +Bradley?"—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i> "The volume makes an immediate appeal to +the man who wants to know something vivid and true about +Canada."—<i>Canadian Gazette.</i> "As interesting and as absorbing as a good +novel."—<i>Canadian Mail.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>37. <i>PEOPLES & PROBLEMS OF INDIA</i></p></div> + +<p>By Sir T. W. <span class="smcap">Holderness</span>, K.C.S.I., Secretary of the Revenue, Statistics, +and Commerce Department of the India Office. "Just the book which +newspaper readers require to-day, and a marvel of comprehensiveness in +bringing all the factors of a great subject into view within a limited +space."—<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>42. <i>ROME</i></p></div> + +<p>By W. <span class="smcap">Warde Fowler</span>, M.A. "A masterly sketch of Roman character and of +what it did for the world."—<i>The Spectator.</i> "It has all the lucidity +and charm of presentation we expect from this writer."—<i>Manchester +Guardian.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>48. <i>THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR</i></p></div> + +<p>By F. L. <span class="smcap">Paxson</span>, Professor of American History, Wisconsin University. +(With Maps.)</p> + +<div class="u"><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In Preparation</span></p></div> + +<p class="fl2"> +<i>ANCIENT GREECE.</i> By Prof. <span class="smcap">Gilbert Murray</span>, D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A.<br /><br /> + +<i>ANCIENT EGYPT.</i> By Dr F. L. <span class="smcap">Griffith</span>, M.A., F.R.S.<br /><br /> + +<i>A SHORT HISTORY OF EUROPE.</i> By <span class="smcap">Herbert Fisher</span>, M.A., F.B.A.<br /><br /> + +<i>THE REFORMATION.</i> By Principal <span class="smcap">Lindsay</span>, LL.D.<br /><br /> + +<i>A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA.</i> By Prof. <span class="smcap">Milyoukov</span>.<br /><br /> + +<i>MODERN TURKEY.</i> By D. G. <span class="smcap">Hogarth</span>, M.A.<br /><br /> + +<i>FRANCE OF TO-DAY.</i> By <span class="smcap">Albert Thomas</span>.<br /><br /> + +<i>HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.</i> By R. S. <span class="smcap">Rait</span>, M.A.<br /><br /> + +<i>SOUTH AMERICA.</i> By Prof. W. R. <span class="smcap">Shepherd</span>.<br /><br /> + +<i>MASTER MARINERS.</i> By J. R. <span class="smcap">Spears</span>.<br /><br /> + +<i>NAPOLEON.</i> By <span class="smcap">Herbert Fisher</span>, M.A. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="bbox1"><div class="bbox2"> +<p class="fm1"><i>Literature and Art</i></p> +</div></div> + + +<div class="u"><p>2. <i>SHAKESPEARE</i></p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">John Masefield</span>. "The book is a joy. We have had half-a-dozen more +learned books on Shakespeare in the last few years, but not one so +wise."—<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>27. <i>ENGLISH LITERATURE: MODERN</i></p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">G. H. Mair, M.A</span>. "Altogether a fresh and individual +book."—<i>Observer.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>35. <i>LANDMARKS IN FRENCH LITERATURE</i></p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">G. L. Strachey</span>. "Short handbooks on great subjects are among the most +difficult tasks that a man of letters can undertake, and Mr Strachey is +to be congratulated on his courage and success. It is difficult to +imagine how a better account of French Literature could be given in two +hundred and fifty small pages than he has given here."—<i>The Times.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>39. <i>ARCHITECTURE</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. R. Lethaby</span>. (Over forty Illustrations.) "Popular guide-books +to architecture are, as a rule, not worth much. This volume is a welcome +exception."—<i>Building News.</i> "Delightfully bright reading."—<i>Christian +World.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>43. <i>ENGLISH LITERATURE: MEDIÆVAL.</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. P. Ker, M.A.</span></p> + +<div class="u"><p>45. <i>THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE</i></p></div> + +<p>By <span class="smcap">L. Pearsall Smith, M.A.</span></p> + + +<div class="u"><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In Preparation</span></p></div> + +<p class="fl2"> +<i>ANCIENT ART AND RITUAL.</i> By Miss <span class="smcap">Jane Harrison</span>, LL.D., D.Litt. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE RENAISSANCE.</i> By Mrs R. A. <span class="smcap">Taylor</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>ITALIAN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE.</i> By <span class="smcap">Roger E. Fry</span>, M.A. +<br /><br /> +<i>ENGLISH COMPOSITION.</i> By Prof. <span class="smcap">Wm. T. Brewster</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>GREAT WRITERS OF AMERICA.</i> By Prof. W. P. <span class="smcap">Trent</span> and Prof. J. <span class="smcap">Erskine</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>GREAT WRITERS OF RUSSIA.</i> By C. T. <span class="smcap">Hagberg Wright</span>, LL.D. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY.</i> By Prof. J. G. <span class="smcap">Robertson</span>, M.A., Ph.D.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +</p> + + + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="bbox1"><div class="bbox2"> +<p class="fm1"><i>Science</i></p> +</div></div> + + +<div class="u"><p>7. <i>MODERN GEOGRAPHY</i></p></div> + +<p>By Dr <span class="smcap">Marion Newbigin</span>. (Illustrated.) "Geography, again: what a dull, +tedious study that was wont to be!... But Miss Marion Newbigin invests +its dry bones with the flesh and blood of romantic interest, taking +stock of geography as a fairy-book of science."—<i>Daily Telegraph.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>9. <i>THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS</i></p></div> + +<p>By Dr D. H. <span class="smcap">Scott</span>, M.A., F.R.S., late Hon. Keeper of the Jodrell +Laboratory, Kew. (Fully illustrated.) "The information which the book +provides is as trustworthy as first-hand knowledge can make it.... Dr +Scott's candid and familiar style makes the difficult subject both +fascinating and easy."—<i>Gardeners' Chronicle.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>17. <i>HEALTH AND DISEASE</i></p></div> + +<p>By W. <span class="smcap">Leslie Mackenzie</span>, M.D., Local Government Board, Edinburgh. "The +science of public health administration has had no abler or more +attractive exponent than Dr Mackenzie. He adds to a thorough grasp of +the problems an illuminating style, and an arresting manner of treating +a subject often dull and sometimes unsavoury."—<i>Economist.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>18. <i>INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS</i></p></div> + +<p>By A. N. <span class="smcap">Whithead</span>, Sc.D., F.R.S. (With Diagrams.) "Mr Whitehead has +discharged with conspicuous success the task he is so exceptionally +qualified to undertake. For he is one of our great authorities upon the +foundations of the science, and has the breadth of view which is so +requisite in presenting to the reader its aims. His exposition is clear +and striking."—<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>19. <i>THE ANIMAL WORLD</i></p></div> + +<p>By Professor F. W. <span class="smcap">Gamble</span>, D.Sc., F.R.S. With Introduction by Sir Oliver +Lodge. (Many Illustrations.) "A delightful and instructive epitome of +animal (and vegetable) life.... A most fascinating and suggestive +survey."—<i>Morning Post.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>20. <i>EVOLUTION</i></p></div> + +<p>By Professor J. <span class="smcap">Arthur Thomson</span> and Professor <span class="smcap">Patrick Geddes</span>. "A +many-coloured and romantic panorama, opening up, like no other book we +know, a rational vision of world-development."—<i>Belfast News-Letter.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>22. <i>CRIME AND INSANITY</i></p></div> + +<p>By Dr C. A. <span class="smcap">Mercier</span>, F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S., Author of "Text-Book of +Insanity," etc. "Furnishes much valuable information from one occupying +the highest position among medico-legal psychologists."—<i>Asylum News.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> + +<div class="u"><p>28. <i>PSYCHICAL RESEARCH</i></p></div> + +<p>By Sir W. F. <span class="smcap">Barrett</span>, F.R.S., Professor of Physics, Royal College of +Science, Dublin, 1873-1910. "As a former President of the Psychical +Research Society, he is familiar with all the developments of this most +fascinating branch of science, and thus what he has to say on +thought-reading, hypnotism, telepathy, crystal-vision, spiritualism, +divinings, and so on, will be read with avidity."—<i>Dundee Courier.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>31. <i>ASTRONOMY</i></p></div> + +<p>By A. R. <span class="smcap">Hinks</span>, M.A., Chief Assistant, Cambridge Observatory, "Original +in thought, eclectic in substance, and critical in treatment.... No +better little book is available."—<i>School World.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>32. <i>INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE</i></p></div> + +<p>By J. <span class="smcap">Arthur Thomson</span>, M.A., Regius Professor of Natural History, +Aberdeen University. "For those who have not yet become possessed of the +Library, this would form an appropriate introduction. Professor +Thomson's delightful literary style is well known; and here he +discourses freshly and easily on the methods of science and its +relations with philosophy, art, religion, and practical +life."—<i>Aberdeen Journal.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>36. <i>CLIMATE AND WEATHER</i></p></div> + +<p>By H. N. <span class="smcap">Dickson</span>, D.Sc. Oxon., M.A., F.R.S.E., President of the Royal +Meteorological Society; Professor of Geography in University College, +Reading. (With Diagrams.) "The author has succeeded in presenting in a +very lucid and agreeable manner the causes of the movement of the +atmosphere and of the more stable winds. The information throughout +appears to be reliable, and is certainly conveyed in an attractive +form."—<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>41. <i>ANTHROPOLOGY</i></p></div> + +<p>By R. R. <span class="smcap">Marett</span>, M.A., Reader in Social Anthropology in Oxford +University. "An absolutely perfect handbook, so clear that a child could +understand it, so fascinating and human that it beats fiction 'to a +frazzle.'"—<i>Morning Leader.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>44. <i>THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. J. G. <span class="smcap">McKendrick</span>, M.D.</p> + +<div class="u"><p>46. <i>MATTER AND ENERGY</i></p></div> + +<p>By F. <span class="smcap">Soddy</span>, M.A., F.R.S.</p> + +<div class="u"><p>49. <i>PSYCHOLOGY, THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. W. <span class="smcap">McDougall</span>, F.R.S., M.B.</p> + + +<div class="u"><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In Preparation</span></p></div> + +<p class="fl2"> +<i>ELECTRICITY.</i> By Dr <span class="smcap">Gisbert Kapp</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>CHEMISTRY.</i> +<a name="corr6" id="corr6"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn6" title="changed from 'Py'">By</a> +Prof. R. <span class="smcap">Meldola</span>, F.R.S. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE MAKING OF THE EARTH.</i> By Prof. T. W. <span class="smcap">Gregory</span>, F.R.S. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE MINERAL WORLD.</i> By Sir T. H. <span class="smcap">Holland</span>, K.C.I.E., D.Sc. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE HUMAN BODY.</i> By Dr A. <span class="smcap">Keith</span>, M.D., F.R.C.S. +<br /><br /> +<i>PLANT LIFE.</i> By Prof. J. B. <span class="smcap">Farmer</span>, F.R.S.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +</p> + + + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="bbox1"><div class="bbox2"> +<p class="fm1"><i>Philosophy and Religion</i></p> +</div></div> + +<div class="u"><p>15. <i>MOHAMMEDANISM</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. D. S. <span class="smcap">Margoliouth</span>, M.A., D.Litt. "This generous shilling's +worth of wisdom.... A delicate, humorous, and most responsible tractate +by an illuminative professor."—<i>Daily Mail.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>40. <i>THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY</i></p></div> + +<p>By the Hon. <span class="smcap">Bertrand Russell</span>, F.R.S. "A book that the 'man in the +street' will recognise at once to be a boon.... Consistently lucid and +non-technical throughout."—<i>Christian World.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>47. <i>BUDDHISM</i></p></div> + +<p>By Mrs <span class="smcap">Rhys Davids</span>, M.A.</p> + +<div class="u"><p>50. <i>NONCONFORMITY: ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS</i></p></div> + +<p>By Principal W. B. <span class="smcap">Selbie</span>, M.A.</p> + + +<div class="u"><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In Preparation</span></p></div> + +<p class="fl2"> +<i>THE OLD TESTAMENT.</i> By Prof. <span class="smcap">George Moore</span>, D.D., LL.D. +<br /><br /> +<i>BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.</i> By R. H. <span class="smcap">Charles</span>, D.D. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.</i> By Prof. B. W. <span class="smcap">Bacon</span>, Litt.D., D.D. +<br /><br /> +<i>COMPARATIVE RELIGION.</i> By Prof. J. <span class="smcap">Estlin Carpenter</span>, D.Litt. +<br /><br /> +<i>A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.</i> By Prof. J. B. <span class="smcap">Bury</span>, LL.D. +<br /><br /> +<i>ETHICS.</i> By G. E. <span class="smcap">Moore</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>MISSIONS.</i> By Mrs <span class="smcap">Creighton</span>. +</p> + + + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<div class="bbox1"><div class="bbox2"> +<p class="fm1"><i>Social Science</i></p> +</div></div> + + +<div class="u"><p>1. <i>PARLIAMENT</i></p></div> + +<p>Its History, Constitution, and Practice. By Sir <span class="smcap">Courtenay P. Ilbert</span>, +K.C.B., K.C.S.I., Clerk of the House of Commons. "The best book on the +history and practice of the House of Commons since Bagehot's +'Constitution.'"—<i>Yorkshire Post.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>5. <i>THE STOCK EXCHANGE</i></p></div> + +<p>By F. W. <span class="smcap">Hirst</span>, Editor of "The Economist." "A little treatise which to +an unfinancial mind must be a revelation.... The book is as clear, +vigorous, and sane as Bagehot's 'Lombard Street,' than which there is no +higher compliment."—<i>Morning Leader.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>6. <i>IRISH NATIONALITY</i></p></div> + +<p>By Mrs J. R. <span class="smcap">Green</span>. "As glowing as it is learned. No book could be more +timely."—<i>Daily News.</i> "A powerful study.... A magnificent +demonstration of the deserved vitality of the Gaelic +spirit."—<i>Freeman's Journal.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p> + +<div class="u"><p>10. <i>THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT</i></p></div> + +<p>By J. <span class="smcap">Ramsay MacDonald</span>, M.P. "Admirably adapted for the purpose of +exposition."—<i>The Times.</i> "Mr MacDonald is a very lucid exponent.... +The volume will be of great use in dispelling illusions about the +tendencies of Socialism in this country."—<i>The Nation.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>11. <i>CONSERVATISM</i></p></div> + +<p>By Lord <span class="smcap">Hugh Cecil</span>, M.A., M.P.</p> + +<div class="u"><p>16. <i>THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH</i></p></div> + +<p>By J. A. <span class="smcap">Hobson</span>, M.A. "Mr J. A. Hobson holds an unique position among +living economists.... The text-book produced is altogether admirable. +Original, reasonable, and illuminating."—<i>The Nation.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>21. <i>LIBERALISM</i></p></div> + +<p>By L. T. <span class="smcap">Hobhouse</span>, M.A., Professor of Sociology in the University of +London. "A book of rare quality.... We have nothing but praise for the +rapid and masterly summaries of the arguments from first principles +which form a large part of this book."—<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>24. <i>THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY</i></p></div> + +<p>By D. H. <span class="smcap">Macgregor</span>, M.A., Professor of Political Economy in the +University of Leeds. "A volume so dispassionate in terms may be read +with profit by all interested in the present state of +unrest."—<i>Aberdeen Journal.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>26. <i>AGRICULTURE</i></p></div> + +<p>By Prof. W. <span class="smcap">Somerville</span>, F.L.S.</p> + +<div class="u"><p>30. <i>ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH LAW</i></p></div> + +<p>By W. M. <span class="smcap">Geldart</span>, M.A., B.C.L., Vinerian Professor of English Law at +Oxford. "Contains a very clear account of the elementary principles +underlying the rules of English law; and we can recommend it to all who +wish to become acquainted with these elementary principles with a +minimum of trouble."—<i>Scots Law Times.</i></p> + +<div class="u"><p>38. <i>THE SCHOOL</i></p></div> + +<p><i>An Introduction to the Study of Education.</i></p> + +<p>By J. J. <span class="smcap">Findlay</span>, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Education in Manchester +University. "An amazingly comprehensive volume.... It is a remarkable +performance, distinguished in its crisp, striking phraseology as well as +its inclusiveness of subject-matter."—<i>Morning Post.</i></p> + + +<div class="u"><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In Preparation</span></p></div> + +<p class="fl2"> +<i>THE EVOLUTION OF CITIES.</i> By Prof. <span class="smcap">Patrick Geddes</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.</i> By Prof. S. J. <span class="smcap">Chapman</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>COMMONSENSE IN LAW.</i> By Prof. P. <span class="smcap">Vinogradoff</span>, D.C.L. +<br /><br /> +<i>THE CIVIL SERVICE.</i> By <span class="smcap">Graham Wallas</span>, M.A. +<br /><br /> +<i>MISSIONS.</i> By Mrs <span class="smcap">Creighton</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>PRACTICAL IDEALISM.</i> By <span class="smcap">Maurice Hewlett</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>NEWSPAPERS.</i> By G. B. <span class="smcap">Dibblee</span>. +<br /><br /> +<i>ENGLISH VILLAGE LIFE.</i> By E. N. <span class="smcap">Bennett</span>, M.A. +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<p class="fm2">London: WILLIAMS AND NORGATE</p> + +<p class="fm3"><i>And of all Bookshops and Bookstalls.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="transnote"><a name="tnotes" id="tnotes"></a> +<h3>Transcriber's note</h3> + + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Obvious +printer errors have been corrected and are listed below. +<br /><br /> + +For the chapter heading, "The Second Part of King Henry IV", the Table +of Contents lists it as "King Henry IV, Part II"; this was not changed. +In addition other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's +spelling has been maintained.</p> + +<p>Page 36: "obession is at the root" changed to +"<a name="cn1" id="cn1"></a><a href="#corr1">obsession</a> is at the +root".</p> + +<p>Page 94: "great historical play" changed to "great historical +<a name="cn2" id="cn2"></a><a href="#corr2">plays</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 253: "Ægon" changed to "<a name="cn3" id="cn3"></a><a href="#corr3">Ægeon</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 256: Index entry for page 133 +of "Rosaline" was moved to +"<a name="cn4" id="cn4"></a><a href="#corr4">Rosalind</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 256: Index entry for page 92 of +"<a name="cn5" id="cn5"></a><a href="#corr5">York, Edmund of Langley, Duke</a>" was removed.</p> + +<p>Page 262: "Py Prof. R. Medola" changed to +"<a name="cn6" id="cn6"></a><a href="#corr6">By</a> Prof. R. Medola".</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of William Shakespeare, by John Masefield + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 27264-h.htm or 27264-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/6/27264/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Carla Foust and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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