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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: A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen + and on the characteristics of Shakspere's style and the + secret of his supremacy + +Author: William Spalding + +Other: John Hill Burton + +Release Date: March 19, 2011 [EBook #35631] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKSPERE'S AUTHORSHIP--TWO NOBLE KINSMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Mike Zeug, Lisa Reigel, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class = "notebox"><p>Transcriber's Notes:<br /><br /> +Greek words that may not display correctly in all browsers are +transliterated in the text using hovers like this: +<ins class="greek" title="biblos">βιβλος</ins>. +Position your mouse over the line to see the transliteration.</p> + +<p>Hemistitchs, metrical lines shared between speakers or verses, may not +display properly in all browsers. The best way to see appropriately +spaced hemistitches is by looking at a text version of this book.</p> + +<p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the +original. A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been marked +with hovers <ins class="corr" title="e.g., original says this">like this</ins>. Position your mouse over the underline to read +what appears in the original. A complete <a href="#TN">list</a> of corrections as well as +other Transcriber's Notes follows the text.</p> + +<p>Click on the page number to see an image of the page.</p> +</div> + +<p class="biggap"><!-- Page i --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a>[<a href="./images/i.png">i</a>]</span></p> +<h1>A LETTER</h1> + +<h1>ON</h1> + +<h1>SHAKSPERE'S AUTHORSHIP</h1> + +<h1>OF</h1> + +<h1><em>The Two Noble Kinsmen.</em></h1> + +<p class="biggap"><!-- Page ii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a>[<a href="./images/ii.png">ii</a>]</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="biggap"><!-- Page iii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a>[<a href="./images/iii.png">iii</a>]</span></p> + +<h1>A LETTER<br /><br /> + +ON<br /><br /> + +SHAKSPERE'S AUTHORSHIP<br /><br /> + +OF<br /><br /> + +<em>The Two Noble Kinsmen;</em></h1> + +<h3>AND ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAKSPERE'S STYLE<br /> +AND THE SECRET OF HIS SUPREMACY.</h3> + + +<p class="gap"> </p> +<p class="p4">BY THE LATE</p> + +<h2>WILLIAM SPALDING, M.A.,</h2> + +<h4>FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH AND AFTERWARDS +PROFESSOR OF LOGIC, RHETORIC, AND METAPHYSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST +ANDREW'S; AUTHOR OF 'A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,' ETC., ETC.</h4> + + +<p class="gap"> </p> +<h3><em>New Edition, with a Life of the Author,</em></h3> + +<p class="p4">BY</p> + +<h2>JOHN HILL BURTON, LL.D.,</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF<br /> +'THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND,' ETC., ETC.</h4> + + +<p class="gap"> </p> +<p class="p4">PUBLISHT FOR</p> + +<p class="p3"><em>The New Shakspere Society</em></p> + +<h3>BY N. TRÜBNER & CO., 57, 59, LUDGATE HILL,</h3> +<p class="p4">LONDON, E.C., 1876.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="p4"><!-- Page iv --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a>[<a href="./images/iv.png">iv</a>]</span> +<em>Series</em> VIII. <em>No.</em> 1</p> + +<p class="p3">JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page v --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a>[<a href="./images/v.png">v</a>]</span></p> +<h2>FOREWORDS</h2> + +<p>This <i>Letter</i> by Prof. Spalding has always seemd to me one of the ablest +(if not the ablest) and most stimulating pieces of Shakspere criticism I +ever read. And even if you differ from the writer's conclusion as to +Shakspere's part, or even hold that Shakspere took no part at all, in +the Play, you still get almost as much good from the essay as if you +accept its conclusions as to the authorship of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>. +It is for its general, more than for its special, discussions, that I +value this <i>Letter</i>. The close reasoning, the spirited language, the +perception and distinction of the special qualities of Shakspere's work, +the investigation into the nature of dramatic art, the grasp of subject, +and the mixt logic and enthusiasm of the whole <i>Letter</i>, are worthy of a +true critic of our great poet, and of the distinguisht Professor of +Logic, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics, who wrote this treatise, that at once +delights and informs every one who reads it. No wonder it carrid away +and convinct even the calm judicial mind of Hallam.</p> + +<p>Indeed, while reading the <i>Letter</i>, one can hardly resist the power of +Prof. Spalding's argument, backt as it is by his well-chosen passages +from the Play. But when one turns to the play itself, when one reads it +aloud with a party of friends, then come doubt and hesitation. One +begins to ask, 'Is this indeed Shakspere, Shakspere at the end of his +glorious career, Shakspere who has just given us Perdita, Hermione and +Autolycus'?</p> + +<p>Full of the heavenly beauty of Perdita's flowers, one reads over <i>The +Two Noble Kinsmen</i> flower-song, and asks, pretty as the fancy of a few +of the epithets is, whether all that Shakspere, with the spring-flowers +of Stratford about him, and the love of nature deeper than ever in his +soul—whether all he has to say of the daisy—Chaucer's 'Quene of +flourës alle'—is, that it is "smelless but most quaint"; and of +marigolds, that they blow on death-beds<a name="FNanchor_v:1_1" id="FNanchor_v:1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_v:1_1" class="fnanchor">[v:1]</a>, when one recollects his +twenty-years' earlier <!-- Page vi --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a>[<a href="./images/vi.png">vi</a>]</span>use of them in <i>Lucrece</i> (<span class="allcapsc">A.D.</span> 1594):—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Without the bed her other fair hand was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the green coverlet; whose perfect white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Show'd like an April <i>daisy</i> on the grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With pearly sweat, resembling dew of night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her eyes, like <i>marigolds</i>, had sheath'd their light,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And canopied in darkness sweetly lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till they might open to adorn the day.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Full of the ineffable charm and consistency of Miranda and Perdita, one +asks of Emilia—Chaucer's daring huntress, virgin free, seeking no +marriage-bed—whether Shakspere, at the crisis of her life, degraded her +to a silly lady's-maid or shop-girl, not knowing her own mind, up and +down like a bucket in a well, balancing her lovers' qualities against +one another, saying she'd worn the losing Palamon's portrait on her +right side, not the heart one, her left, &c.; and then (oh dear!) that +Palamon might wound Arcite and <i>spoil his figure</i>! What a pity it would +be!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Arcite may win me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet may Palamon wound Arcite to<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spoyling of his figure. O what pitty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough for such a chance!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorpoem">V. iii. 68-71, p. 81, ed. Littledale.</p> + +<p>I say, is it possible to believe that Shakspere turnd a noble lady, a +frank gallant nature, whose character he had rightly seizd at first, +into a goose of this kind, whom one would like to shake, or box her ears +well? The thing is surely impossible. Again, is it likely—and again, I +say, at the end of his career, with all his experience behind him, that +Shakspere would make his hero Palamon publicly urge on Venus in his +prayer to her, that she was bound to protect him because he'd believd a +wanton young wife's word that her old incapable husband was the father +of her <!-- Page vii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a>[<a href="./images/vii.png">vii</a>]</span>child? Is this the kind of thing that the Shakspere of Imogen, +of Desdemona, of Queen Catherine, would put forward as the crown of his +life and work? Again I say, it can hardly be.</p> + +<p>Further, when at one's reading-party one turns to the cleverest and most +poetic-natured girl-friend, and says, 'This is assignd to Shakspere. Do +you feel it's his?' She answers, 'Not a bit. And no one else does +either. Look how people's eyes are all off their books. They don't care +for it: you never see that when we're reading one of Shakspere's genuine +plays.' Then when you note Prof. Spalding's own admission in his +<i>Letter</i>, p. 81, that in Shakspere's special excellence, +characterization, the play is—as of course it is—weak, and that it is +to be compard on the one hand with his weaker early work, and on the +other with his latest <i>Henry VIII</i>, more than half of which Fletcher +wrote, you are not surpris'd to find that in 1840,<a name="FNanchor_vii:1_3" id="FNanchor_vii:1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_vii:1_3" class="fnanchor">[vii:1]</a> seven years +after the date of his <i>Letter</i>, Professor Spalding had concluded, that +on Shakspere's having taken part in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, his +"opinion is not now so decided as it once was," and that by 1847 he was +still less decided, and declared the question "really insoluble." Here +is the full passage from his article on Dyce's "Beaumont and Fletcher," +in the <i>Edinb. Review</i>, July 1847, p. 57:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In measuring the height of Beaumont and Fletcher, we cannot +take a better scale than to put them alongside Shakespeare, +and compare them with him. In this manner, an imaginary +supposition may assist us in determining the nature of their +excellence, and almost enable us to fix its degree. Suppose +there were to be discovered, in the library of the Earl of +Ellesmere, or in that of the Duke of Devonshire, two dramas +not known before, and of doubtful authorship, the one being +'Hamlet,' and the other 'The Winter's Tale.' We should be at +no loss, we think, to assign the former to Shakespeare: the +judgment would be warranted alike by the consideration of the +whole, and by a scrutiny of particular parts. But with regard +to the other play, hesitation would not be at all +unreasonable. Beaumont and Fletcher (as an eminent living +critic has remarked to us) might be believed to have written +all its serious parts, more especially the scenes of the +jealousy of Leontes, and those beautiful ones which describe +the rustic festival<a name="FNanchor_vii:2_4" id="FNanchor_vii:2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_vii:2_4" class="fnanchor">[vii:2]</a>. Strange to say, a case of this +kind has actually arisen. And the uncertainty which still +hangs over it, agrees entirely with the hesitation which we +have ventured to imagine as arising in the case we have +supposed.</p> + +<p>"In 1634, eighteen years after Beaumont's death, and nine +after Fletcher's, there was printed, for the first time, the +play called 'The Two Noble Kinsmen.' The bookseller in his +title-page declared it to have <!-- Page viii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"></a>[<a href="./images/viii.png">viii</a>]</span>been 'written by the +memorable worthies of their time, Mr John Fletcher and Mr +William Shakespeare, gentlemen.' On the faith of this +assertion, and on the evidence afforded by the character of +the work, it has been assumed universally, that Fletcher had +a share in the authorship. Shakespeare's part in it has been +denied; though there is, perhaps, a preponderance of +authority for the affirmative. Those who maintain the joint +authorship, commonly suppose the two poets to have written +together: but Mr Dyce questions this, and gives us an +ingenious theory of his own, which assumes Fletcher to have +taken up and altered the work long after Shakespeare's labour +on it had been closed.</p> + +<p>"<i>The question of Shakespeare's share in this play is really +insoluble.</i> On the one hand, there are reasons making it very +difficult to believe that he can have had any concern in it; +<i>particularly the heavy and undramatic construction of the +piece, and the want of individuality in the characters</i>. +Besides, we encounter in it direct and palpable imitations of +Shakespeare himself; among which the most prominent is the +wretchedly drawn character of the jailor's daughter. On the +other hand, there are, in many passages, resemblances of +expression (in the very particulars in which our two poets +are most unlike Shakespeare) so close, that we must either +admit Shakespeare's authorship of these parts, or suppose +Fletcher or some one else to have imitated him designedly, +and with very marvellous success. Among these passages, too, +there are not a few which display a brilliancy of +imagination, and a grasp of thought, much beyond Fletcher's +ordinary pitch. Readers who lean to Mr Dyce's theory, will +desire to learn his grounds for believing that Fletcher's +labour in the play was performed in the latter part of his +life. It appears to us that the piece bears a close likeness +to those more elevated works which are known to have been +among the earliest of our series: and if it were not an +unbrotherly act to throw a new bone of contention among the +critics, we would hint that there is no evidence entitling us +peremptorily to assert that Fletcher was concerned in the +work to the exclusion of Beaumont.</p> + +<p>"Be the authorship whose it may, 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' is +undoubtedly one of the finest dramas in the volumes before +us. It contains passages which, in dramatic vigour and +passion, yield hardly to anything—perhaps to nothing—in the +whole collection; while for gorgeousness of imagery, for +delicacy of poetic feeling, and for grace, animation, and +strength of language, we doubt whether there exists, under +the names of our authors, any drama that comes near to +it.<a name="FNanchor_viii:1_5" id="FNanchor_viii:1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_viii:1_5" class="fnanchor">[viii:1]</a> Never has any theme enjoyed the honours which +have befallen the semi-classical legend of Palamon and +Arcite. Chosen as the foundation of chivalrous narrative by +Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Dryden, it has furnished one of the +<!-- Page ix --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a>[<a href="./images/ix.png">ix</a>]</span>fairest of the flowers that compose the dramatic crown of +Fletcher, while from that flower, perhaps, leaves might be +plucked to decorate another brow which needs them not.</p> + +<p>"If the admirers of Fletcher could vindicate for him the +fifth act of this play, they would entitle him to a still +higher claim upon our gratitude, as the author of a series of +scenes, as picturesquely conceived, and as poetically set +forth, as any that our literature can boast. Dramatically +considered, these scenes are very faulty: perhaps there are +but two of them that have high dramatic merits—the +interrupted execution of Palamon, and the preceding scene in +which Emilia, left in the forest, hears the tumult of the +battle, and receives successive reports of its changes and +issue. But as a gallery of poetical pictures, as a cluster of +images suggestive alike to the imagination and the feelings, +as a cabinet of jewels whose lustre dazzles the eye and +blinds it to the unskilful setting,—in this light there are +few pieces comparable to the magnificent scene before the +temples, where the lady and her lovers pray to the gods: and +the pathetically solemn close of the drama, admirable in +itself, loses only when we compare it with the death of +Arcite in Chaucer's masterpiece, 'the Iliad of the middle +ages.'"</p></div> + +<p>All this does but show how well-founded was the judgment which that +sound scholar and able Shaksperian critic, Prof. Ingram,<a name="FNanchor_ix:1_6" id="FNanchor_ix:1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_ix:1_6" class="fnanchor">[ix:1]</a> expresst +in our <i>Transactions</i> for 1874, p. 454. My own words on pages 73, +64*,—written after short acquaintance with the play, and under stress +of Prof. Spalding's and Mr Hickson's able Papers, and the metrical +evidence—were incautiously strong. In modifying them now, I do but +follow the example of Prof. Spalding himself. Little as my opinion may +be worth, I wish to say that I think the metrical and æsthetic evidence +are conclusive as to there being two hands in the play. I do not think +the evidence that Shakspere wrote all the parts that either Prof. +Spalding or Mr Hickson assigns to him, at all conclusive. If it could be +shown that Beaumont<a name="FNanchor_ix:2_7" id="FNanchor_ix:2_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_ix:2_7" class="fnanchor">[ix:2]</a> or any other author wrote the suppos'd +Shakspere parts, and that Shakspere toucht them up, that theory would +suit me best. It failing, I accept, for the time, Shakspere as the +second author, subject to Fletcher having spoilt parts of his conception +and work.</p> + +<p><!-- Page x --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x"></a>[<a href="./images/x.png">x</a>]</span> +The following scheme shows where Prof. Spalding and Mr Hickson agree, +and where they differ:—</p> + +<table summary="Spalding and Hickson assign parts of 2NK to Shakspere and Fletcher" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0"> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop" style="width: 20%;">Prologue</td> + <td style="width: 40%;"> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl" style="width: 40%;"><span class="smcap">Fletcher</span> (Littledale).</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act I. sc. i.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Spalding, Hickson (Bridal Song not Sh.'s: Dowden, Nicholson, Littledale, Furnivall<a name="FNanchor_x:1_8" id="FNanchor_x:1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_x:1_8" class="fnanchor">[x:1]</a>).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act I. sc. ii.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Spalding (Sh. revis'd by Fletcher, Dyce, Skeat, Swinburne, Littledale).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Shakspere</span> and <span class="smcap">Fletcher</span>, or Fletcher revis'd by Shakspere. Hickson.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act I. sc. iii, iv.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Spalding, Hickson, Littledale.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act I. sc. v.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Spalding, ? Sh. Hickson.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> ? <span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Littledale.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act II. sc. i (prose).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><a name="FNanchor_A" id="FNanchor_A"></a><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Hickson, Coleridge, Littledale.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Dyce.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act II. sc. ii, iii, iv, v, vi.</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Hickson, Littledale.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act III. sc. i.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Spalding, Hickson.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act III. sc. ii.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Hickson (not Fletcher, Furnivall).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Dyce.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act III. sc. iii, iv, v, vi.</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Hickson, Littledale.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act IV. sc. i, ii.</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Hickson.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act IV. sc. iii.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Hickson.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Dyce.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act V. sc. i (includes Weber's sc. i, ii, iii).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere</span>. Spalding, Hickson, &c.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> ? lines 1-17 by <span class="smcap">Fletcher</span>. Skeat, Littledale.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act V. sc. ii.</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Spalding, Hickson,&c.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Act V. sc. iii, iv.</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtop"><span class="smcap">Shakspere</span>. Spalding, Hickson, &c., with a few lines <span class="smcap">Fletcher</span>. Sc. iv. (with <span class="smcap">Fletcher</span> interpolations. Swinburne, Littledale).</td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdlefthangtop">Epilogue</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdlefthangtopl"><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> Littledale.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td style="padding-left: 2.5em;" colspan="2"><a name="Footnote_A" id="Footnote_A"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Here Prof. Spalding and Mr Hickson differ.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Mr Swinburne, when duly clothed and in his right mind, and not exposing +himself in his April-Fool's cap and bells, will have something to say on +the subject; and it will no doubt be matter of controversy to the end of +time. Let every one study, and be fully convinct in his own mind.</p> + +<p>To Mrs Spalding and her family I am greatly obligd for their willing +consent to the present reprint. To Dr John Hill Burton, the Historian of +Scotland, we are all grateful for his interesting Life of his <!-- Page xi --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a>[<a href="./images/xi.png">xi</a>]</span>old +schoolfellow and friend, which comes before the author's <i>Letter</i>. Miss +Spalding too I have to thank for help. And our Members, Mrs Bidder—the +friend of our lost sweet-natured helper and friend, Richard Simpson—and +Mr *****, for their gifts of £10 each, and the Rev. Stopford Brooke for +his gift of four guineas, towards the cost of the present volume.</p> + +<p>To my friend Miss Constance O'Brien I am indebted for the annext Scheme +of Prof. Spalding's argument, and the Notes and Index. The side-notes, +head-lines, and the additions to the original title-page<a name="FNanchor_xi:1_9" id="FNanchor_xi:1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_xi:1_9" class="fnanchor">[xi:1]</a> are mine. +I only regret that the very large amount of his time—so much wanted for +other pressing duties,—which Mr Harold Littledale has given to his +extremely careful edition of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> for us, has thrown +on me, who know the Play so much less intimately than he does, the duty +of writing these <i>Forewords</i>. But we shall get his mature opinion in his +Introduction to the Play in a year or two<a name="FNanchor_xi:2_10" id="FNanchor_xi:2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_xi:2_10" class="fnanchor">[xi:2]</a>.</p> + +<p class="authorsc">F. J. Furnivall.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>3, St George's Square, Primrose Hill,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;"><i>London, N.W., Sept. 27-Oct. 13, 1876.</i></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_v:1_1" id="Footnote_v:1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_v:1_1"><span class="label">[v:1]</span></a> Unsure myself as to the form of oxlip root-leaves, and +knowing nothing of the use of marigolds alluded to in the lines</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oxlips in their cradles growing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Marigolds on death-beds blowing,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>also seeing no fancy even if there were fact in 'em, I applied to the +best judge in England known to me, Dr R. C. A. Prior, author of the +<i>Popular Names of British Plants</i>; and he says "I am quite at a loss for +the meaning of <i>cradles</i> and <i>death-beds</i> in the second stanza.</p> + +<p>"The writer did not know much about plants, or he would not have +combined summer flowers, like the marigold and larkspur, with the +primrose.</p> + +<p>"I prefer the reading 'With hair-bells dimme'; for nobody would call the +upright salver-shaped flower of the primrose a 'bell.' The poet probably +means the blue-bell."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Mr Wm Whale of our Egham Nurseries writes: "The +root-leaves of the Oxlip are cradle-shaped, but circular instead of +long. The growth of the leaves would certainly give one an idea of the +stem and Oxlip flowers being lodged in a cradle [? saucer].</p> + +<p>"I have seen the marygold<a name="FNanchor_V:A_2" id="FNanchor_V:A_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_V:A_2" class="fnanchor">[v:A]</a> in my boyish days frequently placed on +coffins; and in a warm death-room they would certainly flower. The +flowers named may be all called Spring-flowers, but of course some +blowing rather later than others."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote2"> +<p><a name="Footnote_V:A_2" id="Footnote_V:A_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V:A_2"><span class="label">[v:A]</span></a> This is called the <i>Calendula officinalis</i>, or <i>Medicinal +Marygold</i>, not the African or French sorts which are now so improved and +cultivated in gardens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_vii:1_3" id="Footnote_vii:1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_vii:1_3"><span class="label">[vii:1]</span></a> <i>Edinb. Review</i>, July 1840, no. 144, p. 468.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_vii:2_4" id="Footnote_vii:2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_vii:2_4"><span class="label">[vii:2]</span></a> Surely the 'eminent living critic' made an awful +mistake about this. Beaumont and Fletcher write Perdita's flowers, +Florizel's description of her, Autolycus!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_viii:1_5" id="Footnote_viii:1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_viii:1_5"><span class="label">[viii:1]</span></a> In the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for April 1841, p. 237-8. +Prof. Spalding says that in Fletcher's <i>Spanish Curate</i>, "The scene of +defiance and threatening between Jamie and Henrique is in one of +Fletcher's best keys;—not unlike a similar scene in 'The Two Noble +Kinsmen.'" Act III. sc. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_ix:1_6" id="Footnote_ix:1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_ix:1_6"><span class="label">[ix:1]</span></a> His Dublin 'Afternoon Lecture' of 1863, shows that he +then knew all that I in 1873 was trying in vain to find a known +Shaksperian editor or critic to tell me.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_ix:2_7" id="Footnote_ix:2_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_ix:2_7"><span class="label">[ix:2]</span></a> I name Beaumont because of his run-on lines, &c., and +the power I find in some of the parts of his and Fletcher's joint dramas +that I attribute to him.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_x:1_8" id="Footnote_x:1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_x:1_8"><span class="label">[x:1]</span></a> I cannot get over Chaucer's daisies being calld "smelless +but most quaint." The epithets seem to me not only poor, but pauper: +implying entire absence of fancy and imagination.—F. "Chough hoar" is +as bad though.—H. L.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_xi:1_9" id="Footnote_xi:1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_xi:1_9"><span class="label">[xi:1]</span></a> This was "A Letter / on / Shakspeare's Authorship / of / +<em>The Two Noble Kinsmen</em>; / a Drama commonly ascribed / to John Fletcher. / +Edinburgh: / Adam and Charles Black; / and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, +Green, and Longman. / London. / M.DCCC.XXXIII."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_xi:2_10" id="Footnote_xi:2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_xi:2_10"><span class="label">[xi:2]</span></a> See the opinion of Mr J. Herbert Stack, an old +<i>Fortnightly-Reviewer</i>, in the <a href="#Stack"><i>Notes</i></a> at the end of this volume.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><!-- Page xii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii"></a>[<a href="./images/xii.png">xii</a>]</span></p> +<h2>SKELETON OF PROF. SPALDING'S <i>LETTER</i>.</h2> + + +<p>Introduction. Name of the play (p. <a href="#FNanchor_1:2_15">2</a>). Historical evidence in favour of +Shakspere's share in the play (<a href="#FNanchor_5:2_21">6</a>). Incorrectness of the first and second +folios of his works (<a href="#FNanchor_6:1_22">7</a>). Internal evidence (<a href="#FNanchor_9:1_26">10</a>). Marked differences +between Fletcher's and Shakspere's styles (<a href="#FNanchor_10:2_28">11</a>). Shakspere's +versification (<a href="#FNanchor_10:2_28">11</a>); abruptness (<a href="#FNanchor_10:2_28">11</a>); mannerisms and repetitions (<a href="#FNanchor_11:2_30">12</a>); +conciseness tending to obscurity (<a href="#FNanchor_12:2_32">13</a>); and rapid conception, opposed to +Fletcher's deliberation and diffuseness (<a href="#FNanchor_13:1_33">14</a>); his distinct, if crowded, +imagery, to Fletcher's vague indefiniteness (<a href="#FNanchor_14:1_35">15</a>). Shakspere's metaphors +(<a href="#FNanchor_15:2_37">16</a>), classical allusions (<a href="#FNanchor_17:1_40">18</a>), reflective turn of mind (<a href="#FNanchor_19:3_44">20</a>), conceits +(<a href="#FNanchor_21:1_46">22</a>), personification (<a href="#FNanchor_24:2_50">25</a>), all differ from Fletcher's manner (<a href="#FNanchor_25:1_51">26</a>).</p> + +<p>Origin of the story of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> (<a href="#FNanchor_25:1_51">26</a>). Sketch of First +Act, and reasons for assigning it to Shakspere (<a href="#FNanchor_26:1_52">27</a>). Outline of Second +Act, assigned to Fletcher (<a href="#FNanchor_34:1_65">35</a>). First Scene of Third Act, Shakspere's +(<a href="#FNanchor_38:1_71">40</a>); Plot of the rest (<a href="#FNanchor_39:1_72">41</a>). Fourth Act, Fletcher's (<a href="#FNanchor_42:1_75">44</a>). Description of +Fifth Act, given to Shakspere, omitting one scene (<a href="#FNanchor_43:1_76">45</a>).</p> + +<p>Points of likeness between Shakspere and contemporary dramatists (<a href="#FNanchor_54:1_98">56</a>). +Impossibility of imitating him (<a href="#FNanchor_56:1_100">58</a>). Inferiority of the underplot (<a href="#FNanchor_58:1_103">60</a>). +Reasons for supposing Shakspere chose the subject (<a href="#FNanchor_60:1_105">62</a>). His studies +(<a href="#FNanchor_65:1_110">67</a>). Resemblance between classical and romantic poetry (<a href="#FNanchor_67:1_114">69</a>). +Shakspere's plots contrasted with those of his contemporaries (<a href="#FNanchor_71:1_120">73</a>); his +treatment of passion (<a href="#FNanchor_72:1_121">74</a>); unity of conception (<a href="#FNanchor_76:1_125">78</a>).</p> + +<p>Poetical art compared with plastic (<a href="#FNanchor_81:1_130">83</a>). Greek plastic art aimed at +expressing Beauty and affecting the senses (<a href="#FNanchor_82:1_131">84</a>); poetry, at expressing +and affecting the mind (<a href="#FNanchor_83:2_134">86</a>); therefore poetry appeals to wider +sympathies (<a href="#FNanchor_85:1_136">88</a>). Dramatic poetry the highest form of poetry (<a href="#FNanchor_90:1_141">92</a>).</p> + +<p>Why Shakspere excelled (<a href="#FNanchor_90:2_142">93</a>). His representations of human nature both +<i>true</i> and <i>impressive</i> (<a href="#FNanchor_91:1_143">94</a>); he delineated both its intellect and +passion (<a href="#FNanchor_96:1_149">99</a>). His morality (<a href="#FNanchor_98:1_151">101</a>); his representations of evil (<a href="#FNanchor_101:2_155">104</a>).</p> + +<p>Conclusion. Summary of the argument as to plot, scenic arrangements, and +execution (<a href="#FNanchor_102:2_157">105</a>).</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><!-- Page xiii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii"></a>[<a href="./images/xiii.png">xiii</a>]</span></p> +<h2>LIFE OF PROFESSOR W. SPALDING,</h2> + +<p class="p4">BY HIS SCHOOL-FELLOW AND FRIEND,</p> + +<p class="p2">JOHN HILL BURTON, LL.D.,</p> + +<p class="p4">AUTHOR OF 'THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND,' ETC., ETC.</p> + + +<p>William Spalding was born on the 22nd of May in the year 1809, at +Aberdeen. His father was a practising lawyer as a member of the Society +of Advocates in that town, and held office as Procurator Fiscal of the +district, or local representative of the law officers of the crown, in +the investigation of crimes and the prosecution of criminals. Spalding's +mother, Frances Read, was well connected among the old and influential +families of the city. When he went to school, Spalding was known to be +the only son of a widow. He had one sister who died in early life. +Whatever delicacy of constitution he inherited seems to have come from +his father's side, for his mother lived to the year 1874, and died in +the house of her son's widow among her grown-up grandchildren.</p> + +<p>Spalding had the usual school and college education of the district. He +attended the elementary burgh schools for English reading, writing, and +arithmetic, and passed on to Latin in the grammar school. In his day the +fees for attendance in that school, whence many pupils have passed into +eminence, were raised from 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to 10<i>s.</i> for each quarter of the +year. Those who knew Spalding in later life, would not readily +understand that as a school-boy he was noticeable for his personal +beauty. His features were small and symmetrical, and his cheeks had a +brilliant colour. This faded as he approached middle age, and the +features lost in some measure their proportions. He had ever a grave, +thoughtful, and acute face, and one of his favourite pupils records the +quick glance of his keen grey eye in the active duties of his class. He +was noticed in his latter years to have a resemblance to Francis and +Leonard Horner, and what Sydney Smith said of the older and more +distinguished of these brethren might have been said of Spalding's +earnest honest face, that "the commandments were written on his +forehead." When he had exhausted his five years' curriculum at the +grammar school, Spalding <!-- Page xiv --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv"></a>[<a href="./images/xiv.png">xiv</a>]</span>stepped on a November morning, with some of +his school-fellows, and a band of still more primitive youth, from the +Aberdeenshire moorlands, and the distant highlands, to enter the open +door of Marishal College, and compete for a bursary or endowment. This +arena of mental gladiatorship was open to all comers, without question +of age, country, or creed. The arrangement then followed—and no doubt +still in use, for it has every quality of fairness and effectiveness to +commend it, was this—An exercise was given out. It then consisted +solely of a passage in English of considerable length, dictated to and +written out by the competitors, who had to convert it into Latin. The +name of each competitor was removed from his exercise, and kept by a +municipal officer. A committee of sages, very unlikely to recognise any +known handwriting among the multitude of papers subjected to their +critical examination, sorted the exercises in the order of their merits, +and then the names of the successful competitors were found. My present +impression is that Spalding took the first bursary. It may have been the +second or the third, for occasionally a careless inaccuracy might trip +up the best scholar, but by acclamation the first place was assigned to +Spalding. Indeed, in a general way, through the whole course of his +education he swept the first prizes before him. When he finished the +four years' curriculum of Marishal College, he attended a few classes in +the college of Edinburgh, where the instruction was of another +kind—less absolute teaching, but perhaps opportunities for ascending +into higher spheres of knowledge. It was a little to the surprise of his +companions that he was next found undergoing those "Divinity Hall" +exercises, which predicate ambition to be ordained for the Church of +Scotland, with the prospect, to begin with, of some moorland parish with +a manse on a windy hill and a sterile but extensive glebe, a vista lying +beyond of possible promotion to the ministry of some wealthy and +hospitable civic community. Spalding said little about his views while +he studied for the Church, and nothing about his reasons for changing +his course, as he did, after a few months of study in his usual +energetic fashion. He had apparently no quarrel either with institutions +or persons, stimulating him to change his design, and he ever spoke +respectfully of the established Church of Scotland.</p> + +<p>From this episodical course of study he brought with him some valuable +additions to the large stores of secular learning at his command. He had +a powerful memory, and great facilities for mastering and simplifying +sciences as well as languages. He seemed to say to himself, like Bacon, +"I have taken all knowledge to be my province." With any of his friends +who strayed into eccentric by-paths of inquiry he was <!-- Page xv --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv"></a>[<a href="./images/xv.png">xv</a>]</span>sarcastic—almost +intolerant, in denouncing their selection. Why abandon the great +literature—the great sciences and the great arts—which the noblest and +strongest intellects in all ages have combined to enrich and bring to +perfection? Master all that has been done in these, in the first place, +and then you may be permitted to take your devious course. In all the +departments of study he seemed to pass over the intermediate agencies, +to contemplate with something like worship the great leading spirits +whose intellectual stature raised them far above the mob. So in +literature, it was in Homer and Shakspeare that he delighted. In the +sciences connected with the analysis and the uses of intellect, he +looked to Aristotle, Hume, and Kant. In the exact sciences, to Galileo, +Tycho Brache and Newton, and so on. In art, he could admit the merits of +a Teniers, an Ostade, or a Morland, in accurately rendering nature, as +he would admit the merit of an ingenious toy. He could not but wonder at +the turbulent power of Rubens, but he was bitter on the purpose these +gifts were put to, in developing unsightly masses of flesh, and motions +and attitudes wanting alike in beauty and dignity. It was in Michel +Angelo, Raphael, and Thorwaldsen, with a select group from those +approaching near to these in their characteristic qualities, that the +young student selected the gods of his idolatry.</p> + +<p>This love of art was something new in Spalding's native district. There +all forms of learning were revered, and many a striving rustic devoted +the whole energies of his life to acquire the means of teaching his +fellow-men from the pulpit or the printing press. But art was nought +among them. Spalding was thoroughly attached to his native district, and +could well have said, "I love my fathers' northern land, where the dark +pine trees grow;" but when his thoughts ran on art, he would sometimes +bitterly call the north of Scotland a modern Bœotia. This is not the +place for inquiring how it came to pass, that neglect of art could keep +company with an ardent love of letters, but it is remarkable that the +district so destitute of the æsthetic, gave to the world some +considerable artists. In the old days there was George Jameson; and in +Spalding's own generation, Bœotia produced Dyce, Giles, Philips, and +Cassy as painters, with Brodie as a sculptor. Spalding could not but see +merit in these, for none of them gave themselves to vulgar or purely +popular art. Still he panted after the higher altitudes, and it appeared +to him at one time that in his friend David Scot he had found the +practical master of his ideal field. Scot had, to be sure, grand +conceptions, but he did not possess the gift that enabled the great +masters to abstract them from the clay of the common world. He had the +defect—and his friend seeing it, felt it <!-- Page xvi --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi"></a>[<a href="./images/xvi.png">xvi</a>]</span>almost as a personal +calamity—of lapsing into the ungainly, and even the grotesque, in his +most aspiring efforts.</p> + +<p>In approaching the time when the book to which this notice is prefixed +was published, one is tempted to offer a word or two of explanation on +its writer not appearing before the world earlier; and when he did +appear choosing so unobtrusive a fashion for his entry. About the time +when his college education ended, there was something like a revival of +literary ambition in Aberdeen, limited to young men who were Spalding's +contemporaries. A few of them appealed for the loudest blasts of the +trumpet of fame, in grand efforts in heroic and satirical poetry, and +their works may be found in the libraries of collectors curious in +specimens of forgotten provincial literature. These authors were +generally clever young men; and like others of their kind, they found in +after life that verse was not the only path to fame or fortune. One of +them became a distinguished pulpit orator. If Paley noticed, as an "only +defect" in a brother clergyman, that he was a popular preacher, Spalding +was apt to take a harsher view of such a failing; nor would he palliate +it on the representation of one who was the friend and admirer of both, +who pleaded the trials that a person so gifted is subjected to, noting +that there were certain eminences that the human head could not reach +without becoming dizzy—as, for instance, being Emperor of Russia, +Ambassador at an oriental court, Provost of a Scotch "Burgh toon"—or a +popular preacher. Another contemporary who courted and obtained +popularity, and still, to the joy of his friends, lives to enjoy it, was +less distasteful to Spalding, though trespassing on his own field of +ambition as a Greek scholar and Homeric critic. But he made the +distinction, that in this instance he thought the homage to popularity +was natural to the man, moving in irresistible impulses unregulated by a +system for bringing popularity in aid of success.</p> + +<p>The lookers-on, knowing that Spalding was ambitious, expected to hear +him in the tuneful choir, but he was dumb. He was once or twice, by +those nearest to him, heard in song, and literally heard only, for it is +believed that he never allowed any manuscript testimony of such a +weakness to leave his custody. One satirical performance got popularity +by being committed to memory. It was called "The fire-balloon." In the +year 1828 there was an arousing of public sympathy with the sufferers by +a great conflagration at Merimachi in North America. A body of the +students who had imbibed from the Professor of Natural Philosophy an +enthusiasm about aerostation, proposed to raise money for the sufferers +by making and exhibiting a huge fire balloon. The effort was embarrassed +by many difficulties and adventures affording opportunity for the +satirist. <!-- Page xvii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii"></a>[<a href="./images/xvii.png">xvii</a>]</span>For instance, a trial trip was attempted, and one of "the +committee," who was the son of a clergyman, got hold of the key of his +father's church, and put its interior at the disposal of his colleagues. +The balloon inflated and ascended. The problem of getting it down again, +however, had not been solved. It got itself comfortably at rest in the +roof of a cupola, and the young philosophers then had to wait until it +became exhausted enough to descend.</p> + +<p>The literary ambition of young Aberdeen found for itself a very sedate +and respectable looking organ in "<i>The Aberdeen Magazine</i>," published +monthly during the years 1831 and 1832, and still visible in two thick +octavo volumes. Spalding was not to be tempted into this project, though +there was a slight touch in it supposed, solely from internal evidence, +to have come from him. A heavy controversy was begun by one calling +himself "a classical reformer," who brought up foemen worthy of his +steel. At the end of the whole was a sting in a postscript, more +effective than anything in the unwieldy body it was attached to. <ins class="corr" title="original has extraneous quotation mark">P. S.</ins> +As I am no great scholar, perhaps your classical Reformer will have the +goodness to tell me where I can see <i>The Works of Socrates</i>. He seems to +allude to them twice [reference to pages]. As he modestly tells us that +he is a much better translator of Homer than Pope was, perhaps he will +be kind enough to favour the world with a translation, to use his own +words, of "those works which have immortalized the name of +Socrates."<a name="FNanchor_xvii:1_11" id="FNanchor_xvii:1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_xvii:1_11" class="fnanchor">[xvii:1]</a></p> + +<p>The papers in the Aberdeen Magazine were not all of the sombre cumbrous +kind. There was an infusion of fresh young blood, fired perhaps by the +influence of Wilson and Lockhart in Blackwood's Magazine, but seeking +original forms of its own. For the leader of this school, Spalding had +both esteem and admiration, but it was for far other merits than those +of the brisk unrestrained writer of fugitive literature. This was Joseph +Robertson, afterwards distinguished as an archæologist. He survived +Spalding eight years. No lines of study could well be in more opposite +directions than those of the two men who respected each other. While +Spalding revelled in all that was brightest and best in literature and +art, Robertson devoted himself to the development of our knowledge about +the period when the higher arts—those of the painter and the +sculptor—had been buried with the higher literature, and the classic +languages had degenerated, in the hands of those who, as Du Cange, whose +ample pages were often turned by Robertson, called them, were +"Scriptores mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis." The source of Spalding's +admiration was that Robertson's writing was perfect of its kind, and led +<!-- Page xviii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii"></a>[<a href="./images/xviii.png">xviii</a>]</span>to important and conclusive results. It was in this spirit that he +wrote his own "Letter." It did not fulfil a high aspiration, but it must +be perfect; and it was surely a moment of supreme happiness to him, when +he found the unknown author sought for and praised by so cautious and +reserved a critic as Hallam.</p> + +<p>The "Letter" was published in 1833. It is characteristic of its author's +distaste of loud applause, that whenever this, his first achievement in +letters, saw the light, he fled, as it were, from the knowledge of what +was said of it, and wandered for several months in Italy and Germany. +This was an era in his life, for it gave him the opportunity of seeing +face to face, and profoundly studying, the great works of art that had +hitherto only been imaged in his dreams from copies and engravings. He +at the same time studied—or rather enjoyed—nature. In his native north +he had been accustomed to ramble among the Grampians at the head of the +Dee, where the precipices are from 1500 to 2000 feet high, and snow lies +all the year round. In these rambles he encountered hardships such as +one would hardly have thought within the capacity of his delicate frame. +He took the same method of enjoyable travelling in the Apennines—that +of the Pedestrian.</p> + +<p>He gave to the world a slight morsel descriptive of his experiences and +enjoyments, in the Blackwood's Magazine of November, 1835. They were +told in so fine a spirit, so free both from ungraceful levity and solemn +pedantry, that the reader only regretted that they were too sparingly +imparted. He thus announced his own enjoyment in his pilgrimage: "Among +the ruined palaces and temples of Rome, and in the vineyards and +orange-groves beside the blue sea of Naples, I had warmed my imagination +with that inspiration which, once breathed upon the heart, never again +grows cold. It did not desert me now as I entered this upper valley of +the Apennines to seek a new colour and form of Italian landscape. Happy +and elevating recollections thronged in upon me, and blended with the +clear sunshine which slept on the green undulating hills." This fragment +is the only morsel of autobiographic information left by its author, and +therefore perhaps the following, taken from among many expressions of a +genial spirit enjoying itself in freedom, may not be unacceptable. He +has crossed the high-lying, bare plain of Rosetto, and reaches the +village of Val san Giovanni, where "shelter was heartily welcome, the +sun was set, snow-flakes were beginning to whirl in the air, and before +we reached the village, a sharp snow-storm had set in." Here he is +taking comfort to himself before a huge wood fire, when "a man entered +of superior dress and appearance to the <!-- Page xix --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix"></a>[<a href="./images/xix.png">xix</a>]</span>rest, and behind him bustled up +a little wretch in the government indirect-tax livery, who, never saying +by your leave, pushed a chair to the fire for his master. The gentleman +popped down, and turning to me, 'I am the Podestà,' said he. I made my +bow to the chief magistrate of the place. 'I am the Potestà,' said he +again, and our little squinting spy repeated reproachfully, 'His +excellency is the Podestà.'</p> + +<p>"I was resolved not to understand what they would be at, and the +dignitary explained it to me with a copious use of circumlocution. He +said he had no salary from the government—this did not concern +me;—that he had it in charge to apprehend all vagabonds; this he seemed +to think might concern me. He asked for my passport, which was exhibited +and found right; and the Podestà proved the finest fellow possible. +These villagers then became curious to know what object I had in +travelling about among their mountains. My reader will by this time +believe me when I say that the question puzzled me. My Atanasio felt +that it touched his honour to be suspected of guiding a traveller who +could not tell what he travelled for. He took on him the task of reply. +Premising that I was a foreigner, and perhaps did not know how to +express myself, he explained that I was one of those meritorious +individuals who travel about discovering all the countries and the +unknown mountains, and putting all down on paper; and these individuals +always ask likewise why there are no mendicant friars in the country, +and which the peasants eat oftenest, mutton or macaroni? He added, with +his characteristic determined solemnity, that he had known several such +inquisitive travellers. This clear definition gave universal +satisfaction."<a name="FNanchor_xix:1_12" id="FNanchor_xix:1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_xix:1_12" class="fnanchor">[xix:1]</a></p> + +<p>Soon after Spalding's return to Scotland, the late George Boyd, the +sagacious chief of the Firm of Oliver and Boyd, thought he might serve +him in a considerable literary project. It was the age of small books +published in groups—of "Constable's Miscellany," "Lardner's +Cyclopedia," "Murray's Family Library," and the like. With these Mr Boyd +thought he would compete, in the shape of the "Edinburgh Cabinet +Library," and Spalding was prevailed on to write for it three volumes, +with the title, "Italy and the Italian Islands." The bulk of the +contributions to such collections are mere compilations. But Scott, +Southey, Macintosh, and Moore had enlivened them with gifts from a +higher literature, and Spalding's contribution was well fitted to match +with the best of these, though he had to content himself in the ranks of +the compilers, until the discerning found a higher place for his book.</p> + +<p>The same acute observer who had set him to this task found another <!-- Page xx --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx"></a>[<a href="./images/xx.png">xx</a>]</span>for +him in "The History of English Literature." The <i>Encyclopedia +Britannica</i> in the same manner drew him into contributions which +developed themselves into two works of great value, on "Logic," and on +"Rhetoric." That one of so original and self-relying a nature should +have thus been led by the influence of others into the chief labours of +his life, is explained by the intensity of his desire for perfection in +all he did. Once induced to lift his pen in any particular cause, he +could not lay it down again while there remained an incompleteness +unfilled, or an imperfection unremedied.</p> + +<p>In a review on his book on Logic, having detected, from "various +internal symptoms of origin," the style and manner of a personal friend +of his own, he wrote to the culprit in this characteristic form, "very +many thanks for the notice. It may do good with some readers who don't +know the corrupt motives by which it was prompted: and it strikes me as +being exceedingly well and dexterously executed. I am quite sorry to +think how much trouble it must have cost you to pierce into the bowels +of the dry and dark territory, so far as the points you have been able +to reach. I am afraid also that you had to gutta-percha your conscience +a little, before it would stretch to some of your allegations, both +about the work and about the science. I see already so much that I could +myself amend—not in respect of doctrine, but in the manner of +exposition—as to make me regret that I am not in a place where the +classes of students are large enough to take off an edition, and so to +give me by and by the chance of re-writing the book. Yet it is +satisfactory to me to have got clearly the start of the publication of +Hamilton's Lectures, and so to anticipate—for some of the points on +which it will certainly be found that I have taken up ground of my +own—the attention of <i>some</i> of the few men who have written on the +science. Any of them who, having already looked into my book, shall +attempt to master Hamilton's system when it appears in his own statement +of it, are sure to find, if I do not greatly mistake, that I have raised +several problems, the discussion of which will require that my +suggestions be considered independently of Hamilton's, and my little +bits of theory either accepted or refuted. I dare say I told you that +early in the winter I had very satisfactory letters from Germany, and +you heard that the book was kindly taken by some of the Englishmen it +was sent to, and set on tooth and nail, though very amicably, by," &c.</p> + +<p>Let us go back to the chronology of his personal history, after his one +opportunity of seeing the world outside of Britain. He had joined the +Bar of Scotland before this episode in his life, and on his return he +took <!-- Page xxi --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi"></a>[<a href="./images/xxi.png">xxi</a>]</span>up the position of an advocate prepared for practice. This was no +idle ambitious attempt, for he had endured the drudgery of a solicitor's +office for the mastery of details, and had thoroughly studied the +substance of the law. His career now promised a great future. He was +affluent enough to spurn what Pope called "low gains;" he had good +connections, and became speedily a rising counsel. His career seemed to +be in the line of his friend Jeffrey's, taking all the honours and +emoluments of the profession, and occasionally relaxing from it in a +brilliant paper in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>.<a name="FNanchor_xxi:1_13" id="FNanchor_xxi:1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_xxi:1_13" class="fnanchor">[xxi:1]</a> To complete the vista +of good fortune he took to be the domestic sharer of his fortunes a wife +worthy of himself—Miss Agnes Frier, born of a family long known and +respected on the Border. They were married on the 22nd of March in the +year 1838.</p> + +<p>Perhaps some inward monitor told him that the fortunes before him were +too heavy to be borne by the elements of health and strength allotted to +him. It was to the surprise of his friends that in 1838 he abandoned the +bar, and accepted the chair of Rhetoric in Edinburgh. In 1845 he +exchanged it for the chair of Rhetoric and Logic at St Andrews. The +emoluments there were an inducement to him, since part of the property +of his family had been lost through commercial reverses over which he +had no control; and he was not one to leave anything connected with the +future of his family to chance. It was a sacrifice, for he left behind +him dear friends of an older generation, such as Jeffrey, Cockburn, +Hamilton, Wilson, and Pillans. Then there were half way between that +generation and his own, Douglas Cheape, Charles Neaves, and George Moir; +while a small body of his contemporaries sorely missed him, for he was a +staunch friend ever to be depended on. He was a <!-- Page xxii --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii"></a>[<a href="./images/xxii.png">xxii</a>]</span>great teacher, and left +a well-trained generation of scholars behind him. The work of the +instructor, abhorred by most men, and especially by sensitive men, was +to him literally the "delightful task" of the poet who has endured many +a jibe for so monstrous a euphuism. Even while yet he was himself a +student, if he saw that a companion was wasting good abilities in +idleness or vapid reading, he would burden his own laborious hours with +attempts to stimulate his lazy friend. Just after he had passed through +the Greek class of Marishal College, a temporary teacher for that class +was required. Some one made the bold suggestion of trying the most +distinguished of the students fresh from the workshop, and Spalding +taught the class with high approval. As years passed on, the spirit of +the teacher strengthened within him. The traditions of the older +university were more encouraging to the drilling process than Edinburgh, +where the tendency was towards attractive lecturing. So entirely did the +teacher's duty at last absorb his faculties, that the phenomenon was +compared to the provisions in nature for compensating the loss by +special weaknesses or deficiencies, and that the scholar, conscious that +his own days of working were limited, instinctively felt that in +imparting his stores to others who would distribute them after he was +gone, he was making the most valuable use of his acquirements.</p> + +<p>It was a mighty satisfaction to old friends in Edinburgh to hear that +Spalding had condescended to seek, and that he had found, that blessed +refuge of the overworked and the infirm, called a hobby. He was no +sportsman. The illustrious Golfing links of St Andrews were spread +before him in vain, though their attractions induced many a man to pitch +his tabernacle on their border, and it was sometimes consolatorily said +of Professors relegated to this arid social region, that they were +reconciling themselves to Golf. The days were long past for mounting the +knapsack and striding over the Apennines or even the Grampians. +Spalding's hobby was a simple one, but akin to the instincts of his +cultivated taste; it was exercised in his flower-garden. We may be sure +that he did not debase himself to the example of the stupid +floriculturist, the grand ambition of whose life is successfully to +nourish some prize monster in the shape of tulip or pansy. He allied his +gentle task of a cultivator of beautiful flowers, with high science, in +botany and vegetable physiology.</p> + +<p>Besides such lighter alleviations, he had all the consolations that the +most satisfactory domestic conditions can administer to the sufferer. In +his later days he became afflicted with painful rheumatic attacks, and +the terrible symptoms of confirmed heart-disease. He died on the 16th of +November, 1859.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_xvii:1_11" id="Footnote_xvii:1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_xvii:1_11"><span class="label">[xvii:1]</span></a> Aberdeen Magazine, II., 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_xix:1_12" id="Footnote_xix:1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_xix:1_12"><span class="label">[xix:1]</span></a> Blackwood's Mag., Nov. 1835, p. 669.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_xxi:1_13" id="Footnote_xxi:1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_xxi:1_13"><span class="label">[xxi:1]</span></a> The following list of her father's contributions, drawn +up by Miss Mary Spalding, is believed to be complete.</p> + +<p>No. 144. July 1840. Recent Shaksperian literature. (Books by Collier, +Brown, De Quincey, Dyce, Courtenay, C. Knight, Mrs Jameson, Coleridge, +Hallam, &c.)</p> + +<p>No. 145. October 1840. Introduction to the Literature of Europe, by +Henry Hallam.</p> + +<p>No. 147. April 1841. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher. With an +Introduction. By George Darley.</p> + +<p>No. 164. April 1845. 1. The Pictorial Edition of the Works of +Shakespeare. Edited by Charles Knight.—2. The Comedies, Histories, +Tragedies, and Poems of William Shakespeare. Edited by Charles +Knight.—3. The Works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an +entirely new collation of the old editions; with the various Readings, +Notes, a Life of the Poet, and a History of the English Stage. By J. +Payne Collier, Esquire, F.S.A.</p> + +<p>No. 173. July 1847. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher. By the Rev. +Alexander Dyce.</p> + +<p>No. 181. July 1849. 1. Lectures on Shakespeare. By H. N. Hudson.—2. +Macbeth de Shakespeare, en 5 Actes et en vers. Par M. Emile Deschemps.</p> + +<p><i>ib.</i> King Arthur. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. 2nd edition, London, 1849, +8vo.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>[<a href="./images/1.png">1</a>]</span></p> +<h2>A LETTER<br /> +<br /> +ON<br /> +<br /> +SHAKSPEARE'S AUTHORSHIP<br /> +<br /> +OF THE DRAMA ENTITLED<br /> +<br /> +<i>THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN</i>.</h2> + + +<p>My dear L——, We have met again, after an interval long enough to have +made both of us graver than we were wont to be. A few of my rarely +granted hours of leisure have lately been occupied in examining a +question on which your taste and knowledge equally incline and qualify +you to enter. Allow me to address to you the result of my inquiry, as a +pledge of the gratification which has been afforded me by the renewal of +our early intercourse.</p> + +<p>Proud as <span class="smcap">Shakspeare's</span> countrymen are of his name, it is singular, though +not unaccountable, that at this day our common list of his works should +remain open to correction. <span class="sidenote">The list of <span class="smcap">Shakspere's</span> works is +not yet settled.</span> <span class="sidenote">Are all his in his publisht "<i>Works</i>"?</span> +Every one knows that some plays printed in his volumes have weak claims +to that distinction; but, while the exclusion even of works certainly +not his would now be a rash exercise of prerogative in any editor, it is +a question of more interest, whether there may not be dramas not yet +admitted among his collected works, which have a right to be there, and +might be inserted without the danger attending the dismissal of any +already put upon the list. <span class="sidenote">Six "Doubtful Plays:" none by +Shakspere.</span>A claim for admission has been set up in favour of Malone's +six plays,<a name="FNanchor_1:1_14" id="FNanchor_1:1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1:1_14" class="fnanchor">[1:1]</a> without any ground as to five of them, and <a name="FNanchor_1:2_15" id="FNanchor_1:2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_1:2_15" class="fnanchor">[1:2]</a>with +very little to support it even for the sixth. <span class="sidenote">Ireland's +forgery, <i>Vortigern</i>.</span> <span class="sidenote">The folly of supposing <i>Vortigern</i> +genuine.</span>Ireland's impostures are an anomaly in literary history: even +the spell and sway of temporary fashion and universal opinion are causes +scarcely adequate to account for the blindness of the eminent men who +fell into the snare. The want of any external evidence in favour of the +<!-- Page 2 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>[<a href="./images/2.png">2</a>]</span>first fabrication, the Shakspeare papers, was overlooked; and the +internal evidence, which was wholly against the genuineness, was +unhesitatingly admitted as establishing it. The play of 'Vortigern' had +little more to support it than the previous imposition.</p> + +<p>There are two cases, however, in which we have external presumptions to +proceed from; for there are traditions traceable to Shakspeare's own +time, or nearly so, of his having assisted in two plays, still known to +us, but never placed among his works. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere said +(absurdly) to have helpt in Ben Jonson's <i>Sejanus</i>.</span>The one, the +'Sejanus', in which Shakspeare is said to have assisted Jonson, was +re-written by the latter himself, and published as it now stands among +his writings, the part of the assistant poet having been entirely +omitted; so that the question as to that play, a very doubtful question, +is not important, and hardly even curious. But the other drama is in our +hands as it came from the closets of the poets, and, if Shakspeare's +partial authorship were established, ought to have a place among his +works. <span class="sidenote"><i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> attributed to Shakspere and +Fletcher; and rightly so.</span>It is, as you know, <span class="smcap">The Two Noble Kinsmen</span>, +printed among the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, and sometimes +attributed to <span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span> and <span class="smcap">Fletcher</span> jointly. I have been able to +satisfy myself that it is rightly so attributed, and hope to be able to +prove to you, who are intimately conversant with Shakspeare, and +familiar also with the writings of his supposed co-adjutor, that there +are good grounds for the opinion. <span class="sidenote">It is unjustly excluded +from <i>Shakspere's Works</i>.</span>The same conclusion has already been reached +by others; but the discussion of the question cannot be needless, so +long as this fine drama continues excluded from the received list of +Shakspeare's works; and while there is reason to believe that there are +many discerning students and zealous admirers of the poet, to whom it is +known only by name. The beauty of the work itself will make much of the +investigation delightful to you, even though my argument on it may seem +feeble and stale.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">I. Historical or External Evidence.<br /> +<br /> +II. External Evidence, p. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</span></p> + +<p>The proof is, of course, two-fold; the first branch emerging <a name="FNanchor_2:1_16" id="FNanchor_2:1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_2:1_16" class="fnanchor">[2:1]</a>from +any records or memorials which throw light on the subject from without; +the second, from a consideration of the work itself, and a comparison of +its qualities with those of Shakspeare or Fletcher. You will keep in +mind, that it has not been doubted, and may be assumed, that Fletcher +had a share in the work; the only question <!-- Page 3 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>[<a href="./images/3.png">3</a>]</span>is,—Whether Shakspeare +wrote any part of it, and what parts, if any?</p> + +<p>The Historical Evidence claims our attention in the first instance; but +in no question of literary genuineness is this the sort of proof which +yields the surest grounds of conviction. <span class="sidenote">I. External +Evidence.</span>Such questions arise only under circumstances in which the +external proof on either side is very weak, and the internal evidence +has therefore to be continually resorted to for supplying the defects of +the external. It is true that a complete proof of a work having been +actually written by a particular person, destroys any contrary +presumption from intrinsic marks; and, in like manner, when a train of +evidence is deduced, showing it to be impossible that a work could have +been written by a certain author, no internal likeness to other works of +his can in the least weaken the negative conclusion. <span class="sidenote"> +Historical evidence cannot exclude internal, unless the former is +complete.</span>In either case, however, the historical evidence must be +incontrovertible, before it can exclude examination of the internal; and +the two cases are by no means equally frequent. It scarcely ever happens +that there is external evidence weighty enough to establish certainly, +of itself, an individual's authorship of a particular work; but the +external proof that his authorship was impossible, may often be +convincing and perfect, from an examination of dates, or the like. +Since, therefore, external evidence against authorship admits of +completeness, we are entitled, when such evidence exclusively is founded +on, to demand that it shall be complete. Where by the very narrowest +step it falls short of a demonstration of absolute impossibility, the +internal evidence cannot be refused admittance in contravention of it, +and comes in with far greater force than that of the other. There may be +cases where authorship can be made out to the highest degree, at least, +of probability, by strong internal evidence coming in aid of an external +proof equally balanced for and against; and even where the extrinsic +proof is of itself sufficient <a name="FNanchor_3:1_17" id="FNanchor_3:1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_3:1_17" class="fnanchor">[3:1]</a>to infer improbability, internal +marks may be so decided the opposite way, as to render the question +absolutely doubtful, or to occasion a leaning towards the affirmative +side. <span class="sidenote">Internal evidence the true test for <i>The Two N. K.</i></span> +These principles point out the internal evidence as the true ground on +which my cause must be contested; but it was not necessary to follow +them out to their full extent; for I can show you, <!-- Page 4 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>[<a href="./images/4.png">4</a>]</span>that the external +facts which we have here, few as they are, raise a presumption in favour +of Shakspeare's authorship, as strong as exists in cases of more +practical importance, where its effect has never been questioned.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote"><i>The Two N. K.</i> printed in 1634 as by Fletcher and +Shakspere.</span></p> + +<p>The fact from which the maintainers of Shakspeare's share in this drama +have to set out, is the first printing of it, which took place in 1634. +In the title-page of this first edition,<a name="FNanchor_4:1_18" id="FNanchor_4:1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_4:1_18" class="fnanchor">[4:1]</a> the play is stated to be +the joint work of Shakspeare and Fletcher. <span class="sidenote">Steevens's +doubts.</span> It is needless to enumerate categorically the doubts which have +been thrown, chiefly by the acute and perverse Steevens, on the credit +due to this assertion; for a few observations will show that they have +by no means an overwhelming force, while there are contrary presumptions +far more than sufficient to weigh them down. <span class="sidenote">A.D. 1634 was 18 +years after Shakspere's death, 9 after Fletcher's.</span> The edition was not +published till eighteen years after Shakspeare's death, and nine years +after Fletcher's; but any suspicion which might arise from the length of +this interval, as giving an opportunity for imposture, is at once +removed by one consideration, which is almost an unanswerable argument +in favour of the assertion on the title-page, and in contravention of +this or any other doubts. <span class="sidenote">No motive to forge Shakspere's +name, as he (Sh.) had then fallen into neglect.</span> There was no motive for +falsely stating Shakspeare's authorship, because no end would have been +gained by it; for it is a fact admitting of the fullest proof, that, +even so recently after Shakspeare's death as 1634, he had fallen much +into neglect. Fletcher had become far more popular, and his name in the +title-page would have been a surer passport to public favour than +Shakspeare's. If either of the names was to be <a name="FNanchor_4:2_19" id="FNanchor_4:2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_4:2_19" class="fnanchor">[4:2]</a>fabricated, +Fletcher's (which stands foremost in the title-page as printed) was the +more likely of the two to have been preferred. It appears then that the +time when the publisher's assertion of Shakspeare's authorship was made, +gives it a right to more confidence than it could have deserved if it +had been advanced earlier. If the work had been printed during the +poet's life, and the height of his popularity, its title-page would have +been no evidence at all. <!-- Page 5 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>[<a href="./images/5.png">5</a>]</span>And when the assertion is freed from the +suspicion of designed imposture, the truth of it is confirmed by its +stating the play to have been acted by the king's servants, and at the +Blackfriars. <span class="sidenote"><i>2 N. K.</i> acted at the Blackfriars (in whose +profits Shakspere had once a share).</span> It was that company which had been +Shakspeare's; the Globe and Blackfriars were the two theatres at which +they played; and at one or the other of these houses all his +acknowledged works seem to have been brought out. The fact of the play +not having been printed sooner, is accounted for by the dramatic +arrangements and practice of the time: the first collected edition of +Shakspeare's works, only eleven years earlier than the printing of this +play, contained about twenty plays of his not printed during his life; +and the long interval is a reason also why the printer and publisher are +different persons from any who were concerned in Shakspeare's other +works. The hyperbolical phraseology of the title-page is quite in the +taste of the day, and is exceeded by the quarto editions of some of +Shakspeare's admitted works.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Custom of authors writing plays together.</span></p> + +<p>Was the alleged co-operation then in itself likely to have taken place? +It was. Such partnerships were very generally formed by the dramatists +of that time; both the poets were likely enough to have projected some +union of the kind, and to have chosen each other as the parties to it. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere followed this custom, though rarely.</span> Although +Shakspeare seems to have followed this custom less frequently than most +of his contemporaries, we have reason to think that he did not wholly +refrain from it; and his favourite plan of altering plays previously +written by others, is a near approach to it. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher very +often.</span> As to Fletcher, his name is connected in every mind with that of +Beaumont; and the memorable and melancholy letter of the three +players,<a name="FNanchor_5:1_20" id="FNanchor_5:1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_5:1_20" class="fnanchor">[5:1]</a> proves him to have coalesced with other writers even +during that poet's short <a name="FNanchor_5:2_21" id="FNanchor_5:2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_5:2_21" class="fnanchor">[5:2]</a>life. This is of some consequence, +because, if the two poets wrote at the same time, it would seem that +they must have done so previously to Beaumont's death; for Shakspeare +lived only one year longer than <!-- Page 6 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>[<a href="./images/6.png">6</a>]</span>Beaumont, and is believed to have spent +that year in the country. There is no proof that the drama before us was +not written before Beaumont's death (1615), and it is only certain that +its era was later than 1594. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's co-authors.</span> After +the loss of his friend, Fletcher is said to have been repeatedly +assisted by Massinger: he joined in one play with Jonson and Middleton, +and in another with Rowley. <span class="sidenote">His sonship to a bishop, no +hindrance.</span> His superior rank (he was the son of a bishop) has been +gravely mentioned as discrediting his connection with Shakspeare; but +the same objection applies with infinitely greater force to his known +co-operation with Field, Daborne, and the others just named; and the +idea is founded on radically wrong notions of the temper of that age. +<span class="sidenote">Fletcher's burlesquing Shakspere is no argument against their +having written together.</span> There is scarcely more substance in a doubt +raised from the frequency with which Shakspeare is burlesqued by +Beaumont and Fletcher. Those satirical flings could have been no reason +why Fletcher should be unwilling to coalesce with Shakspeare, because +they indicate no ill feeling towards him. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere pokes fun +at Kyd, Peele, Marlowe.</span> They were practised by all the dramatic writers +at the expense of each other; Shakspeare himself is a parodist, and +indulges in those quips frequently, not against such writers only as the +author of the Spanish Tragedy, but against Peele and even Marlowe, his +own fathers in the drama, and both dead before he vented the jests, +which he never would have uttered had he attached to them any degree of +malice. And therefore also Fletcher's sarcasms cannot have disinclined +Shakspeare to the coalition, especially as his personal character made +it very unlikely that he should have taken up any such grudge as a testy +person might have conceived from some of the more severe.</p> + +<p>But the circumstance on which most stress has been laid as disproving +Shakspeare's share in the drama in question, is this. <span class="sidenote">The <i>2 +N. K.</i> not in the First Folio of Shakspere's Works, 1623, put forth by +Shakspere's fellows.</span> While the first edition of it was not printed till +1634, two editions of Shakspeare's collected works had been published +between the time of his death (1616) and that year, in neither of which +this play appears; and it is said that its omission in the first folio +(1623), in particular, is fatal to its claim, since Heminge and +<a name="FNanchor_6:1_22" id="FNanchor_6:1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_6:1_22" class="fnanchor">[6:1]</a>Condell, who edited that collection, were Shakspeare's +fellow-actors and the executors of his will, and must be presumed to +have known perfectly what works were and what were not his. I have put +this objection <!-- Page 7 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>[<a href="./images/7.png">7</a>]</span>as strongly as it can be put; and at first sight it is +startling; but those who have most bibliographical knowledge of +Shakspeare's works, are best aware that much of its force is only +apparent. The omission in the second folio (1632) should not have been +founded on; for that edition is nothing but a reprint of the contents of +the first; and it is only the want of the play in this latter that we +have to consider. <span class="sidenote">But the First Folio is not of much +authority.</span> Now, you know well, that in taking some objections to the +authority of the First Folio, I shall only echo the opinions of +Shakspeare's most judicious critics. It was a speculation on the part of +the editors for their own advantage, either solely or in conjunction +with any others, who, as holders of shares in the Globe Theatre, had an +interest in the plays: for it was to the theatre, you will remark, and +not to Shakspeare or his heirs personally, that the manuscripts +belonged. <span class="sidenote">It was just a speculation for profit;</span> The edition +shews distinctly, that profit was its aim more than faithfulness to the +memory of the poet, in the correctness either of his text or of the list +of his works. Even the style of the preface excites suspicions which the +work itself verifies. <span class="sidenote">designd to put down the Quartos,</span> +<span class="sidenote">which yet it copies.</span> One object of it was to put down +editions of about fifteen separate plays of Shakspeare's, previously +printed in quarto, which, though in most respects more accurate than +their successors, had evidently been taken from stolen copies: the +preface of the folio, accordingly, strives to throw discredit on these +quartos, while the text, usually close in its adherence to them, falls +into errors where it quits them, and omits many very fine passages which +they give, and which the modern editors have been enabled by their +assistance to restore.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The Table of Contents of the First Folio of Shakspere's Works +is of less worth.</span></p> + +<p>Here it is, however, of more consequence to notice, that the authority +of the Table of Contents of the Folio is worse than weak. The editors +profess to give all Shakspeare's works, and none which are not his: we +know that they have fulfilled neither the one pledge nor the other. +There is no doubt but they could at least have enumerated Shakspeare's +works correctly: but their knowledge and their design of profit did +<a name="FNanchor_7:1_23" id="FNanchor_7:1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_7:1_23" class="fnanchor">[7:1]</a>not suit each other. <span class="sidenote">It lets in two Plays that are not +Shakspere's.</span> They have admitted, for plain reasons, two plays which are +not Shakspeare's. Their edition contains about twenty plays never before +printed; it was evidently their interest to enlarge this part of their +list as far as they safely could. <span class="sidenote"><i>1 Henry VI</i>,</span> The +pretended First Part of Henry VI., in <!-- Page 8 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>[<a href="./images/8.png">8</a>]</span>which Shakspeare may perhaps have +written a single scene,<a name="FNanchor_8:1_24" id="FNanchor_8:1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_8:1_24" class="fnanchor">[8:1]</a> but certainly not twenty lines besides, had +not been printed, and could be plausibly inserted; it does not seem that +they could have had any other reasons for giving it a place. <span class="sidenote"> +and <i>Titus Andronicus</i>.</span>The Tragedy of the Shambles, which we call +'Titus Andronicus,' if it had been printed at all, had been so only +once, and that thirty years before; therefore it likewise was a novelty; +and a pretext was easily found for its admission. The editors then were +unscrupulous and unfair as to the works which they inserted: professing +to give a full collection, they were no less so as to those which they +did not insert. <span class="sidenote"><i>Troilus and Cressida</i></span> 'Troilus and +Cressida,' an unpleasing drama, contains many passages of the highest +spirit and poetical richness, and the bad in it, as well as the good, is +perfectly characteristic of Shakspeare; it is unquestionably his. +<span class="sidenote">is not in the Table of Contents.</span> It does not appear in +Heminge and Condell's table of contents, and is only found appended, +like a separate work, to some copies of their edition. Its pages are not +even numbered along with the rest of the volume; and if the first +editors were the persons who printed it, it was clearly after the +remainder of the work. If they did print it, their manner of doing so +shews their carelessness of truth more strongly than if they had omitted +it altogether. They first make up their list, and state it as a full one +without that play, which they apparently had been unable to obtain; they +then procure access to the manuscript, print the play, and insert it in +the awkward way in which it stands, and thus virtually confess that the +assertion in their preface, made in reference to their table of +contents, was untrue. At any rate, a part of their impression was +circulated without this play. <span class="sidenote"><i>Pericles</i> is not in the +volume, and yet is in part Shakspere's.</span> 'Pericles' also is wholly +omitted by those editors; it appears for the first time in the third +folio (1666), an edition of no value, and its genuineness rests much on +the internal proofs, which <a name="FNanchor_8:2_25" id="FNanchor_8:2_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_8:2_25" class="fnanchor">[8:2]</a>are quite sufficient to establish it. It +is an irregular and imperfect play, older in form than any of +Shakspeare's; but it has clearly been augmented by many passages written +by him, and therefore had a right to be inserted by the first editors, +upon their own principles. <span class="sidenote">The editors of the First Folio put +forth an incomplete book.</span> These two plays then being certainly +Shakspeare's, no matter whether his best or his worst, and his editors +being so situated that <!-- Page 9 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>[<a href="./images/9.png">9</a>]</span>they must have known the fact, their edition is +allowed to appear as a complete collection of Shakspeare's works, +although its contents include neither of the two. They probably were +unable to procure copies; but they were not the less bound to have +acknowledged in their preface, that these, or any other plays which they +knew to be Shakspeare's, were necessary for making up a complete +collection. It in no view suited their purposes to make such a +statement; and it was not made. <span class="sidenote">We cannot trust the Editors +of the First Folio.</span> In short, the whole conduct of these editors +inspires distrust, but their unacknowledged omission of those two plays +deprives them of all claim to our confidence. The effect of that +omission, in reference to any play which can be brought forward as +Shakspeare's, is just this, that the want of the drama in their edition, +is of itself no proof whatever that Shakspeare was not the author of it, +and leaves the question, whether he was or was not, perfectly open for +decision on other evidence. It leaves the inquiry before us precisely in +that situation. Why Heminge and Condell could not procure the +manuscripts of 'Troilus,' 'Pericles,' or the 'Two Noble Kinsmen,' I am +not bound to shew. As to the last, Fletcher may have retained a partial +or entire right of property in it, and was alive at the publication of +their edition. Difficulties at least as great attach to the question as +to the other two rejected plays, in which the strength of the other +proofs has long been admitted as counterbalancing them. But the argument +serves my purpose without any theory on the subject. <span class="sidenote">The +First Folio no evidence against <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> The state of +it entitles me, as I conceive, to throw the First Folio entirely out of +view, as being no evidence one way or the other.</p> + +<p>Laying the folio aside then, I think I have shewn that, in the most +unfavourable view, no doubts which other circumstances can throw on the +assertion made in the title-page of the first edition of the 'Two Noble +Kinsmen,' are of such strength as to ren<a name="FNanchor_9:1_26" id="FNanchor_9:1_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_9:1_26" class="fnanchor">[9:1]</a>der the truth of it +improbable. <span class="sidenote">Strong internal evidence will prove it in part +Shakspere's.</span> Strong internal evidence therefore will, in any view, +establish Shakspeare's claim. But, if the consideration first suggested +be well-founded, (as I have no doubt it is,) namely, that the statement +of the publisher was disinterested, there arises a very strong external +presumption of the truth of his assertion, which will enable us to +proceed to the examination of the internal marks with a prepossession in +favour of Shakspeare's authorship.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 10 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>[<a href="./images/10.png">10</a>]</span> +As I wish to make you a convert to the affirmative opinion, it may be +wise to acquaint you that you will not be alone in it, if you shall +finally see reason to embrace it. <span class="sidenote">Early annotators on +Shakspere narrow-minded.</span> Shakspeare, you know, suffered a long eclipse, +which left him in obscurity till the beginning of last century, when he +reappeared surrounded by his annotators, a class of men who have +followed a narrow track, but yet are greater benefactors to us than we +are ready to acknowledge. The commentators have given little attention +to the question before us; but some of the best of them have declared +incidentally for Shakspeare's claim; and though even the editors who +have professed this belief have not inserted the work as his, this is +only one among many evil results of the slavish system to which they all +adhere. <span class="sidenote">Yet Pope, Warburton, Farmer, believe <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i> genuine: so does Schlegel.</span> We have with us Pope, Warburton, +and above all, Farmer, a man of fine discernment, and a most cautious +sifter of evidence. The subject has more recently been treated shortly +by a celebrated foreign critic, the enthusiastic and eloquent +Schlegel,<a name="FNanchor_10:1_27" id="FNanchor_10:1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_10:1_27" class="fnanchor">[10:1]</a> who comes to a conclusion decidedly favourable to +Shakspeare.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">II. Internal evidence.</span></p> + +<p>There still lies before us the principal part of our task, that of +applying to the presumption resulting from the external proof, (whatever +the amount of that may be,) the decisive test of the <a name="FNanchor_10:2_28" id="FNanchor_10:2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_10:2_28" class="fnanchor">[10:2]</a>Internal +Evidence. Do you doubt the efficacy of this supposed crucial experiment? +It is true that internal similarities form almost a valueless test when +applied to inferior writers; because in them the distinctive marks are +too weak to be easily traced. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's work specially fit +for the Internal Evidence test.</span> But, in the first place, great authors +have in their very greatness the pledge of something peculiar which +shall identify their works, and consequently the test is usually +satisfactory in its application to them; and, secondly and particularly, +Shakspeare is, of all writers that have existed, that one to whose +alleged works such a test can be most confidently administered; because +he is not only strikingly <!-- Page 11 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>[<a href="./images/11.png">11</a>]</span>peculiar in those qualities which +discriminate him from other poets, but his writings also possess +singularities, different from, and opposite to, the usual character of +poetry itself.</p> + +<p>I cannot proceed with you to the work itself, till I have reminded you +of some distinctive differences between the two writers whose claims we +are to adjust, the recollection of which will be indispensable to us in +considering the details of the drama. <span class="sidenote">Differences between +Shakspere and Fletcher to be discusst.</span> We shall then enter on that +detailed examination, keeping those distinctions in mind, and attempting +to apply them to individual passages; and, when all the scenes of the +play have thus passed successively before us, we shall be able to look +back on it as a whole, and investigate its general qualities.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's and Fletcher's versification contrasted.</span></p> + +<p>The first difference which may be pointed out between Shakspeare and +Fletcher, is that of their versification. You have learned from a study +of the poets themselves, in what that difference consists. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's.</span>Shakspeare's versification is broken and full of pauses, +he is sparing of double terminations to his verses, and has a marked +fondness for ending speeches or scenes with hemi-stitches. <span class="sidenote"> +Fletcher's.</span>Fletcher's rhythm is of a newer and smoother cast, often +keeping the lines distinct and without breaks through whole speeches, +abounding in double endings, and very seldom leaving a line incomplete +at the end of a sentence or scene.<a name="FNanchor_11:1_29" id="FNanchor_11:1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_11:1_29" class="fnanchor">[11:1]</a> And the opposite taste of the +two poets in their choice and arrangement <a name="FNanchor_11:2_30" id="FNanchor_11:2_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_11:2_30" class="fnanchor">[11:2]</a>of words, gives an +opposite character to the whole modulation of their verses. <span class="sidenote"> +Modulation of Fletcher's verse: of Shakspere's.</span>Fletcher's is sweet and +flowing, and peculiarly fitted either for declamation or the softness of +sorrow: Shakspeare's ear is tuned to the stateliest solemnity of +thought, or the abruptness and vehemence of passion. The present drama +exhibits in whole scenes the qualities of Shakspeare's versification; +and there are other scenes which are marked by those of Fletcher's; the +difference is one reason for separating the authorship.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's images and words in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>You will notice in this play many instances of Shakspeare's favourite +images, and of his very words. Is this a proof of the play having been +his work, or does it only indicate imitation? In <!-- Page 12 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>[<a href="./images/12.png">12</a>]</span>Shakspeare's case, +such resemblance, taken by itself, can operate neither way. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere a mannerist in style, and</span>Shakspeare is a mannerist in style. +He knew this himself, and what he says of his minor poems, is equally +true of his dramatic language; he "keeps invention in a noted +weed<a name="FNanchor_12:1_31" id="FNanchor_12:1_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_12:1_31" class="fnanchor">[12:1]</a>;" and almost every word or combination of words is so marked +in its character that its author is known at a glance. <span class="sidenote"> +wanting in variety. Shakspere repeats himself.</span>But not only is his +style so peculiar in its general qualities, as scarcely to admit of +being mistaken; not only is it deficient in variety of structure, but it +is in a particular degree characterised by a frequent recurrence of the +same images, often clothed in identically the same words. You are quite +aware of this, and those who are not, may be convinced of it by opening +any page of the annotated editions. So far, then, this play is only like +Shakspeare's acknowledged works. It is true, that one who wished to +write a play in Shakspeare's manner, would probably have repeated his +images and words as they are repeated here; but Shakspeare would +certainly have imitated himself quite as often. <span class="sidenote">The likeness +to Shakspere in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, and the repetitions of him, are +likely to be by him.</span> The resemblance could be founded on, as indicating +imitation, only in conjunction with other circumstances of dissimilarity +or inferiority to his genuine writings; and where, as in the present +case, there seems to be reason for asserting that the accompanying +circumstances point the work out as an original composition of his, this +very likeness and repetition become a strong argument in support of +those concomitant indications. <a name="FNanchor_12:2_32" id="FNanchor_12:2_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_12:2_32" class="fnanchor">[12:2]</a>Such repetition is more or less +common in all the play-writers of that age. The number of their works, +the quickness with which they were written, and the carelessness which +circumstances induced as to their elaboration or final correction, all +aided in giving rise to this. <span class="sidenote">Massinger also repeats himself +much.</span> <span class="sidenote">Fletcher but little.</span> But all are not equally +chargeable with it; Beaumont and Fletcher less than most, Massinger to +an extent far beyond Shakspeare, and vying with the common-places of +Euripides. May not the professional habits of Shakspeare and Massinger +as actors, have had some effect in producing this, by imprinting their +own works in their memories with unusual strength? Fletcher and his +associate were free from that risk.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Singularity of Shakspere's style.</span></p> + +<p>It would not be easy to give a systematic account of those <!-- Page 13 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>[<a href="./images/13.png">13</a>]</span>qualities +which combine to constitute Shakspeare's singularity of style. Some of +them lie at the very surface, others are found only on a deeper search, +and a few there are which depend on evanescent relations, instinctively +perceptible to the congenial poetical sense, but extremely difficult of +abstract prose definition. Several qualities also, which we are apt to +think exclusively his, (such, for instance, as his looseness of +construction,) are discovered on examination to be common to him with +the other dramatic writers of his age. Such qualities can give no +assistance in an inquiry like ours, and may be left wholly out of view. +But I think the distinctions which I can specify between him and +Fletcher are quite enough, and applicable with sufficient closeness to +this drama, for making out the point which I wish to prove.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Qualities of Shakspere's style: energy, obscurity, +abruptness, brevity (in late plays).</span></p> + +<p>No one is ignorant that Shakspeare is concise, that this quality makes +him always energetic and often most impressive, but that it also gives +birth to much obscurity. He shows a constant wish to deliver thought, +fancy, and feeling, in the fewest words possible. Even his images are +brief; they are continual, and they crowd and confuse one another; the +well-springs of his imagination boil up every moment, and the readiness +with which they throw up their golden sands, makes him careless of fitly +using the wealth thus profusely rendered. He abounds in hinted +descriptions, in sketches of imagery, in glimpses of illustration, in +abrupt and vanishing snatches of fancy. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere never +vague.</span> But the merest hint that he gives is of force <a name="FNanchor_13:1_33" id="FNanchor_13:1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_13:1_33" class="fnanchor">[13:1]</a>enough to +shew that the image was fully present with him; if he fails to bring it +as distinctly before us, it is either from the haste with which he +passes to another, or from the eagerness induced by the very force and +quickness with which he has conceived the former. <span class="sidenote">Milton and +language.</span> It has been said of Milton that language sunk under him; and +it is true of him in one sense, but of Shakspeare in two. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's new meanings and new words.</span>Shakspeare's strength of +conception, to which, not less than to Milton's, existing language was +inadequate, compelled him either to use old words in unusual meanings, +or to coin new words for himself.<a name="FNanchor_13:2_34" id="FNanchor_13:2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_13:2_34" class="fnanchor">[13:2]</a> But his mind had another quality +powerful over his style, <!-- Page 14 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>[<a href="./images/14.png">14</a>]</span>which Milton's wanted. <span class="sidenote">Milton +slow,</span> <span class="sidenote">Shakspere rapid,</span> Milton's conception was +comparatively slow, and allowed him time for deliberate expression: +Shakspeare's was rapid to excess, and hurried his words after it. When a +truth presented itself to his mind, all its qualities burst in upon him +at once, and his instantaneousness of conception could be represented +only by words as brief and quick as thought itself. <span class="sidenote">specially +in reflective passages.</span> This cause operates with the greatest force on +his passages of reflection; for if his images are often brief, his +apophthegms are brief a thousand times oftener: his quickness of ideas +seems to have been stimulated to an extraordinary degree by the +contemplation of general truths. <span class="sidenote">He forces speech to bear a +burden beyond its strength.</span> And everywhere his incessant activity and +quickness, both of intellect and fancy, engaged him in a continual +struggle with speech; it is a sluggish slave which he would force to +bear a burden beyond its strength, a weary courser which he would urge +at a speed to which it is unequal. He fails only from insufficiency in +his puny instrument; not because his conception is indistinct, but +because it is too full, energetic, and rapid, to receive adequate +expression. It is excess of strength which hurts, not weakness which +incapacitates; he is injured by the undue prevalence of the good +principle, not by its defect. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's obscurity.</span> The +obscurity of other writers is often the mistiness of the evening +twilight sinking into night; his is the fitful dimness of the dawn, +contending with the retiring darkness, and striving to break out +<a name="FNanchor_14:1_35" id="FNanchor_14:1_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_14:1_35" class="fnanchor">[14:1]</a>into open day. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher most unlike Shakspere.</span> +Scarcely any writer of Shakspeare's class, or of any other, comes near +him either in the faults or the grandeur which are the alternate results +of this tendency of mind; but none is more utterly unlike him than the +poet to whom, some would say, we must attribute passages in this play so +singularly like Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher diffuse.</span> Fletcher is +diffuse both in his leading thoughts and in his illustrations. +<span class="sidenote">He amplifies, is elaborate, not vigorous.</span> His intellect did +not present truth to him with the instant conviction which it poured on +Shakspeare, and his fancy did not force imagery on him with a profusion +which might have tempted him to weave its different suggestions into +inconsistent forms; he expresses thought deliberately and with +amplification; he paints his illustrative pictures with a careful hand +and by repeated touches; <!-- Page 15 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>[<a href="./images/15.png">15</a>]</span>his style has a pleasing and delicate air +which is any thing but vigorous, and often reaches the verge of +feebleness. Take a passage or two from the work before us, and do you +say, who know Fletcher, whether they be his, or the work of a stronger +hand.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere. Fletcher could not have written these passages,</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">He only áttributes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faculties of other instruments<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his own nerves and act; commands men's ser|vice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what they gain in't, boot and glory too.<br /></span> +<span class="i13h">... What man<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Thirds</i> his own worth, (the case is each of ours,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When that his action's dregged with mind assured<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis bad he goes about?—Act I. scene ii.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">Dowagers, take hands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_15:1_36" id="FNanchor_15:1_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_15:1_36" class="fnanchor">[15:1]</a><i>Let us be widows to our woes</i>: Delay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Commends us to a famishing hope.—Act I. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I do not quote these lines for praise. The meaning of the last quotation +in particular is obscure when it stands alone, and not too clear even +when it is read in the scene. But I ask you, whether the oracular +brevity of each of the sentences is not perfectly in the manner of +Shakspeare. A fragment from another beautiful address in the first scene +is equally characteristic and less faulty:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere, not Fletcher.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8h"><a name="FNanchor_15:2_37" id="FNanchor_15:2_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_15:2_37" class="fnanchor">[15:2]</a>Honoured Hippolita,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most dreaded Amazonian, that hast slain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The scythe-tusked boar; that, with thy arm as strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it is white, wast near to make the male<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thy sex captive, but that this thy lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(<i>Born to uphold creation in that hon|our</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>First Nature styled it in</i>) shrunk thee in|to<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bound thou wast o'erflow|ing, | at once subdu|ing |<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy force and thy affection;—Soldieress!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That equally canst poise sternness with pit|y;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who now, I know, hast much more power o'er | him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than e'er he had on thee;—<i>who owest<a name="FNanchor_15:3_38" id="FNanchor_15:3_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_15:3_38" class="fnanchor"><span style="font-style: normal;">[15:3]</span></a> his strength</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And his love too, who is a servant to</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The tenor of thy speech</i>!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Is this like Fletcher? I think not. It is unlike him in versification +and in the tone of thought; and you will here particularly notice <!-- Page 16 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>[<a href="./images/16.png">16</a>]</span>that +it is unlike him in abruptness and brevity. It is like Shakspeare in all +these particulars.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere hardly ever vague,</span></p> + +<p>I have said that Shakspeare, often obscure, is scarcely ever vague; that +he may fail to express all he wishes, but almost always gives distinctly +the part which he is able to convey. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher unable to grasp +images distinctly.</span> Fletcher is not only slow in his ideas, but often +vague and deficient in precision. The following lines are taken from a +scene in the play under our notice, which clearly is not Shakspeare's. I +would direct your attention, not to the remoteness of the last conceit, +but to the want of distinctness in grasping images, and the inability to +see fully either their picturesque or their poetical relations.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Fletcher, not Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> We were not bred to talk, man: when we are armed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And both upon our guards, then <i>let our fur|y,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Like meeting of two tides, fly strongly from | us</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Methinks this armour's very like that, Ar|cite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou worest that day the three kings fell, but light|er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arc.</i> That was a very good one; and that day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I well remember, you out-did me, cous|in:<br /></span> +<span class="i7h">... When I saw you charge first,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Methought I heard a dreadful clap of thund|er</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Break from the troop</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Pal.</i> <span class="s14"><i>But still before that flew</i></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The lightning of your valour.</i>—Act III. scene vi.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphorical, but seldom has long description.</span></p> + +<p><a name="FNanchor_16:1_39" id="FNanchor_16:1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_16:1_39" class="fnanchor">[16:1]</a>Shakspeare's style, as every one knows, is metaphorical to excess. +<span class="sidenote">His thought and imagination work together.</span> His imagination +is always active, but he seldom pauses to indulge it by lengthened +description. I shall hereafter have occasion to direct your observation +to the sobriety with which he preserves imagination in its proper +station, as only the minister and interpreter of thought; but what I +wish now to say is, that in him the two powers operate simultaneously. +He goes on thinking vigorously, while his imagination scatters her +inexhaustible treasures like flowers on the current of his meditations. +His constant aim is the expression of facts, passions, or opinions; and +his intellect is constantly occupied in the investigation of such; but +the mind acts with ease in its lofty vocation, and the beautiful and the +grand rise up voluntarily to do him homage. He never indeed consents to +express those poetical ideas by themselves; but he shows that he felt +their import and their <!-- Page 17 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>[<a href="./images/17.png">17</a>]</span>legitimate use, by wedding them to the thoughts +in which they originated. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's truths and their +imagery glorify one another.</span> The truths which he taught, received +magnificence and amenity from the illustrative forms; and the poetical +images were elevated into a higher sphere of associations by the dignity +of the principles which they were applied to adorn. <span class="sidenote">Metaphor +the strength of poetry; simile its weakness.</span> Something like this is +always the true function of the imagination in poetry, and dramatic +poetry in particular; and it is also the test which tries the presence +of the faculty; metaphor indicates its strength, and simile its +weakness. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher is diffuse in description and simile,</span> +<span class="sidenote">loses the original thought in it,</span> Nothing can be more +different from this, or farther inferior to it, than the style of a poet +who turns aside in search of description, and indulges in simile +preferably to the brevity of metaphor, to whom perhaps a poetical +picture originally suggested itself as the decoration of a striking +thought, but who allowed himself to be captivated by the beauty of the +suggested image, till he forgot the thought which had given it birth, +and on its connexion with which its highest excellence depended. +<span class="sidenote">is poor in metaphor, and picturesque.</span> Such was Fletcher, +whose style is poor in metaphor. His descriptions are sometimes +beautifully romantic; but even then the effect of the whole is often +picturesque rather than poetically touching; and it is evident that +lengthened description can still less frequently be dramatic. In his +descriptions, it is observable that the poetical relations introduced in +illustration <a name="FNanchor_17:1_40" id="FNanchor_17:1_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_17:1_40" class="fnanchor">[17:1]</a>are usually few, the character of the leading subject +being relied on for producing the poetical effect. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's +and Shakspere's descriptions contrasted.</span> Fletcher's longest +descriptions are but elegant outlines; Shakspeare's briefest metaphors +are often finished paintings. Where Shakspeare is guilty of detailed +description, he is very often laboured, cold, and involved; but his +illustrative ideas are invariably copious, and it is often their +superfluity which chiefly tends to mar the general effect. <span class="sidenote"> Metaphor in +<i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i></span> <span class="sidenote">is Shakspere's.</span> In the play that you are to +examine, you will find a profusion of metaphor, which is undoubtedly the +offspring of a different mind from Fletcher's; and both its excellence +and its peculiarity of character seem to me to stamp it as Shakspeare's. +I think the following passage cannot be mistaken, though the beginning +is difficult, and the text perhaps incorrect.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Instances of Shakspere's metaphors.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9h">They two have <i>cab|ined</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In many as dangerous, as poor a corn|er—<br /></span> +<!-- Page 18 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>[<a href="./images/18.png">18</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">Peril and want contending, they have <i>skiffed</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Torrents, whose raging <i>tyranny</i> and <i>pow|er</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">I' the least of these was dreadful; and they have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fought out together where <i>Death's self</i> was <i>lodged</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet <span class="smcap">Fate</span> hath <span class="allcapsc">BROUGHT THEM OFF</span>. Their <i>knot</i> of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tied, <i>weaved</i>, <span class="allcapsc">ENTANGLED</span>, with so true, so long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a <i>finger</i> of so deep a cun|ning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May be <i>outworn</i>, never <i>undone</i>. I think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Theseus cannot be <i>umpire</i> to himself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Cleaving his conscience into twain</i>, and do|ing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each side like justice, which he loves best.—Act I. scene iii.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The play throughout will give you metaphors, like Shakspeare's in their +frequency, like his in their tone and character, and like his in their +occasional obscurity and blending together.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's classical images.</span></p> + +<p>We have been looking to Shakspeare's imagery. You will meet with +classical images in the 'The Two Noble Kinsmen.' Do not allow any +ill-applied notion of his want of learning to convert this into an +argument against his authorship. You will recollect, that an attachment +of this sort is very perceptible in Shakspeare's dramas, and pervades +the whole thread of his youthful poems. It is indeed a prominent quality +in the school of poetry, which prevailed during the earlier part of his +life, perhaps during the whole of it. In his early days, the study of +<a name="FNanchor_18:1_41" id="FNanchor_18:1_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_18:1_41" class="fnanchor">[18:1]</a>Grecian and Latin literature in England may be said to have only +commenced, and the scenery and figures of the classical mythology broke +on the view of the student with all the force of novelty. <span class="sidenote"> +Elizabethan literature tinged with classicism.</span>All the literature of +that period is tinged with classicism to a degree which in our satiated +times is apt to seem pedantic. It infected writers of all kinds and +classes: translations were multiplied, and a familiarity with classical +tales and history was sought after or affected even by those who had no +access to the original language. Shakspeare clearly stood in this latter +predicament, his knowledge of Latin certainly not exceeding that of a +schoolboy: but the translated classics enabled him to acquire the facts, +and he shared the taste of the age to its full extent. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's classical allusions.</span>His admiration of the classical +writers is vouched by the subjects and execution of his early poems, by +numerous allusions in his dramas, particularly his histories, by the +subjects chosen for some <!-- Page 19 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>[<a href="./images/19.png">19</a>]</span>of his plays, by one or two imitations of the +translated Latin poets,<a name="FNanchor_19:1_42" id="FNanchor_19:1_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_19:1_42" class="fnanchor">[19:1]</a> and by many exotic forms in his language, +derived from the same secondary source. Correct tameness is the usual +character of classical allusion in authors well versed in classical +studies. <span class="sidenote">Milton's classical allusions.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Fletcher's.</span>Even Milton, who has drawn the most exquisite images of +this kind, has sometimes remembered only, where he should have invented: +and Fletcher, whom we have especially to consider, is no exception to +the rule; his many classical illustrations are invariably cold and poor. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's treatment of mythology.</span> Shakspeare's +mythological images have something singular in them. They are incorrect +as transcripts of the originals, but admirable if examined without such +reference; they are highly-coloured paintings whose subjects are taken +from the simplicity of some antique statue. <span class="sidenote">His <i>Venus and +Adonis</i>.</span> The 'Venus and Adonis' has some fine and some overcharged +pictures thus formed from the hints which he derived from his +books.<a name="FNanchor_19:2_43" id="FNanchor_19:2_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_19:2_43" class="fnanchor">[19:2]</a> He received the mythological images but imperfectly, and +his fancy was stimulated without being <a name="FNanchor_19:3_44" id="FNanchor_19:3_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_19:3_44" class="fnanchor">[19:3]</a>clogged. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's treatment of classical mythology;</span>He stood but at the +entrance of those visionary forests, within whose glades the heroes and +divinities of ancient faith reposed; he looked through a glimmering and +uncertain light, and caught only glimpses of the sanctity of that world +of wonders: and it was with an imagination heated by the flame of +mystery and partial ignorance that he turned away from the scene so +imperfectly revealed, to brood on the beauty of its broken contours, and +allow fancy to create magnificence richer than memory ever saw. The +occurrence of classical allusions here, therefore, affords no reason for +doubting his authorship even of those passages in which they are found: +and if we could trace any of his singularities in the images which we +have, the argument in his favour would be strengthened by these. Most of +the allusions are too slightly sketched to permit this; but one or two +are like him in their unfaithfulness. We have "Mars' drum" in the 'Venus +and Adonis'; and here beauty is described as able to make him spurn it: +the altar of the same <!-- Page 20 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>[<a href="./images/20.png">20</a>]</span>deity is alluded to as the scene of a Grecian +marriage. The "Nemean lion's hide" is here, as his nerve in 'Hamlet.' +<span class="sidenote">specially in Arcite's prayer in Act V. scene i.</span> But the most +characteristic use of this sort of imagery is in the prayer in the first +scene of the Fifth Act. <span class="sidenote">This scene is certainly Shakspere's.</span> +The whole tenor of the language, the solemnity and majesty of the tone +of thought, the piling up of the heap of metaphors and images, and the +boldness and admirable originality of their conception, all these are +Shakspeare's; and the fact of this accumulation of feeling, thought, and +imagination, being employed to create, out of a fragmentary classical +outline, a picture both new in its features and gorgeously magnificent +in its filling up, is strongly indicative of his hand, and strikingly +resembles his mode of dealing with such subjects elsewhere.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's tendency to reflection.</span></p> + +<p>You will be furnished with a rule to guide your decision on many +passages of the drama otherwise doubtful, by having your notice slightly +directed to what will fall more properly under our consideration when we +look back on the general scope of the play,—I mean Shakspeare's +prevailing tendency to reflection. The presence of a spirit of active +and inquiring thought through every page of his writings is too evident +to require any proof. It is exerted on every object which comes under +his notice: it is serious when its theme is lofty; and when the subject +is familiar, <a name="FNanchor_20:1_45" id="FNanchor_20:1_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_20:1_45" class="fnanchor">[20:1]</a>it is contented to be shrewd. <span class="sidenote">His own +active and inquiring thought, is the only quality of his own that he's +given <i>all</i> his characters.</span> He has impressed no other of his own mental +qualities on all his characters: this quality colours every one of them. +It is one to which poetry is apt to give a very subordinate place: and, +in most poets, fancy is the predominating power; because, immeasurably +as that faculty in them is beneath its unequalled warmth in Shakspeare, +yet intellect in them is comparatively even weaker. With inferior poets, +particularly the dramatic, inflation of feeling and profusion of imagery +are the alternate disguises which conceal poverty of thought. <span class="sidenote"> +Fletcher's thought, small beside Shakspere's.</span>Fletcher is a poet of +much and sterling merit; but his fund of thought is small indeed when +placed beside Shakspeare's. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's worldly wisdom, and +solemn thought.</span> He has, indeed, very little of Shakspeare's practical, +searching, worldly wisdom, and none of that solemnity of thought with +which he penetrates into his loftier themes of reflection. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's Imagination the handmaid of his Understanding.</span>This quality +in Shakspeare is usually relieved by poetical decoration: Imagination is +active powerfully <!-- Page 21 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>[<a href="./images/21.png">21</a>]</span>and unceasingly, but she is rebuked by the presence +of a mightier influence; she is but the handmaid of the active and +piercing Understanding; and the images which are her offspring serve but +as the breeze to the river, which stirs and ripples its surface, but is +not the power which impels its waters to the sea. As you go through this +drama, you will not only find a sobriety of tone pervading the more +important parts of it, but activity of intellect constantly exerted. +<span class="sidenote">Note the mass of general truths and maxims in this part of +<i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> But what demands particular notice is, the +mass of general truths, of practical, moral, or philosophical maxims, +which, issuing from this reflective turn of mind, are scattered through +Shakspeare's writings as thick as the stars in heaven. The occurrence of +them is characteristic of his temper of mind; and there is something +marked in the manner of the adages themselves. They are often solemn, +usually grave, but always pointed, compressed, and energetic;—they vary +in subject, from familiar facts and rules for social life to the +enunciation of philosophical truths and the exposition of moral duty. +You will meet with them in this drama in all their shapes and in every +page [of Shakspere's part of it].</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's reach of thought.</span></p> + +<p>Shakspeare's reach and comprehension of thought is as remarkable as its +activity, while Fletcher's is by no means great, and in this respect +Massinger comes much nearer to him. The simplest fact has many dependent +qualities, and may be related by <a name="FNanchor_21:1_46" id="FNanchor_21:1_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_21:1_46" class="fnanchor">[21:1]</a>men of different degrees of +intellect with circumstances differing infinitely, a confined mind +seeing only its plainest qualities, while a stronger one grasps and +combines many distant relations. Shakspeare's love of brevity would not +have produced obscurity nearly so often, had it not been aided by his +width of mental vision. <span class="sidenote">Passages in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> +too comprehensive for Fletcher.</span> There are many passages in the play +before us which seem to emanate from a mind of more comprehension than +Fletcher's. Look at the following lines. The idea to be expressed was a +very simple one. Hippolita is entreating her husband to leave her, and +depart to succour the distressed ladies who kneel at her feet and his; +and she wishes to say, that though, as a bride, she was loth to lose her +husband's presence, yet she felt that she should act blameably if she +detained him. Fletcher would have expressed no idea beyond that; but on +it alone he would have employed six lines and two or three <!-- Page 22 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>[<a href="./images/22.png">22</a>]</span>comparisons. +Hear how many cognate ideas present themselves to Shakspeare's mind in +expressing the thought. The passage is obscure, but not the less like +Shakspeare on that account.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's pregnancy and obscurity.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Though much unlike|ly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I should be so transported, <i>as much sor|ry</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>I should be such a suitor</i>; yet I think,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did I not, by the abstaining of my joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Which breeds a deeper longing</i>, cure the sur|feit<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>That craves a present medicine</i>, I should pluck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All ladies' scandal on me—Act I. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It would be well if Shakspeare's continual inclination to thought gave +rise to no worse faults than occasional obscurity. It was not to be +hoped that it should not produce others. His tone of thinking could not +be always high and serious; and even when it flowed in a lofty channel, +its uninterrupted stream could not always be pure. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's conceits and quibbles.</span>His judgment often fails to perform +its part, and he is guilty of conceit and quibble, not merely in his +comic vein, but in his most deeply tragical situations. He has indeed +one powerful excuse; he had universal example in both respects to +justify or betray him. But he has likewise another plea, that his +constant activity of mind, and the wideness of its province, exposed him +to pe<a name="FNanchor_22:1_47" id="FNanchor_22:1_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_22:1_47" class="fnanchor">[22:1]</a>culiar risks. A mind always in action must sometimes act +wrongly; and the constant exercise of the creative powers of the mind +dulls the edge of the corrective. It was not strange that he who was +unwearied in tracing the manifestations of that spirit of likeness which +pervades nature, should often mistake a resemblance in name for a +community of essence,—that he whose mind was sensible to the most +delicate differences, should sometimes fancy he saw distinction where +there was none;—it was not strange, however much to be regretted, that +he who left the smooth green slopes of fancy to clamber among the craggy +steeps of thought, should often stumble in his dizzy track, either in +looking up to the perilous heights above, or downwards on the morning +landscape beneath him. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's faults.</span> While the most +glaring errors of the tropical Euphues are strained allegorical +conceits, Shakspeare's fault is oftener the devising of subtle and +unreal distinctions, or the ringing of fantastical changes upon words. +<span class="sidenote">Lyly's faults.</span> <!-- Page 23 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>[<a href="./images/23.png">23</a>]</span>Lily's error was one merely of taste; +Shakspeare's was one of the judgment, and the heavier of the two, but +still the error of a stronger mind than the other; for the judgment +cannot act till the understanding has given it materials to work upon, +and those fanciful writers who do not reflect at all, are in no danger +of reflecting wrongly. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's evil genius triumphs in +his puns.</span> Shakspeare's evil genius triumphs when it tempts him to a +pun—it enjoys a less complete but more frequent victory in suggesting +an antithesis; but it often happens that this dangerous turn of mind +does not carry him so far as to be of evil consequence. It aids its +quickness and directness of mental view, in giving to his style a +pointed epigrammatic terseness which is quite its own, and a frequent +weight and effect which no other equals. Where, however, this antithetic +tendency is allowed to approach the serious scenes, it throws over them +an icy air which is very injurious, while it often gives the comic ones +a ponderousness which is altogether singular, and but imperfectly +accordant with the nature of comic dialogue. <span class="sidenote">Characteristics +of his wit.</span> The arrows of Shakspeare's wit are not the lightly +feathered shafts which Fletcher discharges, and as little are they the +iron-headed bolts which fill the quiver of Jonson; but they are weapons +forged from materials unknown to the others, and in an armoury to which +they had no access; their execution is <a name="FNanchor_23:1_48" id="FNanchor_23:1_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_23:1_48" class="fnanchor">[23:1]</a>resistless when they reach +their aim, but they are covered with a golden massiveness of decoration +which sometimes impedes the swiftness of their flight. But whether the +effect of these peculiarities of Shakspeare be good or evil, their use +in helping an identification of his manner is very great. <span class="sidenote"> +Contrast with Fletcher's.</span>Nothing can be more directly opposite to them +than the slow elegance and want of pointedness which we find in +Fletcher, who is not free from conceits, but does not express them with +Shakspeare's hard quaintness, while he is comparatively quite guiltless +of plays on words. The following instances are only a few among many in +the present drama, which seem to be perfectly in Shakspeare's manner, +and to most of which Fletcher's works could certainly furnish no +parallel, either in subject or in expression.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Passages by Shakspere, not Fletcher.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Oh, my petition was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set down in ice, which, by hot grief uncan|died,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Melts into tears; so sorrow, wanting form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is pressed with deeper matter.—Act I. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 24 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>[<a href="./images/24.png">24</a>]</span> +Theseus speaks thus of the Kinsmen lying before him in the field of +battle desperately wounded:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphors.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Rather than have them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freed of this plight, and in their morning state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sound and at liberty, I would them dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But forty thousand fold we had rather have | them<a name="FNanchor_24:1_49" id="FNanchor_24:1_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_24:1_49" class="fnanchor">[24:1]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Prisoners to us than Death</i>. Bear them speedi|ly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From <i>our kind air, to them unkind</i>, and min|ister<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What man to man may do.—Act I. scene iv.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A lady hunting is addressed in this strain:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Oh jewel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O' the wood, O' the world!—Act III. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the same scene one knight says to another,—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphor.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3h">This question sick between us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By bleeding must be cured.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="FNanchor_24:2_50" id="FNanchor_24:2_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_24:2_50" class="fnanchor">[24:2]</a>And the one, left in the wood, says to the other, who goes to the +presence of the lady whom both love—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You talk of feeding me, to breed me strength;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You are going now to look upon a sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That strengthens what <i>it</i> looks on.—Act III. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The two knights, about to meet in battle, address each other in these +words:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Pal.</i> <span class="s9">Think you but thus;</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That there were aught in me which strove to shew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine enemy in this business,—were't one eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against another, arm opposed by arm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would destroy the offender;—coz, I would,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though parcel of myself: then from this, gath|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I should tender you!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arc.</i> <span class="s16">I am in la|bour</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">To push your name, your ancient love, our kin|dred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out of my memory, and i' the self-same place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seat something I would confound.—Act V. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And afterwards their lady-love, listening to the noise of the fight, +speaks thus:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphor.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Each stroke laments<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The place whereon it falls, and sounds more like<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bell than blade.—Act V. scene v.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 25 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>[<a href="./images/25.png">25</a>]</span> +Shakspeare's fondness for thought, the tendency of that train of +thought to run into the abstract, and his burning imagination, have +united in producing another quality which strongly marks his style, and +is more pleasing than those last noticed. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's +personification of mental powers, passions.</span> He abounds in +Personification, and delights particularly in personifications of mental +powers, passions, and relations. <span class="sidenote">In <i>Venus and Adonis</i>.</span> This +metaphysico-poetical mood of musing tinges his miscellaneous poems +deeply, especially the Venus and Adonis, which is almost lyrical +throughout; and even in his dramas the style is often like one of +Collins's exquisite odes. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher uses it but little.</span> This +quality is common to him with the narrative poets of his age, from whom +<a name="FNanchor_25:1_51" id="FNanchor_25:1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_25:1_51" class="fnanchor">[25:1]</a>he received it; but it is adopted to no material extent by any of +his dramatic contemporaries, and by Fletcher less than any. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's distinctive use of Personification.</span>The other dramatists, +indeed, are full of metaphysical expressions, of the names of affections +and faculties of the soul; but they do not go on as Shakspeare's +kindling fancy impelled him to do, to look on them as independent and +energetic existences. This figure is one of the most common means by +which he elevates himself into the tragic and poetic sphere, the +compromise between his reason and his imagination, the felicitous mode +by which he reconciles his fondness for abstract thought, with his +allegiance to the genius of poetry. <span class="sidenote">The <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i> +is rich in personifications which must be Shakspere's.</span> 'The Two Noble +Kinsmen' is rich in personifications both of mental qualities and +others, which have all Shakspeare's tokens about them, and vary +infinitely, from the uncompleted hint to the perfected portrait.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Instances of these.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4h">Oh Grief and Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fearful consumers, you will all devour!—Act I. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4h">Peace might purge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her repletion, and retain anew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her charitable heart, now hard, and harsh|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than Strife or War could be.—Act I. scene ii.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A most unbounded tyrant, whose success<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes heaven unfeared, and villainy assured<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond its power there's nothing,—almost puts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faith in a fev|er,| and deifies alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Voluble Chance.—Act I. scene ii.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This funeral path brings to your household graves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Joy seize on you again—Peace sleep with him!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorpoem">Act I. scene v.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 26 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>[<a href="./images/26.png">26</a>]</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4h">Content and Ang|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In me have but one face.—Act III. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4h">Force and great Feat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must put my garland on, where she will stick<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The queen of flowers.—Act V. scene i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Instances of Shakspere's Personification in <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">Thou (<i>Love</i>) mayst force the king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be his subject's vassal, and <i>induce</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Stale Gravity to dance</i>;—the pollèd bachelor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Whose youth</i>, (like wanton boys through bon|fires,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_26:1_52" id="FNanchor_26:1_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_26:1_52" class="fnanchor">[26:1]</a><i>Has skipt thy flame</i>, at seventy thou canst catch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And make him, to the scorn of his hoarse throat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abuse young lays of love.—Act V. scene ii.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">Mercy and manly Cour|age<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are bed fellows in his visage.—Act V. scene v.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8"><i>Our Reasons are not proph|ets,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>When oft our Fancies are.</i>—Act V. scene v.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The hints which you have now perused, are not, I repeat, offered to you +as by any means exhausting the elements of Shakspeare's manner of +writing. They are meant only to bring to your memory such of his +qualities of style as chiefly distinguish him from Fletcher, and are +most prominently present in the play we are examining. <span class="sidenote">In +bits of the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i> several of Shakspere's distinctive +qualities are often combin'd.</span> When we shall see those qualities +instanced singly, they will afford a proof of Shakspeare's authorship: +but that proof will receive an incalculable accession of strength when, +as will more frequently happen, we shall have several of them displayed +at once in the same passages. Your recollection of them will serve us as +the lines of a map would in a journey on foot through a wild forest +country: the beauty of the landscape will tempt us not seldom to diverge +and lose sight of our path, and we shall need their guidance for +enabling us to regain it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The story of <i>Palamon and Arcite</i>.</span></p> + +<p>The story of <span class="smcap">Palamon and Arcite</span> is a celebrated one, and, besides its +appearance here, has been taken up by other two of our greatest English +poets. Chaucer borrowed the tale from the <i>Teseide</i> of Boccaccio: it +then received a dramatic form in this play; and from Chaucer's antique +sketch it was afterwards decorated with the <!-- Page 27 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>[<a href="./images/27.png">27</a>]</span>trappings of heroic rhyme, +by one who fell on evil days, the lofty and unfortunate Dryden. +<span class="sidenote">Character of the story of Palamon and Arcite.</span> It treats of a +period of ancient and almost fabulous history, which originally belonged +to the classical writers, but had become familiar in the chivalrous +poetry of the middle ages; and retaining the old historical characters, +it intersperses with them new ones wholly imaginary, and, both in the +Knightes Tale and in the play, preserves the rich and anomalous +magnificence of the Gothic cos<a name="FNanchor_27:1_53" id="FNanchor_27:1_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_27:1_53" class="fnanchor">[27:1]</a>tume. <span class="sidenote">Theseus the centre +of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> The character round which the others are +grouped, one which Shakspeare has introduced in another of his works, is +the heroic Theseus, whom the romances and chronicles dignify with the +modern title of Duke of Athens; and in this story he is connected with +the tragical war of the Seven against Thebes, one of the grandest +subjects of the ancient Grecian poetry.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">First Act of <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i> Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>The whole of the First Act may be safely pronounced to be Shakspeare's. +The play opens with the bridal procession of Theseus and the fair Amazon +Hippolita, whose young sister <span class="smcap">Emilia</span> is the lady of the tale. While the +marriage-song is singing, the train are met by three queens in mourning +attire, who fall down at the feet of Theseus, Hippolita, and Emilia. +They are the widows of three of the princes slain in battle before +Thebes, and the conqueror Creon has refused the remains of the dead +soldiers the last honour of a grave. The prayer of the unfortunate +ladies to Theseus is, that he would raise his powerful arm to force from +the tyrant the unburied corpses, that the ghosts of the dead may be +appeased by the performance of fitting rites of sepulture. The duty +which knighthood imposed on the Prince of Athens, is combated by his +unwillingness to quit his bridal happiness; but generosity and +self-denial at length obtain the victory, and he marches, with banners +displayed, to attack the Thebans.</p> + +<p>This scene bears decided marks of Shakspeare.—The lyrical pieces +scattered through his plays are, whether successful or not, endowed with +a stateliness of rhythm, an originality and clearness of imagery, and a +nervous quaintness and pomp of language, which can scarcely be mistaken. +<span class="sidenote">The Bridal Song can't be Fletcher's.</span> The Bridal Song which +ushers in this play, has several of the marks of distinction, and is +very unlike the more formal and polished rhymes of Fletcher.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 28 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>[<a href="./images/28.png">28</a>]</span> +<span class="sidenote">Act I. sc. i.<br /> +<br /> +The Bridal Song is Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Primrose, first-born child of Ver,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Merry springtime's harbinger,<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><i>With her bells dim</i>:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oxlips in their cradles growing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Marigolds on death-beds blowing</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lark-heels trim:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All, dear Nature's children sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie 'fore bride and bridegroom's feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><a name="FNanchor_28:1_54" id="FNanchor_28:1_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_28:1_54" class="fnanchor">[28:1]</a><i>Blessing their sense</i>:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not an <i>angel of the air</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bird melodious or bird fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be absent hence!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Dialogue in I. i. has the characteristics of Shakspere's +style: is crowded,<br /> +<br /> +obscure,<br /> +<br /> +alliterative,<br /> +<br /> +clear and yet confus'd,<br /> +<br /> +has fulness and variety,<br /> +<br /> +originality and true poetry.</span></p> + +<p>But the dialogue which follows is strikingly characteristic. It has +sometimes Shakspeare's identical images and words: it has his quaint +force and sententious brevity, crowding thoughts and fancies into the +narrowest space, and submitting to obscurity in preference to feeble +dilation: it has sentiments enunciated with reference to subordinate +relations, which other writers would have expressed with less grasp of +thought: it has even Shakspeare's alliteration, and one or two of his +singularities in conceit: it has clearness in the images taken +separately, and confusion from the prodigality with which one is poured +out after another, in the heat and hurry of imagination: it has both +fulness of illustration, and a variety which is drawn from the most +distant sources; and it has, thrown over all, that air of originality +and that character of poetry, the principle of which is often hid when +their presence and effect are most quickly and instinctively +perceptible.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>1 Queen.</i> (<i>To Theseus.</i>) For pity's sake, and true gentility's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear and respect me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Queen.</i> (<i>To Hippolita.</i>) For your mother's sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as you wish your womb may thrive with fair | ones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear and respect me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>3 Queen.</i> (<i>To Emilia.</i>) Now for the love of him whom Jove hath marked<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The honour of your bed, and for the sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of clear virginity, be advocate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For us and our distresses! This good deed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall rase you, out of the Book of Trespasses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All you are set down there.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 29 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>[<a href="./images/29.png">29</a>]</span> +These latter lines are of a character which is perfectly and singularly +Shakspeare's. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's gravity and seriousness.</span> The shade +of gravity which so usually darkens his poetry, is often heightened to +the most solemn seriousness. The religious thought presented here is +most alien from Fletcher's turn of thought.—The ensuing speech offers +much of Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere sometimes harsh and coarse.</span> +His energy, sometimes confined within <a name="FNanchor_29:1_55" id="FNanchor_29:1_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_29:1_55" class="fnanchor">[29:1]</a>due limits, often betrays +him into harshness; and his liking for familiarity of imagery and +expression sometimes makes him careless though both should be coarse, a +fault which we find here, and of which Fletcher is not guilty. +<span class="sidenote">His bold coinages of words:</span> Here also are more than one of +those bold coinages of words, forced on a mind for whose force of +conception common terms were too weak.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">to <i>urn</i> ashes;<br /> +<br /> +to <i>chapel</i> bones.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>1 Queen.</i> We are three queens, whose sovrans fell before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wrath of cruel Creon; who endured<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pecks of crows, in the foul fields of Thebes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He will not suffer us to burn their bones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To <i>urn</i> their ashes, nor to take the offence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mortal loathesomeness from the blest eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of holy Phœbus, but infects the air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With stench of our slain lords. Oh, pity, Duke!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou purger<a name="FNanchor_29:2_56" id="FNanchor_29:2_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_29:2_56" class="fnanchor">[29:2]</a> of the earth! draw thy fear'd sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That does good turns i' the world: give us the bones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of our dead kings, that we may <i>chapel</i> them!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, of thy boundless goodness, take some note,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That for our crowned heads we have no roof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save this, which is the lion's and the bear's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vault to every thing.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere reflective.</span></p> + +<p>We now begin to trace more and more that reflecting tendency which is so +deeply imprinted on Shakspeare's writings:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King Capanëus<a name="FNanchor_29:3_57" id="FNanchor_29:3_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_29:3_57" class="fnanchor">[29:3]</a> was your lord: the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he should marry you, at such a seas|on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it is now with me, I met your groom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Mars's altar. You were that time fair;<br /></span> +<!-- Page 30 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>[<a href="./images/30.png">30</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">Not Juno's mantle fairer than your tress|es,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor in more bounty spread: your wheaten wreath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was then nor threshed nor blast|ed |: Fortune, at you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dimpled her cheek with smiles: Hercules our kins|man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Then weaker than your eyes) laid by his club,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He tumbled down upon his Némean hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_30:1_58" id="FNanchor_30:1_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_30:1_58" class="fnanchor">[30:1]</a>And swore his sinews thawed. O, Grief and Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fearful consumers, you will all devour!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>1 Queen.</i> Oh, I hope some god,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some god hath put his mercy in your man|hood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereto he'll infuse power, and press you forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our undertaker!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s5">Oh, no knees; none, wid|ow!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the helmeted Bellona use | them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pray for me, your sol|dier.|—Troubled I am. (<i>Turns away.</i>)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">A Shakspere fancy.<br /> +<br /> +A Shakspere simile.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Queen.</i> Honoured Hippolita, ...<br /></span> +<span class="i6h">... dear <i>glass of la|dies</i>!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid him, that we, whom flaming war hath scorch'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the shadow of his sword may cool us.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Require him, he advance it o'er our heads;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speak it in a woman's key<a name="FNanchor_30:2_59" id="FNanchor_30:2_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_30:2_59" class="fnanchor">[30:2]</a>, like such a wom|an<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As any of us three: weep ere you fail;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lend us a knee;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But touch the ground for us no longer time<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Than a dove's motion when the head's pluckt off</i>:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell him, if he i' the blood-siz'd field lay swol|len,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shewing the sun his teeth, grinning at the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What you would do!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s10">Pray stand up;</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your grief is written on your cheek.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>3 Queen.</i> <span class="s20">Oh, woe!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">You cannot read it there: there,<a name="FNanchor_30:3_60" id="FNanchor_30:3_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_30:3_60" class="fnanchor">[30:3]</a> through my tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You may behold it. Lady, lady, alack!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He that will all the treasure know o' the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must know the centre too: he that will fish<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For my least minnow, let him lead his line<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To catch one at my heart. Oh, pardon me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Extremity, that sharpens sundry wits,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes me a fool.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s8">Pray you, say nothing; pray | you!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who cannot feel nor see the rain, being in't,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knows neither wet nor dry. If that you were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ground-piece of some painter, I would buy | you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To instruct me 'gainst a capital grief indeed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Such heart-pierced demonstration;) but, alas!<br /></span> +<!-- Page 31 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>[<a href="./images/31.png">31</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">Being a natural sister of our sex,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your sorrow beats so ardently upon | me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it shall make a counter-reflect against<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My brother's heart, and warm it to some pit|y,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though it were made of stone: Pray have good com|fort!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere simile,</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_31:1_61" id="FNanchor_31:1_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_31:1_61" class="fnanchor">[31:1]</a><i>1 Queen.</i> (<i>To Theseus.</i>) ... Remember that your fame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knolls in the ear o' the world: what you do quickl|y,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is not done rashly; your first thought, is more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than others' labour'd meditance; your premed|itating,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than their actions: but, (oh, Jove!) your ac|tions,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon as they move, <i>as ospreys do the fish</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Subdue before they touch. Think, dear duke, think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What beds our slain kings have!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">metaphor.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Queen.</i> <span class="s17">What griefs, our beds,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That our slain kings have none.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Theseus is moved by their prayers, but, loth to leave the side of his +newly wedded spouse, contents himself with directing his chief captain +to lead the Athenian army against the tyrant. The queens redouble their +entreaties for his personal aid.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere personification.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Queen.</i> We come unseasonably; but when could Grief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cull out, as <i>unpang'd Judgment</i> can, fitt'st time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For best solicitation!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s9">Why, good la|dies,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is a service whereto I am go|ing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Greater than any war: it more imports | me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than all the actions that I have foregone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or futurely can cope.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphor,<br /> +<br /> +force.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>1 Queen.</i> <span class="s9">The more proclaim|ing</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our suit shall be neglected. When her arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By warranting moonlight <i>corslet</i> thee,—oh, when<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon thy tasteful lips,—what wilt thou think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of rotten kings or blubberd queens? what care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what thou feel'st not; what thou feel'st, being a|ble<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make Mars spurn his drum?—Oh, if thou couch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one night with her, every hour in't will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shall remember nothing more than what<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That banquet bids thee to.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s13">Pray stand up:</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am entreating of myself to do<br /></span> +<!-- Page 32 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>[<a href="./images/32.png">32</a>]</span><span class="i0">That which you kneel to have me. Perithous!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead on the bride! Get you, and pray the gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For success and return; omit not any thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the pretended celebration. Queens!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Follow your soldier....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">... <a name="FNanchor_32:1_62" id="FNanchor_32:1_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_32:1_62" class="fnanchor">[32:1]</a>(<i>To Hippolita.</i>) Since that our theme is haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stamp this kiss upon thy currant lip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, keep it as my token!...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphor.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>1 Queen.</i> Thus dost thou still make good the tongue o' the world.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Queen.</i> And earn'st a deity equal with Mars.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>3 Queen.</i> If not above him; for<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, being but mortal, mak'st affections bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To godlike honours; <i>they themselves, some say,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Groan under such a mas|tery</i>.|<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s18">As we are men,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus should we do: being sensually subdued,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We lose our human title. Good cheer, la|dies!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now turn we towards your comforts. <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act I. scene ii.</span></p> + +<p>The second scene introduces the heroes of the piece, Palamon and Arcite. +They are two youths of the blood-royal of Thebes, who follow the banners +of their sovereign with a sense that obedience is their duty, but under +a sorrowful conviction that his cause is unjust, and their country +rotten at the core. The scene is a dialogue between them, occupied in +lamentations and repinings over the dissolute manners of their native +Thebes. <span class="sidenote">has the characteristics of Shakspere.</span> Its broken +versification points out Shakspeare; the quaintness of some conceits is +his; and several of the phrases and images have much of his pointedness, +brevity, or obscurity. The scene, though not lofty in tone, does not +want interest, and contains some extremely original illustrations. But +quotations will be multiplied abundantly before we have done; and their +number must not be increased by the admission of any which are not +either unusually good or very distinctly characteristic of their author. +Some lines of the scene have been already given.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act I. scene iii.</span></p> + +<p>The third scene has the farewell commendations of the young Emilia and +her sister to Perithous, when he sets out to join Theseus, then before +the Theban walls, and a subsequent conversation of the two ladies. +<span class="sidenote">is probably all Shakspere's.</span> Much of this scene has +Shakspeare's stamp deeply cut upon it: it is probably all his. +<span class="sidenote">Act I. scene iii. has the characteristics of Shakspere.</span> It +is identified, not only by several others of the qualities marking the +first scene, but more particularly <!-- Page 33 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>[<a href="./images/33.png">33</a>]</span>by the wealth of its allusion, and +by a closeness, directness, and pertinency of reply which Fletcher's +most spirited dialogues do not reach. It presents more than one +exceed<a name="FNanchor_33:1_63" id="FNanchor_33:1_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_33:1_63" class="fnanchor">[33:1]</a>ingly beautiful climax; a figure which repeatedly occurs in +the play, and is always used with peculiar energy.</p> + + +<p class="sectctr"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>Before the Gates of Athens.—Enter Perithous, Hippolita, and +Emilia.</i></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Perithous.</i> No further.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hippolita.</i> <span class="s9">Sir, farewell. Repeat my wish|es</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">To our great lord, of whose success I dare | not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make any timorous question; yet I wish | him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Excess and overflow of power, an't might | be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To dure ill-dealing Fortune. Speed to him!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Store never hurts good governors.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere metaphor,</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Perithous.</i> <span class="s18">Though I know</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ocean needs not my poor drops, yet they<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must yield their tribute there. (<i>To Emilia.</i>) My precious maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those best affections that the heavens infuse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In their <i>best-tempered pieces</i>, keep <i>enthroned</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In your dear heart!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s9">Thanks, sir! Remember me</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">To our all royal brother, for whose speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great Bellona I'll solicit; and,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since in our terrene state, petitions are | not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without gifts, understood, I'll offer to | her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I shall be advised she likes. Our hearts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are in his army, in his tent.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">phrase.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hippolita.</i> <span class="s12">In's bos|om!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have been soldiers, and we cannot weep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When our friends don their helms or put to sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or tell of babes broacht on the lance, or wom|en<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That have sod their infants in (and after eat | them)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brine they wept at killing them; then if<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You stay to see of us such spinsters, we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should hold you here for ever.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s18">How his long|ing</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Follows his friend!...<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Have you observëd him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since our great lord departed?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hippolita.</i> <span class="s15">With much la|bour,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I did love him for't.<a name="FNanchor_33:2_64" id="FNanchor_33:2_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_33:2_64" class="fnanchor">[33:2]</a>...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Female friendship: the description has Shakspere's +characteristics.</span></p> + +<p><!-- Page 34 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>[<a href="./images/34.png">34</a>]</span> +<a name="FNanchor_34:1_65" id="FNanchor_34:1_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_34:1_65" class="fnanchor">[34:1]</a>The description of female friendship which follows is familiar to +all lovers of poetry. It is disfigured by one or two strained conceits, +and some obscurities arising partly from errors in the text: but the +beauty of the sketch in many parts is extreme, and its character +distinctly that of Shakspeare, vigorous and even quaint, thoughtful and +sometimes almost metaphysical, instinct with animation, and pregnant +with fancy; offering, in short, little resemblance to the manner of any +poet but Shakspeare, and the most unequivocal opposition to Fletcher's.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s19">Doubtless</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a best, and reason has no man|ners<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To say, it is not you. I was acquaint|ed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once with a time when I enjoy'd a play|fellow——<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You were at wars when she the grave enrich'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Who made too proud the bed,) took leave o' the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which then look'd pale at parting, when our count<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was each eleven.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hippolita.</i> <span class="s6">'Twas Flavina.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere fancy.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s20">Yes.</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">You talk of Perithous' and Theseus' love:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Theirs has more ground, is more maturely seas|oned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More buckled with strong judgment; and their needs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one of the other, may be said to wat|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their intertangled roots of love.—But I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she I sigh and spoke of, were things in|nocent,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loved for we did, and,—like the elements,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That know not what nor why, yet do effect<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rare issues by their operance,—our souls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did so to one another. What she liked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was then of me approved; what not, condemned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more arraign|ment.| The flower that I would pluck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And put between my breasts, (then but begin|ning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To swell about the blossom,) she would long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till she had such another, and commit | it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the like innocent cradle, where, phœnix-like,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They died in perfume; on my head, no toy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But was her pattern; her affections, (pret|ty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though happily her careless wear,) I fol|low'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For my most serious decking.—Had mine ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stolen some new air, or at adventure humm'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From musical coinage,—why, it was a note<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereon her spirits would sojourn, rather dwell | on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sing it in her slumbers.—This rehears|al<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_34:2_66" id="FNanchor_34:2_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_34:2_66" class="fnanchor">[34:2]</a>(Which, every innocent wots well, comes in<br /></span> +<!-- Page 35 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>[<a href="./images/35.png">35</a>]</span><span class="i0">Like old importment's bastard) has this end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the true love 'tween maid and maid may be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than in sex dividual....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act I. scene iv. Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>The fourth scene is laid in a battle-field near Thebes, and Theseus +enters victorious. The three queens fall down with thanks before him; +and a herald announces the capture of the Two Noble Kinsmen, wounded and +senseless, and scarcely retaining the semblance of life. <span class="sidenote">Has +Shakspere's words and quibbles.</span> The phraseology of this short scene is +like Shakspeare's, being brief and energetic, and in one or two +instances passing into quibbles.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act I. scene v. is Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>The last scene of this act is of a lyrical cast, and comprised in a few +lamentations spoken by the widowed queens over the corpses of their dead +lords. It ends with this couplet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The world's a city full of straying streets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And death's the market-place, where each one meets.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. not Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>In the Second Act no part seems to have been taken by Shakspeare. +<span class="sidenote">The prose of II. i. is not from Chaucer,</span> It commences with +one of those scenes which are introduced into the play in departure from +the narrative of Chaucer, forming an underplot which is clearly the work +of a different artist from many of the leading parts of the drama. The +Noble Kinsmen, cured of their wounds, have been committed to strait and +perpetual prison in Athens, and the first part of this scene is a prose +dialogue between their jailor and a suitor of his daughter. The maiden's +admiration of the prisoners is then exhibited. <span class="sidenote">and is very +dull: it is not Shakspere's.</span> You will see afterwards, that there are +several circumstances besides the essential dulness of this prose part, +which fully absolve Shakspeare from the charge of having written it.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The verse of Act II. scene i.</span></p> + +<p>The versified portion of this scene, which follows the prose dialogue +among the inferior characters, presents the incident on which the +interest of the story hinges, the commencement of the fatal and +chimerical passion, which, inspiring both the knights towards the young +Emilia, severs the bonds of friendship which had so long held them +together. The noble prisoners are discovered in their turret-chamber, +looking out on the palace-garden, which the lady afterwards enters. They +speak <a name="FNanchor_35:1_67" id="FNanchor_35:1_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_35:1_67" class="fnanchor">[35:1]</a>in a highly animated strain of that <!-- Page 36 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>[<a href="./images/36.png">36</a>]</span>world from which they +are secluded, and find themes of consolation for the hard lot which had +overtaken them. The dialogue is in many respects admirable. <span class="sidenote"> +The verse of Act II. scene i. has the characteristics of Fletcher:</span> <span class="sidenote">double endings,</span> +<span class="sidenote">end-stopt lines,</span> <span class="sidenote">vague images,</span> +It possesses much eloquence of description, and the +character of the language is smooth and flowing; the versification is +good and accurate, frequent in double endings, and usually finishing the +sense with the line; and one or two allusions occur, which, being +favourites of Fletcher's, may be in themselves a strong presumption of +his authorship; the images too have in some instances a want of +distinctness in application or a vagueness of outline, which could be +easily paralleled from Fletcher's acknowledged writings. <span class="sidenote">but +romantic;</span> The style is fuller of allusions than his usually is, but the +images are more correct and better kept from confusion than +Shakspeare's; some of them indeed are exquisite, but rather in the +romantic and exclusively poetical tone of Fletcher, than in the natural +and universal mode of feeling which animates Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote"> +slack dialogue.</span>The dialogue too proceeds less energetically than +Shakspeare's, falling occasionally into a style of long-drawn +disquisition which Fletcher often substitutes for the quick and dramatic +conversations of the great poet. <span class="sidenote"><ins class="corr" title="period missing in original">II.</ins> i. one of the finest +scenes that Fletcher ever wrote.</span> On the whole, however, this scene, if +it be Fletcher's, (of which I have no doubt,) is among the very finest +he ever wrote; and there are many passages in which, while he preserves +his own distinctive marks, he has gathered no small portion of the flame +and inspiration of his immortal friend and assistant. In the following +speeches there are images and phrases, which are either identically +Fletcher's, or closely resemble his, and the whole cast both of +versification and idiom is strictly his:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. scene i. Fletcher's.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s14">Oh, cousin Ar|cite!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where is Thebes now? where is our noble coun|try?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where are our friends and kindreds? Never more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must we behold those comforts; never see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hardy youths strive in the games of hon|our,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hung with the painted favours of their la|dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like tall ships under sail; then start among | them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as an east wind leave them all behind | us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like lazy clouds, while Palamon and Ar|cite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even in the wagging of a wanton leg,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outstript the people's praises, won the gar|lands,<br /></span> +<!-- Page 37 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>[<a href="./images/37.png">37</a>]</span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_37:1_68" id="FNanchor_37:1_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_37:1_68" class="fnanchor">[37:1]</a>Ere they have time to wish them ours. Oh, nev|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall we two exercise, like twins of hon|our,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our arms again, and feel our fiery hors|es<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like proud seas under us! our good swords now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Better the red-eyed god of war ne'er wore,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ravish'd our sides, like age must run to rust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And deck the temples of the gods that hate | us:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These hands shall never draw them out like light|ning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To blast whole armies more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Picture fully wrought out.<br /> +<br /> +Romantic, pathetic sketch.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet embraces of a loving wife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loaden with kisses, arm'd with thousand cu|pids,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall never clasp our necks: no issue know | us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No figures of ourselves shall we e'er see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To glad our age, and like young eagles teach | them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boldly to gaze against bright arms, and say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Remember what your fathers were, and con|quer."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—The fair-eyed maids shall weep our banishments,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in their songs curse ever-blinded For|tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till she for shame see what a wrong she has done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To youth and Nature.—This is all our world:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall know nothing here but one anoth|er,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear nothing but the clock that tells our woes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The vine shall grow, but we shall never see | it:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Summer shall come, and with her all delights,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But dead-cold winter must inhabit here | still!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> 'Tis too true, Arcite! To our Theban hounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shook the aged forest with their ech|oes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more now must we halloo; no more shake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our pointed javelins, whilst the angry swine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flies like a Parthian<a name="FNanchor_37:2_69" id="FNanchor_37:2_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_37:2_69" class="fnanchor">[37:2]</a> quiver from our rag|es,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struck with our well-steel'd darts....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In this scene there is one train of metaphors which is perhaps as +characteristic of Fletcher as any thing that could be produced. +<span class="sidenote">Lines from II. i. on page <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, of slow orderly development of +ideas, markt by Fletcher's characteristics.</span> It is marked by a slowness +of association which he often shews. Several allusions are successively +introduced; but by each, as it appears, we are prepared for and can +anticipate the next; we see the connection of ideas in the poet's mind +through which the one has sprung out of the other, and that all are but +branches, of which one original thought is the root. <span class="sidenote">No leap +to the end, and off with a fresh bound, like Shakspere.</span> All this is the +work of <a name="FNanchor_37:3_70" id="FNanchor_37:3_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_37:3_70" class="fnanchor">[37:3]</a>a less <!-- Page 38 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>[<a href="./images/38.png">38</a>]</span>fertile fancy and a more tardy understanding than +Shakspeare's: he would have leaped over many of the intervening steps, +and, reaching at once the most remote particular of the series, would +have immediately turned away to weave some new chain of thought:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">All workt out thro' every step.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s14">... What worthy bless|ing</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can be, but our imaginatiöns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May make it ours? and here, being thus togeth|er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are an endless mine to one anoth|er:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are one another's wife, ever beget|ting<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New births of love; we are fathers, friends, acquaint|ance;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are, in one another, families;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am your heir and you are mine; this place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is our inheritance; no hard oppress|or<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dare take this from us....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But the contentment of the prison is to be interrupted. The fair Emilia +appears beneath, walking in the garden "full of branches green," +skirting the wall of the tower in which the princes are confined. She +converses with her attendant, and Palamon from the dungeon-grating +beholds her as she gathers the flowers of spring. He ceases to reply to +Arcite, and stands absorbed in silent ecstasy.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Cousin! How do you, sir? Why, Palamon!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Never till now I was in prison, Ar|cite.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Why, what's the matter, man?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s21">Behold and won|der:</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">By heaven, she is a goddess;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s17">Ha!</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s18">Do rev|erence;</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is a goddess, Arcite!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The beauty of the maiden impresses Arcite no less violently than it +previously had his kinsman; and he challenges with great heat a right to +love her. <span class="sidenote">The sharp and spirited quarrel between the Kinsmen, +not Shakspere's.</span> An animated and acrimonious dialogue ensues, in which +Palamon reproachfully pleads his prior admiration of the lady, and +insists on his cousin's obligation to become his abettor instead of his +rival. It is spirited even to excess; and probably Shakspeare would have +tempered, or abstained from treating so sudden and perhaps unnatural an +access of anger and jealousy, and so utter an abandonment to <a name="FNanchor_38:1_71" id="FNanchor_38:1_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_38:1_71" class="fnanchor">[38:1]</a>its +vehemence, as that under which the fiery Palamon is here represented as +labouring.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. scene i. Fletcher's.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<!-- Page 39 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>[<a href="./images/39.png">39</a>]</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s14">If thou lovest her,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or entertain'st a hope to blast my wish|es,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art a traitor, Arcite, and a fel|low<br /></span> +<span class="i0">False as thy title to her. Friendship, blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the ties between us, I disclaim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thou once think upon her!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s16">Yes, I love | her!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, if the lives of all my name lay on | it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I must do so. I love her with my soul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If that will lose thee, Palamon, farewell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I say again I love, and, loving her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am as worthy and as free a lov|er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And have as just a title to her beau|ty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As any Palamon, or any liv|ing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is a man's son!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s8">Have I call'd thee friend!</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Put but thy head out of this window more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, as I have a soul, I'll nail thy life to't!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Thou dar'st not, fool: thou canst not: thou art fee|ble:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Put my head out? I'll throw my body out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leap the garden, when I see her next,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pitch between her arms to anger thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Fletcher has left out Chaucer's making the Knights 'sworn +brethren.'</span></p> + +<p>In transferring his story from Chaucer, the poet has here been guilty of +an oversight. The old poet fixes a character of positive guilt on +Arcite's prosecution of his passion, by relating a previous agreement +between the two cousins, by which either, engaging in any adventure +whether of love or war, had an express right to the co-operation of the +other. Hence Arcite's interference with his cousin's claim becomes, with +Chaucer, a direct infringement of a knightly compact; while in the +drama, no deeper blame attaches to it, than as a violation of the more +fragile rules imposed by the generous spirit of friendship.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the angry conference, Arcite is called to the Duke to +receive his freedom; and Palamon is placed in stricter confinement, and +removed from the quarter of the tower overlooking the garden.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. scene ii. (Weber, sc. iii. Littledale) is +Fletcher's.</span></p> + +<p>In the second scene of this act, Arcite, wandering in the +<a name="FNanchor_39:1_72" id="FNanchor_39:1_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_39:1_72" class="fnanchor">[39:1]</a>neighbourhood of Athens, soliloquizes on the decree which had +banished him from the Athenian territory; and, falling in with a band of +country people on their way to games in the city, conceives the <!-- Page 40 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>[<a href="./images/40.png">40</a>]</span>notion +of joining in the celebration under some poor disguise, in the hope of +finding means to remain within sight of his fancifully beloved mistress. +<span class="sidenote">Act II. scene ii. iii. (Weber, sc. iii. iv. Littledale),</span> +Neither this scene, nor the following, in which the jailor's daughter +meditates on the perfections of Palamon, and intimates an intention of +assisting him to escape, have any thing in them worthy of particular +notice.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. scene iv. (Weber, sc. v. Littledale),</span></p> + +<p>In the fourth scene, Arcite, victorious in the athletic games, is +crowned by the Duke, and preferred to the service of Emilia.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act II. scene v. (Weber, sc. vi. <ins class="corr" title="original has extra parenthesis">Littledale</ins>), are all +Fletcher's.</span></p> + +<p>In the last scene of the second act, the jailor's daughter announces +that she has effected Palamon's deliverance from prison, and that he +lies hidden in a wood near the city, the scenery of which is prettily +described.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. scene i. is Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>Nothing in the Third Act can with confidence be attributed to +Shakspeare, except the first scene. This opening scene is laid in the +wood where Palamon has his hiding-place. Arcite enters; and a monologue, +describing his situation and feelings, is, as in Chaucer, overheard by +Palamon, who starts out of the bush in which he had crouched, and shakes +his fettered hands at his false kinsman. <span class="sidenote">Arcite's first +speech has Shakspere's clear images, and familiar dress, nervous +expression, &c.</span> A dialogue of mutual reproach ensues; and Arcite +departs with a promise to return, bringing food for the outcast, and +armour to fit him for maintaining, like a knight, his right to the +lady's love. The commencing speech of Arcite has much of Shakspeare's +clearness of imagery, and of the familiarity of dress which he often +loves to bestow upon allusion; it has also great nerve of expression and +calmness of tone, with at least one play on words which is quite in his +manner, and one (perhaps more) of his identical phrases. The text seems +faulty in one part.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. sc. i. is Shakspere's.<br /> +<br /> +Shaksperean phrases.<br /> +<br /> +Shakspere phrase.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> The Duke has lost Hippolita: each took<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A several laund. This is a solemn rite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They owe bloom'd May, and the Athenians pay|it<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>To the heart of ceremony</i>. Oh, queen Emil|ia!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fresher than May, sweeter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than her <i>gold buttons</i> on the boughs, or all<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_40:1_73" id="FNanchor_40:1_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_40:1_73" class="fnanchor">[40:1]</a>The enamell'd knacks o' the mead or garden! Yea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We challenge too the bank of any nymph,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That makes the stream seem flowers!—Thou,—oh jew|el<br /></span> +<!-- Page 41 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>[<a href="./images/41.png">41</a>]</span><span class="i0"><i>O' the wood, o' the world</i>,—hast likewise blest a place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thy sole presence. In thy rumina|tion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I, poor man, might eftsoons come between,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chop on some cold thought!—Thrice blessed chance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drop on such a mistress! Expecta|tion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most guiltless of | it.| Tell me, oh lady For|tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Next after Emily my sovran,) how far<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I may be proud. She takes strong note of me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath made me near her, and this beauteous morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(The primest of all the year,) presents me with<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A brace of horses; two such steeds might well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be by a pair of kings back'd, in a field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That their crowns' titles tried. Alas, alas!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poor cousin Palamon, poor prisoner!...<br /></span> +<span class="i14">... If<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knew'st my mistress breathed on me, and that<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I <i>cared</i> her language, lived in her eye, oh coz,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What passion would enclose thee!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There is great spirit, also, in what follows. Some phrases, here again, +are precisely Shakspeare's; and several parts of the dialogue have much +of his pointed epigrammatic style. The massive accumulation of +reproaches which Palamon hurls on Arcite is, in its energy, more like +him than his assistant; and the opposition of character between Palamon +and his calmer kinsman, is well kept up; but the dialogue cannot be +accounted one of the best in the play.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shaksperean string of epithets.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s8">... Oh, thou most perfid|ious</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever gently look'd! The void'st of hon|our<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That e'er bore gentle token! Falsest cous|in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever blood made kin! call'st thou her thine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll prove it in my shackles, in these hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Void of appointment, that thou liest, and art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A very thief in love, a chaffy lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not worth the name of villain!—Had I a sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And these house-clogs away!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shaksperean word-play.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s17"><i>Dear cousin Pal|amon!</i></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <i>Cozener Arcite!</i> give me language such<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As thou hast shewed me feat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s17">Not finding in</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_41:1_74" id="FNanchor_41:1_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_41:1_74" class="fnanchor">[41:1]</a>The circuit of my breast, any gross stuff<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To form me like your <i>blazon</i>, holds me to<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This gentleness of answer. 'Tis your pas|sion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thus mistakes; the which, to you being en|emy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cannot to me be kind....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 42 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>[<a href="./images/42.png">42</a>]</span> +<span class="sidenote">Act III. scene ii.</span></p> + +<p>In the second scene, the only speaker is the jailor's daughter, who, +having lost Palamon in the wood, begins to shew symptoms of unsettled +reason. There is some pathos in several parts of her soliloquy, but +little vigour in the expression, or novelty in the thoughts.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. scene iii.</span></p> + +<p>The third scene is an exchange of brief speeches between the two +knights. Arcite brings provisions for his kinsman, and the means of +removing his fetters, and departs to fetch the armour. <span class="sidenote">is +probably Fletcher's,</span> <span class="sidenote">and not Shakspere's.</span> +In most respects the scene is not very characteristic of either writer, +but leans towards Fletcher; and one argument for him might be drawn from +an interchange of sarcasms between the kinsmen, in which they retort on +each other, former amorous adventures: such a dialogue is quite like +Fletcher's men of gaiety; and needless degradation of his principal +characters, is a fault of which Shakspeare is not guilty. You may be +able, hereafter, to see more distinctly the force of this reason. The +scene contains one strikingly animated burst of jealous suspicion and +impatience.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Pray you sit down then; and let me entreat | you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By all the honesty and honour in | you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No mention of this woman; 'twill disturb | us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall have time enough.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s13">Well, sir, I'll pledge | you.</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Heigh-ho!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s6">For Emily, upon my life!—Fool,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away with this strained mirth!—I say again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sigh was breathed for Emily. Base cous|in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darest thou break first?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s13">You are wide.</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s22">By heaven and earth,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's nothing in thee honest!...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. scenes iv. v.</span></p> + +<p>In the next two scenes, placed in the forest, the jailor's daughter has +reached the height of frenzy. <span class="sidenote">Gerrold has no spark of +humour.</span> She meets the country<a name="FNanchor_42:1_75" id="FNanchor_42:1_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_42:1_75" class="fnanchor">[42:1]</a>men who had encountered Arcite, and +who are now headed by the learned and high-fantastical schoolmaster +Gerrold, a personage who has the pedantry of Shakspeare's Holofernes, +without one solitary spark of his humour. They are preparing a dance for +the presence of the duke, and the maniac is adopted into their number, +to fill up a vacancy. The duke and his train appear,—the pedagogue +prologuizes,—the <!-- Page 43 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>[<a href="./images/43.png">43</a>]</span>clowns dance,—and their self-satisfied Coryphaeus +apologizes and epiloguizes. <span class="sidenote">Act III. scene iv. v. +Fletcher's<ins class="corr" title="period missing in original">.</ins></span> Some of Fletcher's very phrases and forms of expression +have been traced in these two scenes.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. scene vi.</span></p> + +<p>We have then, in the sixth and last scene of this act, the interrupted +combat of the two princes. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's, not Shakspere's.</span> The +scene is a spirited and excellent one; but its tone is Fletcher's, not +Shakspeare's. <span class="sidenote">Has not Shakspere's grasp of imagery.</span> The +raillery and retort of the dialogue is more lightly playful than his, +and less antithetical and sententious; and though there are fine images, +they are not seized with the grasp which Shakspeare would have given, +sometimes harsh, but always at least decided. Some of the illustrations +have been quoted (<a href="#Page_17">page 17</a>). The knightly courtesy with which the princes +arm each other is well supported; and their dignity of greeting before +they cross their swords, is fine, exceedingly fine. Nothing can be more +beautifully conceived than the change which comes over the temper of the +generous Palamon, when he stands on the verge of mortal battle with his +enemy. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's sweet versification and romantic +phraseology.</span> His usual heat and impatience give place to the most +becoming calmness. The versification is very sweet, and the romantic air +of the phraseology is very much Fletcher's, especially towards the end +of the following quotation.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s7">My cause and honour guard | me.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center">(<i>They bow several ways, then advance and stand.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> And me my love; Is there aught else to say?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> This only, and no more: Thou art mine aunt's | son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that blood we desire to shed is mu|tual;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In me, thine; and in thee, mine. My sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is in my hand, and, if thou killest me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gods and I forgive thee! If there be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A place prepared for those that sleep in hon|our,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wish his weary soul that falls may win | it!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fight bravely, cous|in;| give me thy noble hand!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> Here, Palamon; this hand shall never more<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_43:1_76" id="FNanchor_43:1_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_43:1_76" class="fnanchor">[43:1]</a>Come near thee with such friendship.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s24">I commend | thee.</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> If I fall, curse me, and say I was a cow|ard;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For none but such dare die in these just tri|als.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once more farewell, my cousin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s16">Farewell, Ar|cite.</span> <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>They fight.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act III. scene vi.</span></p> + +<p>The combat is interrupted by the approach of the Duke and his <!-- Page 44 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>[<a href="./images/44.png">44</a>]</span>court; +and Palamon, refusing to give back or conceal himself, appears before +Theseus, and declares his own name and situation, and the presumptuous +secret of Arcite. <span class="sidenote">is in Fletcher's style.</span> The scene is good, +but in the flowing style of Fletcher, not the more manly one of +Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote">Death-penalty for the losing knight, a good +addition to Chaucer.</span> The sentence of death, which the duke, in the +first moments of his anger, pronounces on the two princes, is recalled +on the petition of Hippolita and her sister, on condition that the +rivals shall meantime depart, and return within a month, each +accompanied by three knights, to determine in combat the possession of +Emilia; and death by the block is denounced against the knights who +shall be vanquished. Some of these circumstances are slight deviations +from Chaucer; and the laying down of the severe penalty is well +imagined, as an addition to the tragic interest, giving occasion to a +very impressive scene in the last act.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act IV. all Fletcher's.</span></p> + +<p>The Fourth Act may safely be pronounced wholly Fletcher's. <span class="sidenote"> +Wants all the leading features of Shakspere's style.</span>All of it, except +one scene, is taken up by the episodical adventures of the jailor's +daughter; and, while much of it is poetical, it wants the force and +originality, and, indeed, all the prominent features of Shakspeare's +manner, either of thought, illustration, or expression. There are +conversations in which are described, pleasingly enough, the madness of +the unfortunate girl, and the finding of her in a sylvan spot, by her +former wooer; but when the maniac herself appears, the tone and subjects +of the dialogue become more objectionable.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act IV. scene ii.</span></p> + +<p>In the second scene of this act, the only one which bears reference to +the main business of the piece, Emilia first muses over the pictures of +her two suitors, and then hears from a messenger, in presence of Theseus +and his attendants, a description, (taken in <a name="FNanchor_44:1_77" id="FNanchor_44:1_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_44:1_77" class="fnanchor">[44:1]</a>its elements from the +Knightes Tale,) of the warriors who were preparing for the field along +with the champion lovers. <span class="sidenote">Emilia's soliloquy on the pictures, +not Shakspere's.</span> In the soliloquy of the lady, while the poetical +spirit is well preserved, the alternations of feeling are given with an +abruptness and a want of insight into the nicer shades of association, +which resemble the extravagant stage effects of the 'King and No King,' +infinitely more than the delicate yet piercing glance with which +Shakspeare looks into the human breast in the 'Othello'; the language, +too, is smoother and less <!-- Page 45 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>[<a href="./images/45.png">45</a>]</span>powerful than Shakspeare's, and one or two +classical allusions are a little too correct and studied for him. +<span class="sidenote">Act IV. scene ii. Fletcher's.</span> One image occurs, not the +clearest or most chastened, in which Fletcher closely repeats himself:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">His description of Arcite, paralleld in his <i>Philaster</i>.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">What a brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of what a spacious majesty, he car|ries!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arched like the great-eyed Juno's, but far sweet|er,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smoother than Pelop's shoulder. Fame and Hon|our,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Methinks, from hence, as from a promontor|y<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pointed in Heaven, should clap their wings, and sing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all the under-world, the loves and fights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of gods and such men near them.<a name="FNanchor_45:1_78" id="FNanchor_45:1_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_45:1_78" class="fnanchor">[45:1]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. is Shakspere's,</span></p> + +<p>In the Fifth Act we again feel the presence of the Master of the Spell. +Several passages in this portion are marked by as striking tokens of his +art as anything which we read in 'Macbeth' or 'Coriolanus.' The whole +act, a very long one, may be boldly attributed to him, with the +exception of one episodical scene.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">except scene iv. (Weber: sc. ii. Littledale).</span></p> + +<p>The time has arrived for the combat. Three temples are exhibited, as in +Chaucer, in which the rival Knights, and the <a name="FNanchor_45:2_79" id="FNanchor_45:2_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_45:2_79" class="fnanchor">[45:2]</a>Lady of their Vows, +respectively pay their adorations. One principal aim of their +supplications is to learn the result of the coming contest; but the +suspense is kept up by each of the Knights receiving a favourable +response, and Emilia a doubtful one. <span class="sidenote">Act V. sc. ii.<a name="FNanchor_45:3_80" id="FNanchor_45:3_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_45:3_80" class="fnanchor"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[45:3]</span></a> (i. +L.) is lower in key.</span> <span class="sidenote">Act V. sc. i. iii. (Weber: both i. +Littledale) are Shakspere's all through.</span> Three scenes are thus +occupied, the second of which is in somewhat a lower key than the other +two; but even in it there is much beauty; and in the first and third the +tense dignity and pointedness of the language, the gorgeousness and +overflow of illustration, and the reach, the mingled familiarity and +elevation of thought, are admirable, inimitable, and decisive. <!-- Page 46 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>[<a href="./images/46.png">46</a>]</span>From +these exquisite scenes there is a temptation to quote too largely.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene i.</span></p> + +<p>In the first scene, Theseus ushers the Kinsmen and their Knights into +the Temple of Mars, and leaves them there. After a short and solemn +greeting, the Kinsmen embrace for the last time, Palamon and his friends +retire, and Arcite and his remain and offer up their devotions to the +deity of the place. <span class="sidenote">Spirit and Language Shakspere's.</span> A fine +seriousness of spirit breathes through the whole scene, and the language +is alive with the most magnificent and delicate allusion. In Arcite's +prayer the tone cannot be mistaken. <span class="sidenote">His reflection on Fortune +and strife.</span> The enumeration of the god's attributes is coloured by all +that energetic depth of feeling with which Shakspeare in his historical +dramas so often turns aside to meditate on the changes of human fortune +and the horrors of human enmity.<a name="FNanchor_46:1_81" id="FNanchor_46:1_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_46:1_81" class="fnanchor">[46:1]</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> You valiant and strong-hearted enemies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You royal germane foes, that this day come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To blow the nearness out that flames between | ye,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay by your anger for an hour, and dove|-like,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the holy altars of your Help|ers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(The all-feard Gods) bow down your stubborn bod|ies!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your ire is more than mortal: so your help | be!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere phrases.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s19">... Hoist | we</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those sails that must these vessels port even where<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Heavenly Limiter pleases!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_46:2_82" id="FNanchor_46:2_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_46:2_82" class="fnanchor">[46:2]</a>Knights, kinsmen, lovers, yea, my sacrifi|ces!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">True worshippers of Mars, whose spirit in you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expels the seeds of fear, and the apprehen|sion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which still is father of it,—go with me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the god of our profession. There<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Require of him the hearts of lions, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The breath of tigers, yea the fierceness too,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yea the speed also!</i> to go on I mean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Else wish we to be snails. You know my prize<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must be draggd out of blood: Force and great Feat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must put my garland on, where she will stick<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The queen of flowers; our intercession then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must be to him that makes the camp <i>a ces|tron</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Brimmd with the blood of men</i>: give me your aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bend your spirits towards him!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center"><!-- Page 47 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>[<a href="./images/47.png">47</a>]</span> +(<i>They fall prostrate before the statue.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's own work,</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou mighty one! that with thy power has turn'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green Neptune into purple,—whose approach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comets prewarn,—<i>whose havock in vast field</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Unearthèd skulls proclaim</i>,—whose breath blows down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The teeming Ceres' foyson,—who dost pluck<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With hand armipotent from forth blue clouds</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The masoned turrets,—that both mak'st and break'st<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stony girths of cities;—me, thy pup|il,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young'st follower of thy drum, instruct this day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With military skill, that to thy laud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I may advance my streamer, and by thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be styled the lord o' the day: Give me, great Mars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some token of thy pleasure!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="longstagedir">(<i>Here there is heard clanging of armour, with a short thunder, as the +burst of a battle; whereupon they all rise and bow to the altar.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere again.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, great Corrector of enormous times!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Shaker of o'er rank states!</i> Thou grand Decid|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of dusty and old ti|tles;|—<i>that heal'st with blood</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The earth when it is sick</i>, and cur'st the world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O' the pleurisy of people! I do take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy signs auspiciously, and in thy name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To my design march boldly. Let us go! <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Palamon's prayer in V. ii (i. L.) not equal to V. i. or iii. +(i. L.), but is yet clearly Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>The passionate and sensitive Palamon has chosen the Queen of Love as his +Patroness, and it is in her Temple that, in the <a name="FNanchor_47:1_83" id="FNanchor_47:1_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_47:1_83" class="fnanchor">[47:1]</a>second scene, he +puts up his prayers. This scene is not equal to the first or third, +having the poetical features less prominently brought out, while the +tone of thought is less highly pitched, and also less consistently +sustained. But it is distinctly Shakspeare's. The rugged versification +is his, and the force of language. <span class="sidenote">Even the incompetent old +husband bit is his.</span> One unpleasing sketch of the deformity of decrepit +old age, which need not be quoted, is largely impressed with his air of +truth, and some personifications already noticed are also in his manner.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene ii. (Weber; i. Littledale) is Shakspere's.<br /> +<br /> +A Shakspere touch.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Our stars must glister with new fire, or be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-day extinct: our argument is love!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">... <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>They kneel.</i>)</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hail, sovereign Queen of Secrets! who hast pow|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To call the fiercest tyrant from his rage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To weep unto a girl!—that hast the might<br /></span> +<!-- Page 48 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>[<a href="./images/48.png">48</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">Even with an eye-glance to choke Mars's drum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turn the alarm to whis|pers!|...<br /></span> +<span class="i12h">What gold-like pow|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou not power upon? To Phœbus thou<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Add'st flames hotter than his: the heavenly fires<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did scorch his mortal son, thou him: The Hunt|ress<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All moist and cold, some say, began to throw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her bow away and sigh. Take to thy grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me thy vowd soldier,—who do bear thy yoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As 'twere a wreath of roses, yet is heav|ier<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than lead itself, stings more than net|tles:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have never been foul-mouthed against thy law;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">... I have been harsh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To large confessors, and have hotly askt | them<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If they had mothers: <i>I</i> had one,—a wom|an,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And women 'twere they wronged....<br /></span> +<span class="i13">Brief,—I am<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To those that prate and have done,—no compan|ion;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To those that boast and have not,—a defi|er;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To those that would and cannot,—a rejoi|cer!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, him I do not love, that tells close offices<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The foulest way, nor names concealments in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The boldest language: Such a one I am,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vow that <i>lover never yet made sigh</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Truer than I</i>....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center">(<i>Music is heard, and doves are seen to flutter: they fall upon their +faces.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><a name="FNanchor_48:1_84" id="FNanchor_48:1_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_48:1_84" class="fnanchor">[48:1]</a>I give thee thanks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this fair token!...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Emilia's Prayer is surely Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>Emilia's Prayer in the Sanctuary of the pure Diana, forming the third +scene, is in some parts most nervous, and the opening is inexpressibly +beautiful in language and rhythm. Several ideas and idioms are +identically Shakspeare's.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene iii. (Weber; i. Littledale) Shakspere's</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> (<i>Kneeling before the altar.</i>) Oh, sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant Queen!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Abandoner of revels!</i> mute, contemplative,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, solitary, white as chaste, and pure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As wind-fanned snow!—who to thy <i>female knights</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Allow'st no more blood than will make a blush,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which is there order's robe!—I here, thy priest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am humbled 'fore thine altar. Oh, vouchsafe,<br /></span> +<!-- Page 49 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>[<a href="./images/49.png">49</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">With that thy rare <i>green eye</i>,<a name="FNanchor_49:1_85" id="FNanchor_49:1_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_49:1_85" class="fnanchor">[49:1]</a> which never yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beheld thing maculate, look on thy virg|in!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And,—sacred silver Mistress!—lend thine ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Which ne'er heard scurril term, into whose port<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er entered wanton sound,) to my petit|ion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seasoned with holy fear!—This is my last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of vestal office: <a name="FNanchor_49:2_86" id="FNanchor_49:2_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_49:2_86" class="fnanchor">[49:2]</a>I'm bride-habited,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But maiden-heart|ed.| A husband I have, appoint|ed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But do not know him; out of two I should<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chuse one, and pray for his success, but I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am guiltless of election of mine eyes.<a href="#Footnote_49:2_86" class="fnanchor">[49:2]</a><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center">(<i>A rose-tree ascends from under the altar, having one rose upon it.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">See what our general of ebbs and flows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out from the bowels of her holy al|tar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sacred act advances! But one rose?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If well inspired, this battle shall confound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both these brave knights, and I a virgin flow|er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must grow alone unplucked.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center">(<i>Here is heard a sudden twang of instruments, and the rose falls from +the tree.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_49:3_87" id="FNanchor_49:3_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_49:3_87" class="fnanchor">[49:3]</a>The flower is fallen, the tree descends!—oh, mis|tress,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou here dischargest me: I shall be gath|ered,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think so; but I know not thine own will;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unclasp thy mystery!—I hope she's pleased;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her signs were gracious. <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene iv. (Weber; ii. Littledale) is stuff.</span></p> + +<p>The fourth scene, in which the characters are the jailor's daughter, her +father and lover, and a physician, is disgusting and imbecile in the +extreme. It may be dismissed with a single quotation:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Doctor.</i> What stuff she utters!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene v. (Weber; iii. Littledale). Its strangeness.</span></p> + +<p>The fifth scene is the Combat, the arrangement of which is unusual. +Perhaps there is nothing in every respect resembling it in the circle of +the English drama. Theseus and his court cross the stage as proceeding +to the lists; Emilia pauses and refuses to be present; the rest depart, +and she is left. She then, the prize of the struggle, <!-- Page 50 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>[<a href="./images/50.png">50</a>]</span>the presiding +influence of the day, alone occupies the stage: within, the trumpets are +heard sounding the charge, and the cries of the spectators and tumult of +the encounter reach her ears; one or two messengers recount to her the +various changes of the field, till Arcite's victory ends the fight. The +manner is admirable in which the caution, which rendered it advisable to +avoid introducing the combat on the stage, is reconciled with the pomp +of scenic effect and bustle. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's hand is in it.</span> The +details of the scene, with which alone we have here to do, make it clear +that Shakspeare's hand was in it. The greater part, it is true, is not +of the highest excellence; but the vacillations of Emilia's feelings are +well and delicately given, some individual thoughts and words mark +Shakspeare, there is a little of his obscure brevity, much of his +thoughtfulness legitimately applied, and an instance or two of its +abuse. The strong likeness to him will justify some quotations.</p> + +<p>In the following lines Theseus is pleading with Emilia for her presence +in the lists:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s10">You must be there:</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">This trial is as 'twere in the night, and you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The only star to shine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_50:1_88" id="FNanchor_50:1_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_50:1_88" class="fnanchor">[50:1]</a><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s7">I am extinct.</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is but envy in that light, which shews<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one the other. Darkness, which ever was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dam of Horror, who does stand accursed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of many mortal millions, may even now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By casting her black mantle over both<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That neither could find other, get herself<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some part of a good name, and many a mur|der<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set off whereto she's guilty.<a name="FNanchor_50:2_89" id="FNanchor_50:2_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_50:2_89" class="fnanchor">[50:2]</a><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>One good description is put into the mouth of Emilia after she is left +alone:—</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene v. (Weber; or sc. iii. Littledale). Shakspere's +hand in it.<br /> +<br /> +Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> Arcite is gently visaged; yet his eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is like an engine bent, or a sharp weap|on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a soft sheath: Mercy and manly Cour|age<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are bedfellows in his visage. Palamon<br /></span> +<!-- Page 51 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>[<a href="./images/51.png">51</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">Has a most menacing aspect: his brow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is graved, and seems to bury what it frowns | on;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet sometimes 'tis not so, but alters to<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quality of his thoughts: long time his eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will dwell upon his object: melanchol|y<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Becomes him nobly; so does Arcite's mirth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Palamon's sadness is a kind of mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So mingled, as if mirth did make him sad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sadness mer|ry:| those darker humours that<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stick unbecomingly on oth|ers,| on him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live in fair dwelling.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After several alternations of fortune in the fight, she again speaks +thus of the two:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">... <a name="FNanchor_51:1_90" id="FNanchor_51:1_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_51:1_90" class="fnanchor">[51:1]</a>Were they metamor|phosed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both into one—oh why? there were no wom|an<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worth so composed a man! their single share,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their nobleness peculiar to them, gives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The prejudice of dispar|ity,| value's shortness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To any lady breathing....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center">(<i>Cornets: a great shout, and cry</i>, Arcite, victory!)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_51:2_91" id="FNanchor_51:2_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_51:2_91" class="fnanchor">[51:2]</a><i>Servant.</i> <span class="s7"> The cry is</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arcite and victory! Hark, Arcite, vic|tory!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The combat's consummation is proclaimed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the wind instruments.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere touch.<br /> +<br /> +Shakspere reflection.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s13">Half-sights saw</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Arcite was no babe: god's-lid! <i>his rich|ness</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And costliness of spirit looked through |him</i>: | it could<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more be hid in him than fire in flax,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than humble banks can go to law with wa|ters<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That drift winds force to raging. I did think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good Palamon would miscarry; yet I knew | not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why I did think | so.| <i>Our Reasons are net proph|ets</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>When oft our Fancies are.</i> They're coming off:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas, poor Palamon!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Theseus enters with his attendants, conducting Arcite, as conqueror, and +presents him to Emilia as her husband. Arcite's situation is a painful +one, and is well discriminated: he utters but a single grave sentence.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> (<i>To Arcite and Emilia.</i>) Give me your hands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Receive you her, you him: be plighted with<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A love that grows as you decay!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<!-- Page 52 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>[<a href="./images/52.png">52</a>]</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s19">Emily!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">To buy you I have lost what's dearest to | me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save what is bought; and yet I purchase cheap|ly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I do rate your value.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere touch.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> (<i>To Arcite.</i>) <span class="s7">Wear the gar|land</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">With joy that you have won. For the subdued,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give them our present justice, <i>since I know</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Their lives but pinch them</i>. Let it here be done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sight's not for our seeing: go we hence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right joyful, with some sorrow!—Arm your prize:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know you will not lose | her.| Hippolita,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see one eye of yours conceives a tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The which it will deliv|er.|<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Emilia.</i> <span class="s13">Is this, winning?</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, all you heavenly powers! where is your mer|cy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that your wills have said it must be so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And charge me live to comfort this unfriend|ed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This miserable prince, that cuts away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A life more worthy from him than all wom|en,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I should and would die too.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_52:1_92" id="FNanchor_52:1_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_52:1_92" class="fnanchor">[52:1]</a><i>Hippolita.</i> <span class="s9">Infinite pity,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That four such eyes should be so fixed on one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That two must needs be blind for't. <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Exeunt.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Act V. scene vi. (Weber; sc. iv. Littledale) is clearly +Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>The authorship of the last scene admits of no doubt. The manner is +Shakspeare's, and some parts are little inferior to his very finest +passages. Palamon has been vanquished, and he and his friends are to +undergo execution of the sentence to which the laws of the combat +subjected them. The depth of the interest is now fixed on these +unfortunate knights, and a fine spirit of resigned melancholy inspires +the scene in which they pass to their deaths.<a name="FNanchor_52:2_93" id="FNanchor_52:2_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_52:2_93" class="fnanchor">[52:2]</a></p> + +<p class="center"><!-- Page 53 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>[<a href="./images/53.png">53</a>]</span> +(<i>Enter Palamon and his knights, pinioned; jailor, executioner, and +guard.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> There's many a man alive that hath outlived<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The love of the people; yea, in the self-same state<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_53:1_94" id="FNanchor_53:1_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_53:1_94" class="fnanchor">[53:1]</a>Stands many a father with his child; some com|fort<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have by so considering. We expire,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And not without men's pity;—to live still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have their good wishes. We prevent<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_53:2_95" id="FNanchor_53:2_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_53:2_95" class="fnanchor">[53:2]</a>The loathsome misery of age, beguile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gout and rheum, that in lag hours attend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For grey approachers. We come towards the gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young and unwarped, not halting under crimes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Many and stale; that sure shall please the gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_53:3_96" id="FNanchor_53:3_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_53:3_96" class="fnanchor">[53:3]</a>Sooner than such, to give us nectar with | them,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For we are more clear spir|its!|...<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>2 Knight.</i> <span class="s16">Let us bid farewell;</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with our patience anger tottering for|tune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who at her certain'st reels.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>3 Knight.</i> <span class="s13">Come, who begins?</span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Even he that led you to this banquet shall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taste to you all....<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Adieu, and let my life be now as short<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As my leave-taking. <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Lies on the block.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If we were in a situation to give due effect to the supernatural part of +the story, the miserable end of Palamon would affect us with a mingled +sense of pity and indignation. He has been promised success by the +divinity whom he adored, and yet he lies vanquished with the uplifted +axe glittering above his head. Both the drama and Chaucer's poem assume +the existence of such feelings on our part, and hasten to remove the +cause of them. <span class="sidenote"><ins class="corr" title="letter s missing in original">Chaucer's</ins> celestial agency to work out the +plot.</span> A way is devised for reconciling the contending oracles; and the +catastrophe which effects that end, is, in the old poet, anxiously +prepared by celestial agency.<a name="FNanchor_53:4_97" id="FNanchor_53:4_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_53:4_97" class="fnanchor">[53:4]</a> Arcite has got the victory in the +field, as his <!-- Page 54 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>[<a href="./images/54.png">54</a>]</span>warlike divinity had promised him; and an evil spirit is +raised for the purpose of bringing about his death, that the votary of +the Queen of Love may be allowed to enjoy the gentler meed which his +protectress had pledged herself to bestow. These supernal intrigues are, +in the play, no more than hinted at in the way of metaphor.</p> + +<p>A cry is heard for delay of the execution; Perithous rushes in, ascends +the scaffold, and, raising Palamon from the block, announces the +approaching death of Arcite, with nearly the same circumstances as in +the poem. While he rode townwards from the lists, on a black steed which +had been the gift of Emily, he had been thrown with violence, and now +lies on the brink of dissolution. <span class="sidenote">Description of Arcite's +mishap is bad, but Shakspere's.</span> The speech which describes Arcite's +misadven<a name="FNanchor_54:1_98" id="FNanchor_54:1_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_54:1_98" class="fnanchor">[54:1]</a>ture has been much noticed by the critics, and by some +lavishly praised. With deference, I think it decidedly bad, but +undeniably the work of Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote">Over-labourd, involvd, +hard, yet Shakspere's, with his words and thoughts.</span> The whole manner of +it is that of some of his long and over-laboured descriptions. It is +full of illustration, infelicitous but not weak; in involvement of +sentence and hardness of phrase no passage in the play comes so close to +him; and there are traceable in one or two instances, not only his +words, but the trains of thought in which he indulges elsewhere, +especially the description of the horse, which closely resembles some +spirited passages in the Venus and Adonis. It is needless to quote any +part of this speech.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">End of the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>The after-part of this scene, which ends the play, contains some +forcible and lofty reflection, and the language is exceedingly vigorous +and weighty. In Chaucer, the feelings of the dying Arcite are expressed +at much length, and very touchingly; in the play, they are dispatched +shortly, and the attention continued on Palamon, who had been its +previous object:—</p> + +<p class="center">(<i>Enter Theseus, Hippolita, Emilia, Arcite in a chair.</i>)</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Oh, miserable end of our alli|ance!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gods are mighty!—Arcite, if thy heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy worthy, manly heart, be yet unbro|ken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me thy last words. I am Palamon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One that yet loves thee dying.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Arcite.</i> <span class="s17">Take Emil|ia,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with her all the world's joy. Reach thy hand:<br /></span> +<!-- Page 55 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>[<a href="./images/55.png">55</a>]</span><span class="i0">Farewell! I've told my last hour. I was false,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But never treacherous: Forgive me, cous|in!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One kiss from fair Emilia!—'Tis done:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take her.—I die!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> Thy brave soul seek Elys|ium!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">* * * * *<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <i>His part is played; and, though it were too short,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>He did it well.</i> Your day is lengthened, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blissful dew of heaven does arrose | you:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The powerful Venus well hath graced her al|tar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And given you your love; our master Mars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath vouched his oracle, and to Arcite gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grace of the contention: So the de|ities<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have shewed due justice.—Bear this hence.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Palamon.</i> <span class="s26">Oh, cous|in!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we should things desire, which do cost | us<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_55:1_99" id="FNanchor_55:1_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_55:1_99" class="fnanchor">[55:1]</a>The loss of our desire! that nought could buy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear love, but loss of dear love!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Theseus.</i> <span class="s16">... Palamon!</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your kinsman hath confessed, the right o' the la|dy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did lie in you: for you first saw her, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even then proclaimed your fancy. He restord | her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As your stolen jewel, and desired your spir|it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To send him hence forgiven! The gods my jus|tice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take from my hand, and they themselves become<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The executioners. Lead your lady off:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And call your lovers from the stage of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom I adopt my friends.—A day or two<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us look sadly, and give grace unto<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The funeral of Arcite; in whose end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The visages of bridegrooms we'll put on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And smile with Palamon; for whom, an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one hour since, I was as dearly sor|ry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As glad of Arcite; and am now as glad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As for him sorry.—Oh, you <i>heavenly charm|ers</i>!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What things you make of us! For what we lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We laugh; for what we have, are sorry still;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are children in some kind.—Let us be thank|ful<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that which is, and with you leave disputes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That are above our question.—Let us go off,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bear us like the time! <span class="ilstagedir">(<i>Exeunt omnes.</i>)</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>You have now before you an outline of the subject of this highly +poetical drama, with specimens which may convey some notion of the +manner in which the plan is executed. But detached extracts <!-- Page 56 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>[<a href="./images/56.png">56</a>]</span>cannot +furnish materials for a just decision as to the part which Shakspeare +may have taken even in writing the scenes from which the quotations are +given. If I addressed myself to one previously unacquainted with this +drama, I should be compelled to request an attentive study of it from +beginning to end. <span class="sidenote">Two authors wrote <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> +Such a perusal would convince the most sceptical mind that two authors +were concerned in the work; it would be perceived that certain scenes +are distinguished by certain prominent characters, while others present +different and dissimilar features. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher was one.</span> If we +are to assume that Fletcher wrote parts of the play, we must admit that +many parts of it were written by another person, and we have only to +inquire who that other was. <span class="sidenote">The other was Shakspere.</span> Without +recurring to any external presump<a name="FNanchor_56:1_100" id="FNanchor_56:1_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_56:1_100" class="fnanchor">[56:1]</a>tions whatever, I think there is +enough in most or all of the parts which are evidently not Fletcher's, +to appropriate them to the great poet whose name, in this instance, +tradition has associated with his. Even in the passages which have been +here selected, you cannot but have traced Shakspeare's hand frequently +and unequivocally. The introductory views which I slightly suggested to +your recollection, may have furnished some rules of judgment, and +cleared away some obstacles from the path; and where I have failed in +bringing out distinctly the real points of difference, your own acute +judgment and delicate taste must have enabled you to draw instinctively +those inferences which I have attempted to reach by systematic +deduction.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Fletcher easily distinguisht from Shakspere.</span></p> + +<p>In truth, a question of this sort is infinitely more easy of decision +where Fletcher is the author against whose claims Shakspeare's are to be +balanced, than it could be if the poet's supposed assistant were any +other ancient English dramatist. If a drama were presented to us, where, +as in some of Shakspeare's received works, he had taken up the ruder +sketch of an older poet, and exerted his skill in altering and enlarging +it, it would be very difficult indeed to discriminate between the +original and his additions. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's Histories:</span> +<span class="sidenote">their fault.</span> He has often, especially in his earlier works, +and in his histories more particularly, much of that exaggeration of +ideas, and that strained and labouring force of expression, which marked +the Hercules-like infancy of the English Drama. <span class="sidenote">Marlowe.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Marlowe's magnificence like Shakspere sometimes.</span> The +stateliness with which Marlowe paces the <!-- Page 57 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>[<a href="./images/57.png">57</a>]</span>tragic stage, and the +magnificence of the train of solemn shews which attend him like the +captives in a Roman procession of triumph, bear no distant likeness to +the shape which Shakspeare's genius assumes in its most lofty moods. And +with those also who followed the latter, or trode side by side with him, +he has many points of resemblance or identity. <span class="sidenote">Jonson.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Massinger.</span> <span class="sidenote">Middleton.</span> +Jonson has his seriousness of views, his singleness of purpose, his +weight of style, and his "fulness and frequency of sentence;" Massinger +has his comprehension of thought, giving birth to an involved and +parenthetical mode of construction; and Middleton, if he possesses few +of his other qualities, has much of his precision and straightforward +earnestness of expression.<a name="FNanchor_57:1_101" id="FNanchor_57:1_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_57:1_101" class="fnanchor">[57:1]</a> +In examining isolated passages with the view of ascertaining whether +they were written by Shakspeare or by any of those other <a name="FNanchor_57:2_102" id="FNanchor_57:2_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_57:2_102" class="fnanchor">[57:2]</a>poets, we should +frequently have no ground of decision but the insecure and narrow one of +comparative excellence. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher and Shakspere contrasted.</span> +<span class="sidenote">They differ in <i>kind</i>.</span> When Fletcher is Shakspeare's only competitor, we +are very seldom driven to adopt so doubtful a footing; we are not +compelled to reason from difference in <i>degree</i>, because we are sensible +of a striking dissimilarity in <i>kind</i>. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span> <span class="sidenote">Fletcher.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span> <span class="sidenote">Fletcher.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span> <span class="sidenote">Fletcher.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere.</span> We observe ease and +elegance of expression opposed to energy and quaintness; brevity is met +by dilation, and the obscurity which results from hurry of conception +has to be compared with the vagueness proceeding from indistinctness of +ideas; lowness, narrowness, and poverty of thought, are contrasted with +elevation, richness, and comprehension: on the one hand is an intellect +barely active enough to seek the true elements of the poetical, and on +the other a mind which, seeing those finer relations at a glance, darts +off in the wantonness of its luxuriant strength to discover qualities +with which poetry is but ill fitted to deal; in the one poet we behold +that comparative feebleness of fancy which willingly stoops to the +correction of taste, and in the other, that warmth, splendour, and +quickness of imagination, which flows on like the burning rivers from a +volcano, quenching all paler lights in its spreading radiance, and +destroying every barrier which would impede or direct its devouring +course. You will remark that certain passages or scenes in this play are +attributed to Shakspeare, not because they are superior to Fletcher's +<!-- Page 58 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>[<a href="./images/58.png">58</a>]</span> +tone or manner, but because they are unlike it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's work +unlike Fletcher's.</span> It may be true that most of these possess higher +excellence than Fletcher could have easily reached; but this is merely +an extrinsic circumstance, and it is not upon it that the judgment is +founded. <span class="sidenote">Test between Shakspere and Fletcher.</span> These passages are +recognized as Shakspeare's, not from possessing in a higher degree those +qualities in which Fletcher's merit lies, but from exhibiting other +qualities in which he is partially or wholly wanting, and which even +singly, and still more when combined, constitute a style and manner +opposite to his.</p> + +<p>Indeed, since Fletcher is acknowledged to stand immeasurably lower than +Shakspeare, the excellence of some passages might perhaps in itself be +no unfair reason for refusing to the inferior poet the credit of their +execution. But an analysis of the means by which the excellence is +produced places us beyond <a name="FNanchor_58:1_103" id="FNanchor_58:1_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_58:1_103" class="fnanchor">[58:1]</a>the necessity of resorting, in the first +instance at least, to this general ground of decision, which must, +however, be taken into view, when we have been able to assume a position +which entitles us to take advantage of it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's +external qualities in the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> <span class="sidenote">Are they +imitations?</span> In many parts of this play we find those external qualities +which form Shakspeare's distinguishing characteristics, not separately +and singly present, but combined most fully and most intimately; and it +is consequently indisputable that we have, either Shakspeare's own +writing, or a faithful and successful imitation of it. <span class="sidenote"> +Imitation of Shakspere difficult.</span>It is not easy to perceive with +perfect clearness why it is that imitation of Shakspeare is peculiarly +difficult; but every one is convinced that it is far more so than in the +case of any other poet whatever. <span class="sidenote">Why it is so.</span> The range and +opposition of his qualities, the rarity and loftiness of the most +remarkable of these, and still more, the coincident operation of his +most dissimilar powers, make it next to impossible, even in short and +isolated passages, to produce an imitation which shall be mistaken for +his original composition: but there is not even a possibility of success +in an attempt to carry on such an imitation of him throughout many +entire scenes. <span class="sidenote">Given, his outside dress,</span> +<span class="sidenote">ask whether his spirit is inside it.</span> Where the external qualities of a work +resemble his, the question of his authorship can be determined in no +other way than by inquiring whether the essential elements, and the +spirit which animates the whole, are his also; and that inquiry is not +one for logical argument; it can be answered <!-- Page 59 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>[<a href="./images/59.png">59</a>]</span>only by reflection on the +effect which the work produces on our own minds. <span class="sidenote">The poetic +sense alone can judge.</span> The dullest eye can discriminate the free +motions of the living frame from the convulsed writhings which art may +excite in the senseless corpse; the nightly traveller easily +distinguishes between the red and earthy twinkling of the distant +cottage-lamp, and the cold white gleam of the star which rises beyond +it;—and with equal quickness and equal certainty the poetical sense can +decide whether the living and ethereal principle of poetry is present, +or only its corporeal clothing, its dead and inert resemblance. +<span class="sidenote">By the emotion it creates, must Shakspere's work be judgd.</span> +The emotion which poetry necessarily awakens in minds qualified as the +subjects of its working, is the only evidence of its presence, and the +measure and index of its strength. If we can read with coldness and +indifference the drama which we are now examining, we must pronounce it +to <a name="FNanchor_59:1_104" id="FNanchor_59:1_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_59:1_104" class="fnanchor">[59:1]</a>be no more than a skilful imitation of Shakspeare; but we must +acknowledge it as an original if the heart burns and the fancy expands +under its influence,—if we feel that the poetical and dramatic spirit +breathes through all,—and if the mind bows down involuntarily before +the powers of whose presence it is secretly but convincingly sensible. +<span class="sidenote">And his part of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> witnesses for +itself.</span> I cannot have a doubt that the parts of this work which I have +pointed out as Shakspeare's will the more firmly endure this trial, the +more closely and seriously they are revolved and studied.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's share of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>The portions of the drama which, on such principles as these, have been +set down as Shakspeare's, compose a large part of its bulk, and embrace +most of the material circumstances of the story. <span class="sidenote">Act I.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Act III. sc. i.</span> <span class="sidenote">Act V. except scene iv.</span> They +are,—the First Act wholly,—one scene out of six in the Third,—and the +whole of the Fifth Act, (a very long one,) except one unimportant scene. +These parts are not of equal excellence, but the grounds on which a +decision as to their authorship rests, seem to be almost equally strong +with regard to each.</p> + +<p>We have as yet been considering these scenes as so many separate pieces +of poetry; and they are valuable even in that light, not less from their +intrinsic merit than as being the work of our greatest poet. If it be +true merely that Shakspeare has here executed some portions of a plan +which another had previously fixed on and sketched, the drama demands +our zealous study, and is entitled to a place among <!-- Page 60 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>[<a href="./images/60.png">60</a>]</span>Shakspeare's works. +An examination of separate details cannot enable us to form any more +specific opinion as to the part which he may have taken in its +composition.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Is the design of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> Shakspere's?</span></p> + +<p>But there is a further inquiry on which we are bound to enter, whatever +its result may be,—whether it shall allow us to attribute to Shakspeare +a wider influence over the work, or compel us to limit his claim to the +subsidiary authorship, which only we have yet been able to establish for +him. We must now endeavour to trace the design of the work to its +origin; we must look on the parts in their relation to the whole, and +investigate the qualities and character of that whole which the parts +compose. Such an analysis is essential to an appreciation of the real +merit of the drama, and suggests views of far-greater inte<a name="FNanchor_60:1_105" id="FNanchor_60:1_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_60:1_105" class="fnanchor">[60:1]</a>rest +than any which offer themselves in the examination of isolated passages. +And it is likewise necessary as a part of the inquiry which is our +object, not merely because it may tend to strengthen or modify the +decisions which we have already formed, but because it will allow us to +determine other important questions which we have had no opportunity of +treating. <span class="sidenote">Yes, it is.</span> It will justify us, if I mistake not, +in pronouncing with some confidence, that this drama owes to Shakspeare +much more than the composition of a few scenes,—that he was the poet +who chose the story, and arranged the leading particulars of the method +in which it is handled.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The tragic-comic underplot not Shakspere's.</span></p> + +<p>Before we enter the extensive and interesting field of inquiry thus +opened to us, it may be well that I explain the reasons which seem +distinctly to exclude from Shakspeare's part of the work one +considerable portion of it,—the whole of the tragi-comic under-plot. I +have as yet assigned no ground of rejection, but inferiority in the +execution; but there are other reasons, which, when combined with that, +remove all uncertainty. Slightly as this subordinate story has been +described, enough has been said to point out remarkable imitations of +Shakspeare, both in incident and character. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's +borrowings in the underplot, from Shakspere.</span> The insane maiden is a +copy of Ophelia, with features from 'Lear'; the comments of the +physician on her sickness of the mind, are borrowed <!-- Page 61 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>[<a href="./images/61.png">61</a>]</span>in conception from +'Macbeth'; the character of the fantastic schoolmaster is a repetition +of the pedagogue in 'Love's Labour Lost'; and the exhibition of the +clowns which he directs, resemble scenes both in that play and in the +'Midsummer Night's Dream.' All these circumstances together, or even one +of them by itself, are enough to destroy the notion of Shakspeare's +authorship. The likeness which is found elsewhere to Shakspeare's style, +(and which is far closer in those other parts of the play than it is +here,) is an argument, as I have shewn, in favour of his authorship; the +likeness here in character and incident is even a stronger one against +it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere doesn't imitate himself in character as he does +in style.</span> In neither of these latter particulars does Shakspeare +imitate himself as he does in style. In some of his earlier plays indeed +we may trace the rude outlines of characters, chiefly comic, which he +was afterwards able to develope with <a name="FNanchor_61:1_106" id="FNanchor_61:1_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_61:1_106" class="fnanchor">[61:1]</a>greater distinctness and more +striking features; but though the likeness, in those cases, were nearer +and more frequent than it is, the transition from the rude block to the +finished sculpture is the allowable and natural progress of genius. +<span class="sidenote">He doesn't reproduce a figure badly.</span> The bare reproduction +of a figure or a scene already drawn with clearness and success, stands +in a very different situation; and, even if it should be nearly equal to +the original in actual merit, it creates a strong presumption of its +being no more than the artifice of an imitator. Where the inferiority of +the execution is palpable, the doubt is raised into certainty. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere could not have turned his Ophelia into the Jailer's +daughter of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> In the case before us, it is +impossible to receive the idea of Shakspeare sitting down in cold blood +to imitate the Ophelia, and to transfer all the tenderness of her +situation to a new drama of a far lower tone, in which also it should +occupy only a subordinate station. He could not have been guilty of +this; he neither needed it, nor would have done it of free will; and, +therefore, I could not have believed it to be his, though the execution +had been far better than it is. <span class="sidenote">This Daughter is an utter +failure.</span> But the inferiority is decided; the imitation produces neither +vigour of style nor depth of feeling; in short, Shakspeare, if he had +made the attempt, could not have failed so utterly. <span class="sidenote">The +Schoolmaster is not Shakspere's.</span> The comic parts are only subservient +to the serious portion of this story; and if Shakspeare did not write +the leading part, he was still less likely to have written the +accessory; but, besides, the imitation is equally unsuccessful; and the +original <!-- Page 62 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>[<a href="./images/62.png">62</a>]</span>of the schoolmaster is said to have been a personal portrait, +which was very unlikely to have been repeated by the first painter after +the freshness of the jest was gone. I have been the more anxious to +place in its true light the question as to this part of the drama, +because, on its seeming likeness to Shakspeare, Steevens founds an +ingenious hypothesis, by which he endeavours to account for the origin +of the tradition as to Shakspeare's concern in the play. That this is a +designed imitation of Shakspeare is abundantly clear; and it is not +difficult to see why it is an unsuccessful one. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's +designd imitation of Shakspere.</span> Fletcher possesses much humour, but it +is of a cast very unlike Shakspeare's, and very unfit to harmonise with +it, or to qualify him for the imitation which he has here attempted. Why +he made the attempt, we shall be able to discover only when the freaks +of caprice, and of poetical caprice, <a name="FNanchor_62:1_107" id="FNanchor_62:1_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_62:1_107" class="fnanchor">[62:1]</a>the wildest of all, shall be +fully analyzed and fully accounted for. <span class="sidenote">The underplot not +Shakspere's.</span> All that I have to prove is, that this portion of the work +is not, and could not have been, Shakspeare's.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's choice of subjects for his Plays.</span></p> + +<p>I have said that I consider as his, both the selection of the plot, and +much of its arrangement. <span class="sidenote">He differs from his chief +contemporaries and successors.</span> As to the Choice of the Subject, my +position is, that in this particular, Shakspeare stands in unequivocal +opposition to Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and those others, +contemporary with him, or a little his juniors, with whom his name is +generally associated. I can easily shew that this opposition to the +newer school in the choice of stories exists in Shakspeare individually; +and this would be enough for my purpose; but I will go a little farther +than I am called on, because I conceive him to share that opposition +with some other poets, and because views open to us from this +circumstance, which are of some value for the right understanding of his +characteristics. <span class="sidenote">He belongs to the old school.</span> I say then, +that in the choice of subjects particularly, as well as in other +features, Shakspeare belongs to a school older than that of Fletcher, +and radically different from it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere took old stories;</span> +<span class="sidenote">new poets new ones.</span> The principle of the contrariety in the +choice of subjects between the older and newer schools, is this: the +older poets usually prefer stories with which their audience must have +been previously familiar; the newer poets avoid such known subjects, and +attempt to create an adventitious interest for their pieces, by +appealing <!-- Page 63 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>[<a href="./images/63.png">63</a>]</span>to the passion of curiosity, and feeding it with novelty of +incident. <span class="sidenote">Early Plays founded on</span> The early writers may have +adopted their rule of choice from a distrust in their own skill: but +they are more likely to have been influenced by reflecting on the +inexperience of their audience in theatrical exhibitions. <span class="sidenote"> +History and Tales of Chivalry.</span>By insisting on this quality in their +plots, they hampered themselves much in the choice of them; and the +subjects which offered themselves to the older among them, were mainly +confined to two classes, history and the chivalrous tales, being the +only two cycles of story with which, about the time of Shakspeare's +birth, any general familiarity could be presumed. That such were the +favourite themes of the infant English drama is abundantly clear, even +from the lists of old lost dramas which have been preserved to us. +<span class="sidenote">Classical fables and foreign novels.</span> By the time when +Shakspeare stepped into <a name="FNanchor_63:1_108" id="FNanchor_63:1_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_63:1_108" class="fnanchor">[63:1]</a>the arena, the zeal for translation had +increased the stock of popular knowledge by the addition of the +classical fables and the foreign modern novels; and his immediate +precursors, some of whom were men of much learning, had especially +availed themselves of the former class of plots. <span class="sidenote">Plots of +Shakspere's successors.</span> If, passing over Shakspeare, we glance at the +plots of Fletcher, Jonson, or others of the same period, we find, among +a great diversity of means, a search for novelty universally set on +foot. Jonson is fond of inventing his plots; Beaumont and Fletcher +usually borrow theirs; but neither by the former nor the latter were +stories chosen which were familiar to the people, nor in any instance +perhaps do they condescend to use plots which had been previously +written on. <span class="sidenote">Beaumont <ins class="corr" title="word and missing in original">and</ins> Fletcher's.</span> Where Beaumont and +Fletcher do avail themselves of common tales, they artfully combine them +with others, and receive assistance from complexity of adventure in +keeping their uniform purpose in view. <span class="sidenote">Historical Drama grew +obsolete.</span> The historical drama was regarded by the new school as a rude +and obsolete form; and there are scarcely half a dozen instances in +which any writer of that age, but Shakspeare, adopted it later than +1600. Historical subjects indeed wanted the coveted charm, as did also +the Romantic and the Classical Tales, both of which shared in the +neglect with which the Chronicles were treated. <span class="sidenote">Plots were +got from foreign novels and invention.</span> The Foreign Novels, and stories +partly borrowed from them, or wholly invented, were almost the sole +subjects of the newer drama, which has always the air of addressing +<!-- Page 64 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>[<a href="./images/64.png">64</a>]</span>itself to hearers possessing greater dramatic experience and more +extended information than those who were in the view of the older +writers.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere belongs to the older class of dramatists.</span></p> + +<p>Shakspeare, in point of time, stood between these two classes: does he +decidedly belong to either, or shew a leaning, and to which? He +unequivocally belongs to the older class; or rather, the opposition to +the newer writers assumes in him a far more decided shape than in any of +his immediate forerunners; for in them are found numerous exceptions to +the rule, in him scarcely one. He returns, in fact, to more than one of +the principles of the old school, which had begun in his time to fall +into disuse. <span class="sidenote">Compare his Histories, narrative chorus long +rymed passages,</span> The external form of some of his plays, particularly +his histories, is quite in the old taste. The narrative chorus is the +most observable remnant of antiquity; and the long rhymed pas<a name="FNanchor_64:1_109" id="FNanchor_64:1_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_64:1_109" class="fnanchor">[64:1]</a>sages +frequent in his earlier works, are abundant in the older writers: Peele +uses them through whole scenes, and Marlowe likewise to excess. +<span class="sidenote">jesters, and choice of known stories.</span> His continual +introduction of those conventional characters, his favourite jesters, is +another point of resemblance to the ruder stage. <span class="sidenote">He's of the +school of Lodge and Greene.</span> And his choice of subjects, when combined +with the peculiarities of economy just noticed, as well as others, +clearly appropriates him to the school of Lodge, Greene, and those elder +writers who have left few works and fewer names. His Historical Plays +are the perfection of the old school, the only valuable specimens of +that class which it has produced, and the latest instance in which its +example was followed; and he has had recourse to the Classical story for +such subjects as approached most nearly to the nature of his English +Chronicles. <span class="sidenote">Of new novel stories,</span> And you must take especial +note, that, even in the class of subjects in which he seems to coincide +with the new school,—I mean his Plots borrowed from Foreign Novels,—he +assumes no more of conformity than its appearance, while the principle +of contrariety is still retained. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere chose the most +widely known.</span> The new writers preferred untranslated novels, and, where +they chose translated ones, disguised them till the features of the +original were lost: Shakspeare not only uses translated tales—(this +indeed from necessity)—and closely adheres to their minutest +circumstances, but in almost every instance he has made choice of those +among them which can be proved to have been most widely known and +esteemed <!-- Page 65 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>[<a href="./images/65.png">65</a>]</span>at the time. Most of his plots founded on fanciful subjects, +whether derived from novels or other sources, can be shewn to have been +previously familiar to the people. <span class="sidenote">6 Plays of Shakspere +founded on well-known stories.</span> The story of 'Measure for Measure' had +been previously told; that of 'As you Like It', he might have had from +either of two popular collections of tales; the fable of 'Much Ado about +Nothing' seems to have been widely spread, and those of 'All's Well that +Ends Well', and 'The Winter's Tale'; 'Romeo and Juliet' appears in at +least one collection of English novels, and in a poem which enjoyed much +popularity. These are sufficient as examples; but a still more +remarkable circumstance is this. <span class="sidenote">12 on subjects of former +Plays.</span> In repeated instances, about twelve in all, Shakspeare has +chosen subjects on which plays had been previously written; nay more, on +the sub<a name="FNanchor_65:1_110" id="FNanchor_65:1_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_65:1_110" class="fnanchor">[65:1]</a>jects which he has so re-written, he has produced some of +his best dramas, and one his very masterpiece. 'Julius Cæsar' belongs to +this list; '<i>Lear</i>' does so likewise; and '<span class="smcap">Hamlet</span>.' Is not that a +singular fact? I can use it at present only as a most valuable proof +that the view which I take is an accurate one. But Shakspeare has also, +oftener than once, applied to the chivalrous class of subjects, which +was exclusively peculiar to the older school. Its tales indeed bore a +strong likeness to his own most esteemed subjects of study; for, amidst +all their extravagancies and inconsistencies, the Gothic romances and +poems, the older of them at all events, professed in form to be +chronicles of fact, and in principle to assume historical truth as their +groundwork. <span class="sidenote">3 on Classical subjects turned into romances.</span> +'Pericles' is founded on one of the most popular romances of the middle +ages, which had been also versified by Gower, the second father of the +English poetical school. The characters in 'The Midsummer Night's Dream' +are classical, but the costume is strictly Gothic, and shews that it was +through the medium of romance that he drew the knowledge of them; and +the 'Troilus and Cressida' presents another classical and chivalrous +subject, which Chaucer had handled at great length, also invested with +the richness of the romantic garb and decoration.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere chose the story of the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>Fletcher and Shakspeare being thus opposed to each other in their choice +of subjects, what qualities are there in the Plot of The Two Noble +Kinsmen, which may appropriate the choice of it to either? In the first +place, it is a chivalrous subject,—a classical <!-- Page 66 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>[<a href="./images/66.png">66</a>]</span>story which had already +been told in the Gothic style. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher would neither have +chosen Chaucer's classical story for his plot,</span> The nature of the story +then could have been no recommendation of it to Fletcher. He has not a +single other subject of the sort; he has even written one play in +ridicule of chivalrous observances; and the sarcasm of that humorous +piece<a name="FNanchor_66:1_111" id="FNanchor_66:1_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_66:1_111" class="fnanchor">[66:1]</a>, both in the general design and the particular references, +is aimed solely at the prose romances of knight-errantry, a diseased and +posthumous off-shoot from the parent-root, whose legitimate and ancient +offspring, the metrical chronicles and tales, he seems neither to have +known nor cared for. <span class="sidenote">nor an old story,</span> Secondly, this story +must have been unacceptable to Fletcher, because it was a fa<a name="FNanchor_66:2_112" id="FNanchor_66:2_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_66:2_112" class="fnanchor">[66:2]</a>miliar +one in England. This fact is perhaps sufficiently proved by its being +the subject of that animated and admirable poem of Chaucer, which Dryden +has pronounced little inferior to the Iliad or Æneid; but it is still +more distinctly shewn by a third fact, which completely clenches the +argument against Fletcher's choice of it as a subject. <span class="sidenote">nor +one on which two 16th-century plays had been written.</span> No fewer than two +plays had been written on this story before the end of the sixteenth +century; the earlier of the two, the Palamon and Arcite of Edwards, +acted in 1566, and printed in 1585, and another play called by the same +name, brought on the stage in 1594.<a name="FNanchor_66:3_113" id="FNanchor_66:3_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_66:3_113" class="fnanchor">[66:3]</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Fletcher didn't choose the subject of <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>It is thus, I think, proved almost to demonstration, that the person who +chose this subject was not Fletcher; and what has been already said, +even without the specific evidence of individual passages, creates a +strong probability that the choice was made by Shakspeare rather than by +any other dramatic poet of his time. If the question be merely one +between the two writers,—if, assuming it to be proved that Shakspeare +wrote parts of the play, we have only to ask which of the two it was +that chose the subject,—we can surely be at no loss to decide. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's study of chivalrous poetry.</span> But the presumption +in Shakspeare's favour may be elevated almost into absolute certainty, +while, at the same time, some important qualities of his will be +illustrated,—if we inquire what was the real extent to which he +attached himself to the study of the chivalrous poetry, from which this +subject is taken, and <!-- Page 67 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>[<a href="./images/67.png">67</a>]</span>the influence which that study was likely to have +had, and did actually exercise on his writings.</p> + +<p>If, being told that a dramatic poet was born in England in the latter +half of the sixteenth century, whose studies, for all effectual benefit +which they could have afforded him, were limited to his own tongue, we +were asked to say what course his acquisitions were likely to have +taken, our reply would be ready and unhesitating. English literature was +of narrow extent before the time in question, and, according to the +invariable progress of mental culture, had been evolved first in those +finer branches which issue primarily from the ima<a name="FNanchor_67:1_114" id="FNanchor_67:1_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_67:1_114" class="fnanchor">[67:1]</a>gination and +affections, and appeal for their effect to the principles in which they +have their source. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere certain to have</span> +<span class="sidenote">first studi'd, and been influenct by, our old narrative poets,</span>Poetry +had reached a vigorous youth, history was in its infancy, philosophy had +not come into being. Had the field of study been wider, it was to poetry +in an especial manner that a poet had to betake himself for an +experience and skill in his art, and in the language which was to be its +instrument. And it was almost solely to the narrative poets that +Shakspeare had to appeal for aid and guidance; for preceding writers in +the dramatic walk could teach him little. They could serve as beacons +only, and not examples, and he had to search in other mines for the +materials to rear his palace of thought. <span class="sidenote">who were of the +Gothic school.</span> But the English poetical writers who preceded him are +all more or less impressed with the seal of the Gothic school, and the +most noted among them belong to it essentially. Chaucer, Lydgate, and +Gower, to more than one of whom Shakspeare is materially indebted, were +the heads of a sect whose subjects and form of composition were varied +only as the various forms and subjects of the foreign romantic writers. +<span class="sidenote">Britain the mother of much fine chivalrous poetry.</span> The +rhymed romance, the metrical vision, the sustained allegorical narrative +or dialogue, were but differing results of the same principle, and forms +too of its original development; for Britain was the mother and nurse of +much of the finest chivalrous poetry, as well as the scene where some of +its most fascinating tales are laid. It is true that English poetry +before the time of Elizabeth presents but few distinguished names; but +there is a world of unappropriated treasures of the chivalrous class of +poetry, which are still the delight of those who possess the key to +their secret chambers, <!-- Page 68 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>[<a href="./images/68.png">68</a>]</span>and were the archetypes of the earlier poets of +that prolific age. It is important to recollect, that among the poets +who adorn that epoch, the narrative preceded the dramatic. <span class="sidenote"> +Spenser belongs to the Gothic school.</span>Spenser belongs, in every view, +to the romantic or Gothic school; the heroic Mort d'Arthur was the rule +of his poetical faith; and it was that school, headed by him, which +Shakspeare, on commencing his course and choosing his path, found in +possession of all the popularity of the day. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere too.</span> +Every thing proves that he allowed himself to be guided by the +prevailing taste. His early poems belong in design to Spenser's school, +and their style is <a name="FNanchor_68:1_115" id="FNanchor_68:1_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_68:1_115" class="fnanchor">[68:1]</a>often imitative of his. In his dramas he has +many points of resemblance to the older chivalrous poets, besides his +occasional adoption of their subjects. His respect for Gower is shewn by +the repeated introduction of his shade as the speaker in his +choruses<a name="FNanchor_68:2_116" id="FNanchor_68:2_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_68:2_116" class="fnanchor">[68:2]</a>; and particular allusions and images, borrowed from +Gothic usages and chivalrous facts, occur at the first blush to the +recollection of every one. But there is a more widely spread influence +than all this. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's mistakes and</span> Many of his most +faulty peculiarities are directly drawn from this source, and his +innumerable misrepresentations or mistakes are not so truly the fruit of +his own ignorance, as the necessary qualities of the class of poets to +which he belonged, shared with him by some of the greatest poetical +names which modern Europe can cite. <span class="sidenote">anomalies, those of his +Gothic school.</span> In this situation are indeed almost all the +irregularities and anomalies which have furnished the unbelievers in the +divinity of his genius with objects of contemptuous abuse;—his creation +of geographies wholly fictitious,—his anachronisms in facts and +customs,—his misstatements of historical detail,—his dukes and kings +in republics,—his harbours in the heart of continents, and his journies +over land to remote islands,—his heathenism in Christian lands and +times, and his bishops, and priests, and masses, <i>in partibus +infidelium</i>. <span class="sidenote">Chaucer and Spenser had the like.</span> We may +censure him for these irregularities if we will; but it is incumbent on +us to recollect that Chaucer and Spenser must bear the same sentence: +and if the faults are considered so weighty as to shut out from our +notice the works in which they are found, the early literature, not of +our own country only, but of the whole of continental Europe, must be +thrown aside as one mass of unworthy fable.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 69 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>[<a href="./images/69.png">69</a>]</span> +In truth, Shakspeare, in throwing himself on a style of thought and a +track of study which exposed him to such errors, did no more than retire +towards those principles which not only were the sources of poetry in +his own country, but are the fountains from which, in every nation, her +first draughts of inspiration are drunk. <span class="sidenote">Poetry is first a +falsifying of History,</span> Poetry in its earlier stages is universally +neither more nor less than a falsifying of history. The decoration of +the Real is an exertion of the fancy which marks an age elder than the +creation of the purely Ideal; it is an effort more successful than the +<a name="FNanchor_69:1_117" id="FNanchor_69:1_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_69:1_117" class="fnanchor">[69:1]</a>attempt which follows it, and the wholly fictitious has always the +appearance of being resorted to from necessity rather than choice. +Cathay is an older and fitter seat of romance than Utopia; and the +historical paladins and soldans are characters more poetical than the +creatures of pure imagination who displaced them. <span class="sidenote">and has +Ignorance as her ally.</span> <span class="sidenote">Her errors depend on the kind of her +small knowledge.</span> But this walk of poetry is one in which she never can +permanently linger; her citadel indeed is real existence partially +comprehended, but she is unable to defend the fortress after knowledge +has begun to sap its outworks; she needs ignorance for her ally while +she occupies the domain of history, and when that companion deserts her, +she unwillingly retreats on the Possible and Invented<a name="FNanchor_69:2_118" id="FNanchor_69:2_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_69:2_118" class="fnanchor">[69:2]</a>, where she +has no enemy to contest her possession of the ground.—While however she +does continue in her older haunt, she must sometimes wander out of her +imperfectly defined path, and her errors will depend, both in kind and +in amount, on the amount and kind of her knowledge. That the qualities +of poetical literature, in every nation, are dependent on the number and +species of those experiences from which in each particular case the art +receives its materials, is indeed too evident to need illustration; but +some curious inferences are deducible from an application of this truth +to the contrast which is found between the poetical literature of modern +Europe, and that older school which has been called the classical. +<span class="sidenote">And hence come distinctive qualities of the Greek and Modern +school.</span> The inherent excellencies of the ancient Greek poetry may yet +remain to be accounted for from other causes; but this one principle was +adequate to produce the most distinguishing qualities of the pagan +literature, while it is distinctly the very same principle, acting in +different circumstances, which has given birth to the opposite character +of the modern school of invention. <span class="sidenote">Middle-Age</span> +<span class="sidenote">knowledge of vast extent,</span> +<span class="sidenote">but never thorough.</span> During the +period <!-- Page 70 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>[<a href="./images/70.png">70</a>]</span>which witnessed the gradual rise of that anomalous fabric of +poetry, from whose prostrate fragments the perfected literature of +Christian Europe has been erected, knowledge (I am uttering no paradox) +was of vast extent; it embraced many different ages and many distant +regions: but it was also universally imperfect; much was known in part, +but nothing wholly. <span class="sidenote">So it invested History with incongruous +attributes.</span> Hence proceeded the specific difference of that +widely-spread form of poetical invention, namely, the super-abundance +and incongruity of attributes with which <a name="FNanchor_70:1_119" id="FNanchor_70:1_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_70:1_119" class="fnanchor">[70:1]</a>it invested historical +truth; and it is not very difficult to discover why many of those +attributes have never thoroughly amalgamated with the principal mass. +The various sources from which the materials of the romantic poetry were +drawn, present themselves at once to every mind. <span class="sidenote">Early modern +poets invented a national and original literature,</span> By the peculiar +state of their knowledge, and the rude activity of spirit which was its +consequence, the early poets of modern Europe were prepared to invent a +species of literature which should be strictly national in its subjects, +and in its essential parts wholly original. That new branch was exposed, +however, to modifications of various kinds. One temptation to introduce +foreign elements, by which its authors were assailed, was singularly +strong, and can scarcely in any other instance have operated on a +literature arising in circumstances otherwise so favourable to +originality, as those in which they were placed. <span class="sidenote">but, knowing +classics badly,</span> That temptation was offered by the imperfect +acquaintance with the classical authors which formed one part of their +scattered and ill-reconciled knowledge. <span class="sidenote">grafted on their own +works excrescences from classical literature,</span> They were influenced by +this cause, as they could not have failed to be; and the representations +of feelings, habits, and thought, which they borrowed from this source, +being in their nature dissimilar to the constituent parts of the system +to which they were adjected, never could have harmonised with these, +and, under any circumstances, must have always continued to be +excrescences. Other elements of the new system were naturally neither +evil in themselves, nor inconsistent with the principles with which it +was attempted to combine them, but have assumed the aspect of deformity +and incongruity solely from incidental and extraneous causes. <span class="sidenote"> +and on History, fictions and mistakes.</span>The fictions and mistakes which +the ignorance of those fathers of our modern poetical learning +superinduced on history ancient and modern, and on every <!-- Page 71 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>[<a href="./images/71.png">71</a>]</span>thing which +related to the then existing state either of the material world or of +human society, were allowable ornaments, so long as knowledge afterwards +acquired did not stamp on them the brand of falsehood; but the moment +that the falsity was exposed, and the charm of possible existence +broken, those adjuncts lost their empire over the imagination, and with +it their appearance of fitness as materials for mental activity. +<span class="sidenote">Supernaturalism of the Romantic Poets</span> +<span class="sidenote">only believable by superstition.</span> In supernatural invention, the early +romantic poets <a name="FNanchor_71:1_120" id="FNanchor_71:1_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_71:1_120" class="fnanchor">[71:1]</a>were still more unfortunate; for when they +endeavoured to colour with imaginary hues the awful outlines of the true +faith, they attempted a conjunction of holiness with impurity, an +identification of the spirit with the flesh, a marriage between the +living and the dead; the purer essence revolted from the union, and the +human mind could acquiesce in imagining it only while it remained bound +in the darkness and fetters of religious corruption. <span class="sidenote"> +Characteristics of early Greek poetry.</span>Turn now to the Grecian poetry, +and mark how closely the same principles have operated on it, although +the difference of the circumstances has made the result different. +<span class="sidenote">its tendency to orientalism;</span>The first Grecian inventors were, it is +true, protected in a great measure from the influence of any foreign +literature, simply by the ignorant rudeness of those ages of the world +during which their task was performed; and even here I have no doubt +that an influence not very dissimilar did actually operate; for there +seems to be good reason for supposing that, if we had before us the wild +songs of such bards as the Thracian Orpheus, or the old Musæus, we +should find them strongly marked by that orientalism towards which the +later Greek poetry which remains to us betrays so continual a tendency. +In other respects, the spirit in which the Greeks formed their poetical +system was identical with our own. <span class="sidenote">its falsification of History,</span> Their +elder poets falsified historical facts, invented or disguised historical +characters, and framed erroneous representations of the past in time and +the distant in place, no otherwise than did the romantic fabulists; and +the classical inventors continued to have sufficient faith placed in +their fictions, merely because knowledge advanced too slowly to allow +detection of their falsity so long as the literature of the nation +continued to exist for it as a present possession. <span class="sidenote">its treatment of +Religion.</span> With their religious belief, again, every attractive invention +harmonised, and every splendid addition was readily incorporated +<!-- Page 72 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>[<a href="./images/72.png">72</a>]</span>as a consistent part; where all was false, a falsity +the more was unperceived or uncensured, and where sublimity and beauty +were almost the only objects sought, they were gladly accepted from +whatever quarter or in whatever shape they came.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere, for his stories and form, left his own time, and +delighted in the past.</span></p> + +<p>So far as these considerations seem to elucidate the principles on which +Shakspeare proceeded, they do so by exhibiting him as withdrawing from +his own times as to his subjects and the ex<a name="FNanchor_72:1_121" id="FNanchor_72:1_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_72:1_121" class="fnanchor">[72:1]</a>ternal form of his +works, though not as to their animating spirit,—as placing himself +delightedly amidst the rude greatness of older poetry and past ages, and +viewing life and nature from their covert, as if he had sat within a +solitary and ruined aboriginal temple, and looked out upon the valley +and the mountains from among those broken and massive columns, whose +aspect gave majesty and solemnity to the landscape which was beheld +through their moss-grown vistas. <span class="sidenote">Thence his faults.</span> So far +as these views have any force as a defence of faults detected in the +great poet, that defence is founded on the consideration that the errors +were unavoidable consequences of the system which produced so much that +was admirable, and that they were shared with him by those whom he +followed in his selection of subjects and form of writing. So far as all +that has been said on this head has a close application to the main +subject of our inquiry, its sum is briefly this. <span class="sidenote">Summary of +reasons why Shakspere chose the plot of <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> +<span class="sidenote">He went back to the school of</span> +<span class="sidenote">Chaucer</span> <span class="sidenote">and +Spenser;</span> <span class="sidenote">which Milton, after, sought.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's love of old poems.</span>An argument arises in favour of +Shakspeare's choice of the plot of this drama, from its general +qualities, as a familiar and favourite story, and one of a class which +had been frequently used by the older dramatists; that argument receives +additional strength from the fact of this individual subject having been +previously treated in a dramatic form; and it is rendered almost +impregnable when we consider the subject particularly as a chivalrous +story, and as belonging and leading us back to that native school to +which Shakspeare, though in certain respects infected by the exotic +taste of the age, yet in essentials belonged,—the wilderness in which +Chaucer had opened up the well-head of poetry, where Gower and Lydgate +had drunk freely, and Sackville had more sparingly dipped his brow,—the +paradise through which Spenser had joyfully wandered with the heavenly +Una,—the patriarchal forest into which afterwards Milton loved to +retire from his lamp-lighted chamber, to <!-- Page 73 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>[<a href="./images/73.png">73</a>]</span>sleep at the foot of some huge +over-hanging oak, and dream of mailed knights riding by his +resting-place, or fairy choirs dancing on the green hillocks +around,—the enchanted rose garden where Shakspeare himself gathered +those garlands of beauty, which he has described as adding glory even to +his thoughts of love.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><a name="FNanchor_73:1_122" id="FNanchor_73:1_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_73:1_122" class="fnanchor">[73:1]</a>When in the chronicle of wasted time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see description of the fairest wights,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And beauty making beautiful old ryme</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see this antique pen would have expresst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even such a beauty as you master now.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="authorpoem"><i>Sonnet 106.</i></p> + +<p>In the Arrangement of the Plot also there are circumstances which point +emphatically to Shakspeare's agency. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere seen in the +simplicity of the plot.</span> One strong argument is furnished by a very +prominent quality of the plot as it is managed,—its simplicity. +<span class="sidenote">He relied on the execution of the parts, not the complication +of the whole.</span> This quality is like him, as being in this case the +result of a close adherence to the original story; but it is also like +him in itself, since the arrangement of all his works indicates the +operation of a principle tending to produce it, namely, a reliance for +dramatic effect on the execution of the parts rather than on the +mechanical perfection or complication of the whole. His contemporaries, +in their own several ways, bestowed extreme care on their plots. +<span class="sidenote">Beaumont and Fletcher's plots depend more on surprise and +incident.</span> With Beaumont and Fletcher, hurry, surprise, and rapid and +romantic revolution of incident are the main object, rather than tragic +strength or even stage effect: their plays would furnish materials for +extended novels, and are often borrowed from such without concentration +or omission. Shakspeare's comparative poverty of plot is not approached +by them even in their serious plays, and the lively stir of their comic +adventures is the farthest from it imaginable. <span class="sidenote">B. Jonson's +plots admirably constructed.</span> Jonson's plots are constructed most +elaborately and admirably: one or two of them are without equal for +skill of conduct and pertinency and connection of parts. This cautious +and industrious poet never confided in his own capability of making up +for feebleness of plan by the force of individual passages; and his +distrust was well judged, for the abstract coldness of his mind <!-- Page 74 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>[<a href="./images/74.png">74</a>]</span>betrays +itself in every page of his dialogue, and his scenes need all their +beauty of outline to conceal the frigidity of their filling up. Ford and +Massinger agree much in their choice of plots, both preferring incidents +of a powerfully tragic nature: but their modes of management are widely +different. <span class="sidenote">Ford's gloomy plots softened by tenderness</span> +<span class="sidenote">and regret.</span> Ford, on the gloom of whose stories glimpses +<a name="FNanchor_74:1_123" id="FNanchor_74:1_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_74:1_123" class="fnanchor">[74:1]</a>of pathos fall like moonlight, delights, when he comes to work up +the details of his tragic plan, in softening it down into the most +dissolving tenderness; at his bidding tears flow in situations where we +listen rather to hear Agony shriek, or look to behold Terror freezing +into stone; his emotion is not the rising vehemence of present passion, +but the anguish, subsiding into regret, which lingers when suffering is +past, and suggests ideas of eventual resignation and repose;—his verse +is like the voice of a child weeping itself to sleep. <span class="sidenote"> +Massinger's stage effect by situations,</span> <span class="sidenote">and tragic design.</span> +<span class="sidenote">His coldness of expression.</span> Massinger crowds adventure upon +adventure, and his situations are wound up to the height of unmixed +horror; for stage effect and tragic intensity, some of them, as for +example the last scene in 'The Unnatural Combat', and the celebrated one +in 'The Duke of Milan', are unequalled in the modern drama, and worthy +of the sternness of the antique; but it is in the design alone that the +tragic spirit works; the colouring of the details is cold as monumental +marble; the pomp of lofty eloquence apes the simplicity of grief, or +silence is left to interpret alike for sorrow or despair. To the +carefulness in outlining the plan and devising situations, thus shewn in +different ways, Shakspeare's manner is perfectly alien. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's great aim to bring out character and feeling.</span>He never +exhausts himself in framing his plots, but reserves his strength for the +great aim which he had before him, the evolution of human character and +passion, a result which he relied on his own power to produce from any +plot however naked. He does not want variety of adventure in many of his +plays; but he has it only where his novel or chronicle gave it to him: +he does not reject it when it is offered, but does not make the smallest +exertion to search for it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's plays with no plot:</span> +Some of his plays, especially his comedies, have actually no plot, and +those, too, the very dramas in which his genius has gained some of its +most mighty victories. <span class="sidenote"><i>The Tempest.</i></span> 'The Tempest' is an +instance: what is there in it? A ship's company are driven by wreck upon +an island; they find an old man there who had been injured by certain of +them, <!-- Page 75 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>[<a href="./images/75.png">75</a>]</span> +and a reconciliation takes place. <span class="sidenote"><i>As You Like It.</i></span> +The only action of 'As You Like It' is pedestrian; if the characters had +been placed in the forest in the first scene, the drama would have been +then as ripe for its catastrophe as it is in the last. <span class="sidenote"> +<i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i> has no plot.</span>'The Midsummer Night's Dream' +relates a midnight stroll in a wood; and the unreal na<a name="FNanchor_75:1_124" id="FNanchor_75:1_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_75:1_124" class="fnanchor">[75:1]</a>ture of the +incidents is playfully indicated in its name. It is from no stronger +materials than those three frail threads of narrative that our poet has +spun unrivalled tissues of novel thought and divine fancy. And, as in +his lighter works he is careless of variety of adventure, so in his +tragic plays he does not seek to heap horrors or griefs one upon another +in devising the arrangement of his plots. <span class="sidenote">In the plots of +Shakspere's Tragedies, details and character are the main things.</span> In +this latter class of his works, the skill and force with which the +interest is woven out of the details of story and elements of character, +make it difficult for us to see how far it is that we are indebted to +these for the power which the scene exerts over us. But with a little +reflection we are able to discover, that there is scarcely one drama of +his, in which, from the same materials, situations could not have been +formed, which should have possessed in their mere outline a tenfold +amount of interest and tragic effect to those which Shakspeare has +presented to us. <span class="sidenote">He could have made more striking effect out +of <i>Hamlet</i>, Acts IV. & V. 4.</span> 'Hamlet' offers, especially in the two +last acts, some remarkable proofs of his indifference to the means which +he held in his hands for increasing the tragic interest of his +situations, and of the boldness with which he threw himself on his own +resources for the creation of the most intense effect out of the +slenderest outline. <span class="sidenote"><i>Othello</i>, Act III.</span> But no example can +shew more strikingly his independence of tragic situation, and his power +of concocting dramatic power out of the most meagre elements of story, +than the third act of the Othello. It contains no more than the +development and triumph of the devilish design which was afterwards to +issue in murder and remorse; and other writers would have treated it in +no other style than as necessary to prepare the way for the harrowing +conclusion. In the Moor's dialogues with Iago, the act of vengeance, +ever and anon sternly contemplated, and darkening all with its horror, +is yet but one ingredient in the misery of the tale. <span class="sidenote">So in +the end of <i>Lear</i>,</span> These scenes are a tragedy in themselves, the story +of the most hideous revolution in a noble nature; and their catastrophe +of wretchedness is complete when <!-- Page 76 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>[<a href="./images/76.png">76</a>]</span>the tumult of doubt sinks into +resolved and desolate conviction,—when the Moor dashes Desdemona from +him, and rushes out in uncontrollable agony.—Read also the conclusion +of Lear, and learn the same lesson from the economy of that most +touching scene. <span class="sidenote">all is left clear for the one group, the +father and his dead child.</span> The horrors which have gathered so thickly +<a name="FNanchor_76:1_125" id="FNanchor_76:1_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_76:1_125" class="fnanchor">[76:1]</a>throughout the last act, are carefully removed to the background, +and free room is left for the sorrowful groupe on which every eye is +turned. The situation is simple in the extreme; but how tragically +moving are the internal convulsions for the representation of which the +poet has worthily husbanded his force! Lear enters with frantic cries, +bearing the body of his dead daughter in his arms; he alternates between +agitating doubts and wishing unbelief of her death, and piteously +experiments on the lifeless corpse; he bends over her with the dotage of +an old man's affection, and calls to mind the soft lowness of her voice, +till he fancies he can hear its murmurs. Then succeeds the dreadful +torpor of despairing insanity, during which he receives the most cruel +tidings with apathy, or replies to them with wild incoherence; and the +heart flows forth at the close with its last burst of love, only to +break in the vehemence of its emotion,—commencing with the tenderness +of regret, swelling into choking grief, and at last, when the eye +catches the tokens of mortality in the dead, snapping the chords of life +in a paroxysm of agonised horror.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">Oh, thou wilt come no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never, never, never, never, never!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Pray you, undo this button: Thank you, Sir.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do you see this?—<i>Look on her—look</i>—<span class="allcapsc">HER LIPS</span>!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Look there! Look there!</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The application here of the differences thus pointed out is easy enough. +Fletcher either would not have chosen so bare a story, or he would have +treated it in another guise. <span class="sidenote">Incidents of <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i> story</span> The incidents which constitute the story are neither +many nor highly wrought: they are only the capture of the two +knights,—their becoming enamoured of the lady,—the combat which was to +decide their title to her,—and the death of Arcite after it. And no +complexity of minor adventures is inserted to disturb the simplicity so +presented. <span class="sidenote">wouldn't have suited Fletcher.</span> In all this there +is nothing which Fletcher could have found sufficient to maintain <!-- Page 77 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>[<a href="./images/77.png">77</a>]</span>that +continuity and stretch of interest which he always thought necessary. +<span class="sidenote">He'd have added to 'em.</span> He would have invented accessory +circumstances, he would have produced new characters, or thrust the less +important person<a name="FNanchor_77:1_126" id="FNanchor_77:1_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_77:1_126" class="fnanchor">[77:1]</a>ages who now fill the stage, further into the +foreground, and more constantly into action: the one simple and +inartificial story which we have, possessing none of his mercurial +activity of motion, and scarcely exciting a feeling of curiosity, would +have been transformed into a complication of intrigues, amidst which the +figures who occupy the centre of the piece as it stands, would have been +only individuals sharing their importance with others, and scarcely +allowed room enough to make their features at all distinguishable.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's handling seen in certain scenes of <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i>.</span></p> + +<p>In the management of particular scenes of this play, likewise, certain +circumstances are observable, which, separately, seem to go a certain +length in establishing Shakspeare's claim to the arrangement, and have +considerable force when taken together. <span class="sidenote">Act I. scene ii. +design'd by Shakspere.</span> The second scene of the first act would appear +to have been sketched by him rather than Fletcher, from its containing +no activity of incident, and serving no obvious purpose but the +development of the character and situation of the two princes; a mode of +preparation not at all practised by Fletcher. <span class="sidenote">Act I. scene +iii. also. And</span> Neither does any consequence flow from the beautiful +scene immediately following; a circumstance which points out Shakspeare +as having arranged the scene, and would strengthen the evidence of his +having written the dialogue, if that required any corroboration. +<span class="sidenote">Act V. scenes i. ii. iii. [? Emilia with the pictures.]</span> The +bareness and undiversified iteration of situation in the first three +scenes of the last act form one presumption against the devising of +those scenes by Fletcher. <span class="sidenote">Act V. scene v. also designd by +Shakspere.</span> The economy of the fifth scene of that act, in which Emilia, +left alone on the stage, listens to the noise of the combat, is also, to +me, strongly indicative of Shakspeare. The contrivance is unusual, but +extremely well imagined. I do not recollect an instance in Fletcher +bearing the smallest likeness to it, or founded on any principles at all +analogous to that which is here called into operation. In Shakspeare, I +think we may, in more than one drama, discover something which might +have given the germ of it. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's expedients for +avoiding spectacles; in</span> He has not only in his historical plays again +and again regretted the insufficiency of the means possessed by his +stage, or any other, for the representation of such <!-- Page 78 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>[<a href="./images/78.png">78</a>]</span>spectacles; but in +several of those plays he has devised expedients for avoiding them. In +'Henry V.' we have the battle of Azincour; but the only encounter of +<a name="FNanchor_78:1_127" id="FNanchor_78:1_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_78:1_127" class="fnanchor">[78:1]</a>the opposite parties is that of Pistol and the luckless Signor +Dew. <span class="sidenote"><i>1 Henry IV.</i>,</span> In 'the first part of Henry IV.' he has +shewn an unwillingness to risk the effect even of a single combat; for +in the last scene of that play, where prince Henry engages Hotspur, the +spectator's attention is distracted from the fight between them, by the +entrance of Douglas, and his attack on the prudent Falstaff. <span class="sidenote"> +<i>Richard II.</i>,</span>In 'Richard II.' the lists are exhibited for the duel of +Bolingbroke and Norfolk, which is inartificially broken off at the very +last instant by the mandate of the king. <span class="sidenote">Emilia in <i>Two N. +K.</i> I. v., like Lady Macbeth in II. ii. of <i>Macbeth</i>.</span> But a more deeply +marked likeness to the spirit in which the scene in 'The Two Noble +Kinsmen' is arranged, meets us in Lady Macbeth watching and listening +while her husband perpetrates the murder, like a bad angel which delays +its flight only till it be assured that the whispered temptation has +done its work. And in this combat scene, even the ancient and artless +expedient used, of relating important events by messengers brought in +for that sole end, and having no part in the action, may be noticed as +belonging to an older form of the drama than Fletcher's, and as being +very frequently practised by Shakspeare himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The motives of the play of <i>The Two N. K.</i></span></p> + +<p>In quitting our cursory examination of the qualities which distinguish +the mechanical arrangement of the play, we may advert to the mode in +which those influences are conceived which give motion to the incidents +of the story, and regulate its progress. <span class="sidenote">Dramatic art +defin'd.</span> The dramatic art is a representation of human character in +action; and action in human life is prompted by passion, which the other +powers of the mind serve only to guide, to modify, or to quell. In the +conception of the passions which are chiefly operative in this drama, +there seems to be much that is characteristic of a greater poet than +Fletcher. <span class="sidenote">In <i>The Two N. K.</i> the moving passions are Love and +Jealousy.</span> In the first place, the passions which primarily originate +the action of the piece are simple; they are Love and Jealousy; the +purest and most disinterested form of the one, and the noblest and most +generous which could be chosen for the other. <span class="sidenote">This conception +is Shakspere's.</span> The conception is Shakspeare's in its loftiness and +magnanimity; and it is his <!-- Page 79 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>[<a href="./images/79.png">79</a>]</span>also as being a direct appeal to common +sympathies, modified but slightly by partial or fugitive views of +nature. <span class="sidenote">The keeping close to the leading motives, is +Shakspere's doing.</span> But it also resembles him in the singleness and +coherence of design with <a name="FNanchor_79:1_128" id="FNanchor_79:1_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_79:1_128" class="fnanchor">[79:1]</a>which the idea is seized and followed +out. It cannot be necessary that I should specifically exemplify the +closeness with which those ruling passions are brought to bear on the +leading circumstances of the story from first to last. And it is almost +equally superfluous to remind you, how far any such adherence to that +unity of impulse, operates as evidence in a question between the two +poets whom we have here to compare. <span class="sidenote">Fletcher's inability to +work a character out, to keep one passion always in the front.</span> +Fletcher, in common with other poets of all ranks inferior to the +highest, is unable to preserve any one form of passion or of character +skilfully in the foreground: he may seem occasionally to have proposed +to himself the prosecution of such an end, but he either degenerates +into the exhibition of a few over-wrought dramatic contrasts, or loses +his way altogether amidst the complicated adventures with which he +incumbers his stories. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's definite purpose and +keeping to it.</span> This inability to keep sight of an uniform design, is in +truth one striking argument of inferiority; and the clearness with which +Shakspeare conceives a definite purpose, and the fixedness with which he +pursues it, go very far to unravel the great secret of his power. +<span class="sidenote">His relying on the emotion he puts into his characters.</span> I +have already pointed out to you, perhaps without necessity, wherein it +is that his strength of passion consists; that it is not in the +incidents of his fable, but in his mode of treating the incidents; that +he will not rely on mere vigour or skill of outline in his +stage-grouping, for that influence which he is conscious of being always +able to acquire more worthily, by the beauty and emotion which he +breathes into the organic formation of the living statuary of the scene; +that he refuses to sacrifice to the meretricious attraction of strained +situations or entangled incidents, the internal and self-supporting +strength of his historical pictures of the heart, or the unflinching +accuracy of his demonstrations of the intellectual anatomy. <span class="sidenote"> +Shakspere's unity of purpose, seen in his conception, and his carrying +this out.</span>In a similar way you will look for his unity of purpose, not +in the mechanical economy of his plots, but in the elementary conception +of his characters, and in his developement of the principles of passion +under whose suggestions those characters act. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's +conception of character, and method of developing it.</span> He chooses as the +subject of his delineation some mightily and truly conceived +impersonation of human attributes, <!-- Page 80 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>[<a href="./images/80.png">80</a>]</span>inconsistent it may be in itself, +but faithful to its prototype as being inconsistent according to the +rules which guide inconsistency in our enigmati<a name="FNanchor_80:1_129" id="FNanchor_80:1_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_80:1_129" class="fnanchor">[80:1]</a>cal mental +constitution; for the exhibition of the character so imagined he devises +some chain of events by which its internal springs of action may be +brought into play; and he traces the motion and results of those +spiritual impulses with an undeviating steadiness of design, which turns +aside neither to raise curiosity nor to gratify a craving for any other +mean excitement. Some singular instances of Shakspeare's fine judgment +in clinging to one great design, are furnished by the 'Othello.' +<span class="sidenote">Desdemona's murder compard with Annabella's (by Ford).</span> The +death of Desdemona has been compared with the murder of Annabella, a +scene (evidently drawn from it) in a drama of Ford's on a story which +makes the flesh creep. <span class="sidenote">Ford's above Shakspere's in pathos.</span> +Some have pronounced Ford's scene superior in pathos to Shakspeare's: I +think it is decidedly so. The tender mournfulness of the language and +few images is exquisite, and the sweet sad monotonous melody of the +versification is indescribably affecting. Is it from weakness that +Shakspeare has not given to the death of his gentle lady an equally +strong impress of pathos? No. He was not indeed susceptible of the +feminine abandonment of Ford; but he was equal to a manly tone of +feeling, fitted to excite a truer sympathy. <span class="sidenote">Why? Because of +Shakspere's self-restraint.</span> He has refused to stretch the chords of +feeling to the utmost in favour of Desdemona; and his refusal has a +design and meaning in it. <span class="sidenote">The mind of Othello is the centre +of Shakspere's play,</span> There is anguish in the scene, and the most utter +yielding to overpowering sorrow; but it is the Moor who feels those +emotions, and it is the exhibition of his mind which is the leading end +of this scene, as of the rest of the drama. <span class="sidenote">and the pathos of +Desdemona's death must be kept down.</span> The suffering lady is but an +inferior actor in the scene; her situation is brought out with perfect +skill and genuine tenderness, so far as it is consistent with the first +object and illustrative of it; but its expression is arrested at the +point where its further developement would have marred the effect of the +scene as a whole, and broken in on its pervading spirit. Ford had no +such aim in view; and the very scene of his which is so beautiful in +itself, loses almost all its force when regarded as a part of the play +in which it is inserted.</p> + +<p>These principles of Shakspeare's could be traced as influencing the +drama of the 'Two Noble Kinsmen,' even if there were nothing <!-- Page 81 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>[<a href="./images/81.png">81</a>]</span>farther to +shew their effect than what has been already <a name="FNanchor_81:1_130" id="FNanchor_81:1_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_81:1_130" class="fnanchor">[81:1]</a>noticed. But their +power is displayed still more admirably in a second quality in the mode +of conception, less open to notice, but breathing actively through all. +There is skill in the mental machinery which gives motion to the story; +but there is even greater art in the application of a hidden influence, +which controls the action of the moving power, and equalizes its +effects. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's art in subduing all <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i> to one Friendship.</span> That secret principle is Friendship, the +operation of which is shewn most distinctly in the Kinsmen, guiding +every part of their behaviour except where their mutual claim to +Emilia's love comes into operation, never extinct even there, though its +effect be sometimes suspended, and awakening on the approach of Arcite's +death, with a warmth which is natural as well as touching. <span class="sidenote"> +Love of Friends the leading idea of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span>But this +feeling has a farther working: Love of Friends is in truth the leading +idea of the piece: the whole drama is one sacrifice on the altar of one +of the holiest influences which affect the mind of man. Palamon and +Arcite are the first who bow down before the shrine, but Theseus and +Perithous follow, and Emilia and her sister do homage likewise. +<span class="sidenote">The harmony of its parts, an idea beyond Fletcher.</span> This +singular harmony of parts was an idea perfectly beyond Fletcher's reach; +and the execution of it was equally unfit for his attempting. The +discrimination, the delicate relief, with which the different shades of +the affection are elaborated, is inimitable. The love of the Princesses +does not issue in action; it is a placid feeling, which gladly +contemplates its own likeness in others, or turns back with memory to +the vanished hours of childhood: with Theseus and his friend, the +passion is exhibited dimly, as longing for exertion, but not gifted with +opportunity; and in the Kinsmen, it bursts out into full activity, +quelling all but the one omnipotent passion, and tempering and purifying +even it. With this exception, you will not look for much of Shakspeare's +skill in delineating character. <span class="sidenote">Not much of Shakspere's +characterization in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>.</span> The features of the two +Princes are aptly enough distinguished; but neither in them, nor in any +of the others, is there an approach to his higher efforts. You will +recollect that in his acknowledged works those finer and deeper pryings +into character have place only in few instances; and that the greater +number of his dramas depend for their effect chiefly on other causes, +some of which are energetic in this very play.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 82 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>[<a href="./images/82.png">82</a>]</span> +<a name="FNanchor_82:1_131" id="FNanchor_82:1_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_82:1_131" class="fnanchor">[82:1]</a>While you successively inspected particular passages in this +play, your attention was necessarily called both to the character of its +imaginative portions, and to the tone of reflection which is so +frequently assumed in it. <span class="sidenote">Whose is the ruling temper of <i>The +Two Noble Kinsmen</i>?</span> The drama having been now put entirely before you, +I shall wish you to ponder its ruling temper as a whole, and to +determine whether that temper is Fletcher's, or belongs to a more +thoughtful, inquisitive, and solemn mind. <span class="sidenote">Seek in it the mind +of its author.</span> When you institute such a reconsideration, I shall be +desirous that you contemplate the internal spirit of the work from a +loftier and more commanding station than that which you formerly +occupied; and I shall crave you to view its elements of thought and +feeling less as the qualities of a literary work, than as the signs and +results of the mental constitution of its author. <span class="sidenote">The duty of +our reverence for Shakspere, the Star of Poets, being intelligent.</span> I +cannot regard as altogether foreign to our leading purpose any inquiry +which may hold out the promise of illustrating the characteristics of +Shakspeare even slightly, and of teaching us to mingle a more active +discernment in the reverence with which we look up to the Star of Poets +from the common level of our unendowed humanity. You will therefore have +the patience to accompany me in the suggestion of some queries as to the +character of his mode of thinking, and the way in which his reflective +spirit and his poetical qualities of mind are combined and influence +each other. We may be able to perceive the more distinctly the real +character both of his intellect and his poetical faculty, if you will +consent that our investigation shall set out from a point which you may +be inclined to consider somewhat more remote than is altogether +necessary. <span class="sidenote">We'll treat 1. the true functions of Poetry, 2. +its true province.</span> It is to be desired that we should have clearly in +our view, first, the true functions of the poetical faculty, and, +secondly, the province in poetical invention which legitimately belongs +to the imagination, properly so called. Sound conclusions on both these +points are indispensable to sound criticism on individual specimens of +the poetical art; and when we attempt to reason on particular cases, +without having those conclusions placed prominently in view at the +outset, the vagueness of ordinary language makes us constantly liable to +lose sight of their true grounds and distinctions. The laying down of +such principles at the institution of an inquiry into the poetical +character of a great <a name="FNanchor_82:2_132" id="FNanchor_82:2_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_82:2_132" class="fnanchor">[82:2]</a>poet, is therefore in no degree less useful, +than the inculcating of familiar truths is in the instructions <!-- Page 83 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>[<a href="./images/83.png">83</a>]</span>of +religious and moral teachers; the end in each of the cases being, not +the establishing of new principles, but the placing of known and +admitted ones in an aspect which shall render them influential; and the +necessity in each, arising from the danger which exists lest the +principles, acknowledged in the abstract, should in practice be wholly +disregarded.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Contrast of the Arts of Poetry and Design, in Lessing's +<i>Laocoon</i>.</span></p> + +<p>We can in no way discover the real character and objects of the Poetical +Art so easily as by contrasting it with the Arts of Design; and the +materials for such a comparison are afforded by the Laocoon of Lessing. +<span class="sidenote">The Greeks subordinated Expression to Beauty.</span> The principles +established in that admirable essay will scarcely be now disputed, and +may be fairly enough summed up in the following manner.<a name="FNanchor_83:1_133" id="FNanchor_83:1_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_83:1_133" class="fnanchor">[83:1]</a>—A study +of the Grecian works of art convinces us, that "among the ancients +Beauty was the presiding law of those arts which are occupied with +Form;" that, to that supreme object, the Greek artists sacrificed every +collateral end which might be inconsistent with it; and that, in +particular, they expressed the external signs of mental commotion and +bodily suffering, to no farther extent than that which allowed Beauty to +be completely preserved. <span class="sidenote">And all Design must do the same, +because</span> Now, that this subordination of Expression to Beauty is a +fundamental principle of art, and not a mere accidental quality of +Grecian art individually, is proved by considering the peculiar +constitution and mechanical necessities of art. Its representations are +confined to a single instant of time; and that one circumstance imposes +on it two limitations, which necessarily produce the characteristic +quality of the Grecian works. <span class="sidenote">1. the expression must be +caught before the highest passion is attaind;</span> First, "the expression +must never be selected from what may be called the <i>acme</i> or +transcendent point of the action;" and that because, the power of the +arts of design being confined to the arresting of a single point in the +developement of an action, it is indispensable that they should select a +point which is in the highest degree significant, and most fully excites +the imagination; a condition <a name="FNanchor_83:2_134" id="FNanchor_83:2_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_83:2_134" class="fnanchor">[83:2]</a>which is fulfilled only by those +points in an action in which the action moves onward, and the passion +which prompts it increases; and which is not fulfilled in any degree by +the highest <!-- Page 84 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>[<a href="./images/84.png">84</a>]</span>stage of the passion and the completion of the action. +<span class="sidenote">2. because the expression must not be that of a momentary +feeling.</span> <span class="sidenote">But Poetry is not bound by the limits of the Fine +Arts.</span> <span class="sidenote">It can seize passion at its height.</span> Secondly, a +limitation is imposed as to the choice of the proper point in the onward +progress of the action: for art invests with a motionless and unchanging +permanence the point of action which it selects; and consequently any +appearance which essentially possesses the character of suddenness and +evanescence is unfit to be its subject, since the mind cannot readily +conceive such transitory appearances as stiffened into that monumental +stability.—Since it is by the limitation of the Fine Arts to the +representation of a single instant of time that the two limitations in +point of expression are imposed, and since Poetry is not subject to that +mechanical limitation, but can describe successively every stage of an +action, and every phasis of a passion, it follows that this latter art +is not fettered by the limitation in expression, which is consequent on +the physical limitation of the other; and hence the exhibition of +passion in its height is as allowable in poetry as it is inadmissible in +the arts of design. <span class="sidenote">Beauty is but one of its many resources.</span> +And since the whole range and the whole strength of human thought, +action, and passion, are thus left open to the poet as subjects of his +representation, it follows likewise, that Beauty "can never be more than +one amongst many resources, (and those the slightest,) by which he has +it in his power to engage our interest for his characters."</p> + +<p>It will be remarked, that the purport of Lessing's reasoning, so far as +he has in express terms carried it, is no more than to demonstrate the +important truth, that the Fine Arts are confined by certain limits to +which Poetry is not subject. His elucidation of the principles of poetry +is purely incidental and negative. His reasoning seems however +necessarily to infer certain further consequences, the examination of +which has a tendency to cast additional light on the true end and +character of the poetical art: and it is for this reason rather than +from any difficulty lying in the way of those implied results, that I +wish now to direct your notice to their nature, and the grounds on which +<a name="FNanchor_84:1_135" id="FNanchor_84:1_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_84:1_135" class="fnanchor">[84:1]</a>their soundness rests. <span class="sidenote">Design must represent Form of +permanent feelings.</span> Lessing's second canon does not assume the arts of +design as pursuing any further end than their original and obvious one, +the Representation of Form: it simply directs that only those +appearances of form shall be represented which admit of being conceived +as permanent. <span class="sidenote">The object of Art, a true representation of the +Beautiful.</span> And as the feelings <!-- Page 85 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>[<a href="./images/85.png">85</a>]</span>which art desires to awaken are +pleasurable, and as forms, considered merely <i>as</i> forms, give pleasure +only when they are beautiful, art would thus be regarded as proposing +for its object nothing beyond a Representation of the Beautiful, and +Verisimilitude in that representation. The first rule of limitation +however implies a great deal more: it looks to forms, not as such, but +as tokens significant of certain qualities not inherent in their own +nature: for the quality which it requires to be possessed by works of +art, is a capability of exciting the imagination to frame for itself +representations of human action and passion; and in this view, those +feelings which the qualities of form considered as such are calculated +to arouse, are no more than an accidental part of the impression which +the representation makes. It appears, therefore, that art <i>may</i> pursue +two different ends,—the excitement of the feeling which Beauty +inspires, and the excitement of the feeling which has its root in human +Sympathy; and the question at once occurs,—Is each of these purposes of +art equally a part of its original and proper province? <span class="sidenote">May +it also try to excite feelings inconsistent with the Beautiful,</span> +<span class="sidenote">as Poetry does?</span> Or, since it is sufficiently clear that the +effects which the last-mentioned canon contemplates as produced by the +fine arts, are effects which are also produced by poetry, (whether its +sole effects or not, it is immaterial to this question to settle,) the +question may be put in another form:—Is it to be believed, that the +arts of design, which have admittedly for one purpose the reproduction +of the Beautiful in form, have also as an equally proper and original +purpose the framing of representations of form calculated to affect the +mind with feelings different from the feeling of the Beautiful,—these +feelings being identically the same with those which are at least the +most obvious effects of poetry? <span class="sidenote">No.</span> Reasons crowd in upon +the mind, evincing that the question must be answered by an unqualified +negative. The production of poetical effects cannot have been an +<i>original</i> purpose of the fine arts, which certainly were brought into +existence <a name="FNanchor_85:1_136" id="FNanchor_85:1_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_85:1_136" class="fnanchor">[85:1]</a>by the love of Beauty; and the production of those +effects is plainly also an exertion in which the fine arts overstep +their limits, and wander into the region which belongs of right to the +poetical art, and to it alone. <span class="sidenote">Expression in Painting and +Sculpture is a borrowd quality<ins class="corr" title="period missing in original">.</ins></span> That Expression in painting and +sculpture is an extraneous and borrowed quality, is made almost +undeniably evident by this <!-- Page 86 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>[<a href="./images/86.png">86</a>]</span>one consideration, that it requires, as we +have seen, to be always kept subdued, and allowed to enter only +partially into the composition of the work. <span class="sidenote">That Fine Art is +admired most when it has most expression, only shows that</span> And, again, +it is no argument against that position, to say that the strongest and +most general interest and admiration are excited by those works of art +in which expression is permitted to go the utmost length which the +physical limits of the art permit. <span class="sidenote">Poetry stirs men more than +pure Art does.</span> For the universality of this preference only proves, +that the feelings of our common humanity influence more minds than does +the pure love of the beautiful; and the greater strength of the feeling +produced by expression, only evinces that poetry, which works its effect +by means of that quality, is a more powerful engine than the sister-art +for stirring up the depths of our nature. And it may be quite true that +those works of art which confine themselves to the attempt to move the +calmer feeling due to Beauty, are the truest to their own nature and +proper aim, although an endeavour to unite with that the attainment of +higher purposes may be admissible, and in some instances highly +successful. I apprehend that although an art should propose as its main +end the production of one particular effect, it does not follow that its +effects should be confined to the production of that alone, if its +physical conditions permit the partial pursuit of others. <span class="sidenote"> +Fine Art <i>may</i> borrow from its loftier sister, Poetry,</span>More especially, +if an art should admit of uniting, to a certain extent, with its own +peculiar and legitimate end, the prosecution of another loftier than the +first, surely we might expect to find such an art occasionally taking +advantage of the license; and yet its doing so would not compel us to +say, that both these are its proper and original purposes. <span class="sidenote"> +but Classic Art very rarely does, and rightly.</span>And the fact is, that +the attempt is seldom made; for very few works of classical art exist in +which the union of the two principles is tried, the end sought being +usually the representation of beauty, and that alone. In no way, +however, can the radical difference and opposition between the two +qualities be evinced so satisfactorily as by a comparison <a name="FNanchor_86:1_137" id="FNanchor_86:1_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_86:1_137" class="fnanchor">[86:1]</a>of the +effects which they severally produce on the mind. <span class="sidenote">Expression +belongs to Poetry. It excites.</span> <span class="sidenote">Poetry stirs men.</span> +Expression, the poetical element, gives rise to a peculiar activity of +the soul, a certain species of reflective emotion, which, it is true, is +easily distinguishable from underived passion, and does not necessarily +produce like it a tendency to action, but which yet essentially partakes +of the character <!-- Page 87 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>[<a href="./images/87.png">87</a>]</span>of mental commotion, and is opposed to the idea of +mental inactivity. <span class="sidenote">Beauty soothes them.</span> The feeling which +Beauty awakens is of a character entirely opposite. The contemplation of +the Beautiful begets an inclination to repose, a stillness and luxurious +absorption of every mental faculty: thought is dormant, and even +sensation is scarcely followed by the perception which is its usual +consequence. <span class="sidenote">Look at the Venus de Medici.</span> It is with this +softness and relaxation of mind that we are inspired when we look on +such works as the Venus de Medici, in which beauty is sole and supreme, +and expression is permitted to be no farther present than as it is +necessary as an indication of the internal influence of soul, that so +those sympathies may be awakened, without whose partial action even +beauty itself possesses no power. <span class="sidenote">When ancient art stirs you, +as in the</span> If we turn to those few works of ancient art, in which the +opposite element is admitted, we are conscious that the soul is +differently acted upon, and we may be able by reflection to disentangle +the ravelled threads of feeling, and distinguish the mental changes +which flow upon and through each other like the successive waves on the +sea-beach. <span class="sidenote">Apollo and</span> In contemplating the Apollo, for +instance, a feeling akin to the poetical, or rather identical with it, +is awakened by the divine majesty of the statue; and upon the quiet and +self-brooding luxury with which the heart is filled by the perfect +beauty of the youthful outlines, there steals a more fervent emotion +which makes us proud to look on the proud figure, which makes us stand +more erect while we gaze, and imitate involuntarily that godlike +attitude and expression of calm and beautiful disdain. <span class="sidenote"> +Laocoon,</span> <span class="sidenote">it is by their having left their own ground, and +taken that of Poetry, Expression.</span> Or look to the wonderful Laocoon, in +which the abstract feeling of beauty is even more deeply merged in the +human feeling of the pathetic,—that extraordinary groupe, in which +continued meditation arouses more and more actively the emotion of +sympathy, while we view the dark and swimming shadows of the eyes, the +absorbed and motionless agony of the mouth, and the tense torture of the +iron muscles of <a name="FNanchor_87:1_138" id="FNanchor_87:1_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_87:1_138" class="fnanchor">[87:1]</a>the body. It is impossible to conceive that an art +can propose to itself, as originally and properly its own, two ends so +difficult of reconcilement and so different in the qualities by which +they are brought about. <span class="sidenote">Lastly, Fine Art appeals to sight.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Poetry never does.</span> Finally, the Plastic Arts offer form +directly to the sense of sight, whereas it is very doubtful whether +poetry can convey, even indirectly, any visual image. <span class="sidenote">If Fine +Art rightly includes Expression, then it has Beauty too;</span> +<span class="sidenote">while Poetry, which can't express Beauty directly, has to give up part +of its province, Expression, to Art, which can't use it fully.</span> <!-- Page 88 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>[<a href="./images/88.png">88</a>]</span>Consequently, the result of admitting Expression as a primary and +legitimate end of the arts of form, would be to ascribe to them an +innate and underived capability of presenting directly to the senses +both beauty and the wide circle of human action and feeling; while the +genius of Poetry, by her nature shut out from direct representation of +the beautiful, whose shadows she can evoke only through the agency of +associated ideas, would have even her own kingdom of thought and +passion, her power as the great interpreter of mind, shared with her by +a rival, whom the decision would acknowledge indeed as possessing a +right to the divided empire, but who is disqualified by the nature of +her instruments from exercising that sovereignty to the full. <span class="sidenote"> +Poetry rather lends its help to its narrower ally, Art.</span>And, on the +other hand, by the acknowledgment that the arts of form are not properly +a representation of human action or human passion, and that when they +aim at becoming so, they attempt a task which is above and beyond their +sphere, and in which their success can never be more than partial, +Poetry is exhibited in an august and noble aspect, as stooping to lend a +share in her broad and lofty dominion to another art of narrower scope, +which is so enabled to gain over the mind an influence of transcending +its own unassisted capacities.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">The aims of Poetry:</span></p> + +<p>If you shall be able to think this excursive disquisition justifiable, +it will be because it insensibly leads us to perceive what truly is the +legitimate and sole end of the Poetical Art, and because it thus clears +the way for one or two elementary propositions regarding the functions +of the Poetical Faculty. <span class="sidenote">1. not to represent Beauty to the +eye,</span> <span class="sidenote">but only to the mind.</span> First, we perceive that poetry +does not aim at the representation of visual beauty. I do not say that +beauty may not form the subject of poetry: my meaning is, that the poet +can depict it poetically in no way except by indicating its effects on +the mind. When poetry mistakingly attempts to represent beauty by its +external form, its failure to affect the mind is signal and complete, +and must be <a name="FNanchor_88:1_139" id="FNanchor_88:1_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_88:1_139" class="fnanchor">[88:1]</a>so, even supposing it to be possible that the picture +should be so full and accurate that the painter might sketch from it. +The reason of this is perhaps discoverable. <span class="sidenote">Contrast of the +effects of Beauty and Expression, of Fine Art and Poetry, on the mind.</span> +Such a description cannot affect the mind with the poetical sentiment, +because it does not represent to the imagination those qualities by +which it is that the poetical effect is <!-- Page 89 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>[<a href="./images/89.png">89</a>]</span>produced; and if it were to +move the mind at all, it must be with those feelings which beauty +excites when it is seen corporeally present. It fails to operate even +this effect, and why? Beauty of form affects the mind through the +intervention of sense; and the perception of the sensible qualities of +form is followed instantaneously and necessarily by the pleasurable +emotion. <span class="sidenote">Beauty gives pleasure, rest, absorption.</span> This +mental process is involuntary, and the nature of the sentiment excited +implies inactivity and absorption of the mind. <span class="sidenote">Poetry stirs +the Imagination, the Will,</span> <span class="sidenote">disturbs the passiveness that +Beauty produces.</span> When however the imagination is called on to combine +into a connected whole the scattered features which words successively +present, an effort of the will is necessary: and the failure in the +pleasurable effect appears to be adequately accounted for (independently +of any imperfection in the result of the combination) by the +inconsistency of this degree of mental activity with the inert frame of +mind which is requisite for the actual contemplation and enjoyment of +the beautiful. <span class="sidenote">It can't produce an image by sight,</span> +<span class="sidenote">but only by association.</span> When, again, the poet represents +beauty in the method chalked out for him by the nature of his art, it is +quite impossible that he can convey any distinct visual image; for he +represents the poetical qualities by indicating them as the causes which +produce some particular temper or frame of mind: and as every mind has +its distinctive differences of association, a truly poetical picture is +not realised by any two minds with precisely similar features. +<span class="sidenote">Its effect is opposite to that of Beauty of Form.</span> And the +mood of mind to which this representation gives birth, is radically +opposite to the other; it is active, sympathetic, and even reflective: +we seem, as it were, to share the feeling with others, to derive an +added delight from witnessing the manner in which they are affected, or +even to have the original passive sentiment of pleasure entirely +swallowed up in that energetic emotion.<a name="FNanchor_89:1_140" id="FNanchor_89:1_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_89:1_140" class="fnanchor">[89:1]</a> +<span class="sidenote">2. Poetry's true subject is Mind, and not external nature,</span> +Secondly, <!-- Page 90 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>[<a href="./images/90.png">90</a>]</span>the true +subject of poetry is <a name="FNanchor_90:1_141" id="FNanchor_90:1_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_90:1_141" class="fnanchor">[90:1]</a>Mind. Its most strictly original purpose is +that of imaging mind <i>directly</i>, by the representation of humanity as +acting, thinking, or suffering; it presents images of external nature +only because the weakness of the mind compels it; and it is careful to +represent sensible images solely as they are acted on by mind. +<span class="sidenote">except as tinged with thought and feeling.</span> When it makes the +description of external nature its professed end, it in truth does not +represent the sensible objects themselves, but only exhibits certain +modes of thought and feeling, and characterises the sensible forms no +farther than as the causes which produce them. <span class="sidenote">3. Poetry is +analytical; it perceives, discriminates.</span> Thirdly, The most +characteristic function of the poetical faculty is <i>analytical</i>; it is +essentially a <i>perception</i>, a power of discovery, analysis, and +discrimination. An object having been presented to it by the +imagination, it discovers, and separates from the mass of its qualities, +those of them which are calculated to affect the mind with that emotion +which is the instrumental end of poetry. <span class="sidenote">Its combinations +depend on its first analysis.</span> Coincidently with the perception and +discovery of the qualities, it perceives and experiences the peculiar +effect which each particular quality produces; and, lastly, it sets +forth and represents those resulting moods of mind, indicating at the +same time what those qualities of the object are through which they are +excited. Its task of combination is no more than consequent on this +process, and supposes each step of it to have been previously gone +through. <span class="sidenote">4. Poetry depends on the power and accuracy of its +perception of the poetical qualities in its materials.</span> Fourthly, It +follows, (and this is the result which makes the inquiry important,) +that the poetical faculty is measured by the strength and accuracy with +which it perceives the poetical qualities of those objects which the +imagination suggests as its materials, and not by the number of the +ideas so presented. <span class="sidenote">Of imagination or Imagery.</span> A +forgetfulness of this truth has occasioned more misapprehension and +<a name="FNanchor_90:2_142" id="FNanchor_90:2_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_90:2_142" class="fnanchor">[90:2]</a>false criticism than any other error whatever; and we are +continually in danger of the mistake, from the extension of meaning +which use has attached to the word imagination, that term being commonly +employed to designate the poetical faculty. This extended application is +perhaps unavoidable; but it is on that account the more necessary to +guard against the misconception always likely to arise from the original +signification of the word, which we can never discard entirely from the +mind in using it in a secondary sense.—You do not need to be reminded +how <!-- Page 91 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>[<a href="./images/91.png">91</a>]</span>completely the history of the poetical art evinces, that these +positions, whether expressly acquiesced in or not, have been invariably +acted on in the judgments which the world has pronounced in particular +cases. <span class="sidenote">Describing forms by their outsides, is not Poetry.</span> +<span class="sidenote">They must be shown as exciting changes of Mind.</span> The +inadequacy of a representation of forms by their external attributes to +constitute poetical pictures, could be instanced from every bad poem +which has ever been written; and the great truth, that the external +world is exhibited poetically only by being represented as the exciting +cause of mental changes, has been illustrated in no age so singularly as +in our own. <span class="sidenote">Wordsworth declares that all outward objects can +do this,</span> <span class="sidenote">and become sentient existences.</span> The writings of +Wordsworth in particular have stretched the principle to the utmost +extent which it can possibly sustain; demanding a belief that all +external objects are poetical, because all can interest the human mind; +establishing the reasonableness of the assumption by the boldest +confidence in the strength and delicacy with which the poetical +perception can trace the qualities which awaken that interest, and the +progress of the feeling itself; and applying the poetical faculty to the +transforming of every object of sense into an energetic, and as it were +sentient, existence. <span class="sidenote">Mere wealth of imagery is of little +worth.</span> And attention is especially due to the decision which has always +recognized, as the rule of poetical excellence, the operation of some +power independent of mere wealth of imagination, ranking this latter +quality as one of the lowest merits of poetry. <span class="sidenote">The greatest +poets use the fewest images,</span> We are apt to forget that those minds +whose conceptions have been the most strongly and truly poetical, are by +no means those whose poetical ideas have been the most abundant; that an +overflow of poetical images has been coincident with an intense +perception of their most efficient poetical relations only in a few rare +instances; and that it is precisely where the highest elements of the +poetical are most active that <a name="FNanchor_91:1_143" id="FNanchor_91:1_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_91:1_143" class="fnanchor">[91:1]</a>the imagination is usually found to +offer the fewest images as the materials on which the poetical faculty +should work. <span class="sidenote">witness Dante,</span> <span class="sidenote">Alfieri.</span> It is +enough to name Dante, or, a still more singular instance, Alfieri. +<span class="sidenote">Their intensity is their secret.</span> In both cases the poetical +influence rests on the intensity of the one simple aspect of grandeur or +passion in which a character is presented, and in both that simplicity +is unrelieved and undecorated by any fulness of imagery.<a name="FNanchor_91:2_144" id="FNanchor_91:2_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_91:2_144" class="fnanchor">[91:2]</a></p> + +<p><!-- Page 92 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>[<a href="./images/92.png">92</a>]</span> +<span class="sidenote">Application of these principles to the Drama.</span></p> + +<p>These fundamental principles of the poetical art possess a closer +application to Dramatic Poetry than to any other species. <span class="sidenote">The +Passions are the chief subjects of Poetry.</span> All poetry being directly or +indirectly a representation of human character; and human character +admitting of appreciation only by an exhibition of its results in +action; and action being prompted by the passionate impulses of the +mind, which its reflective faculties only modify or stay; it follows +that the Passions are the leading subjects of Poetry, which consequently +must be examined in the first instance with a view to its strength and +accuracy as a representation of the working and results of that +department of the mind. The nature of the dramatic art allows this rule +to be applied to it with the greatest strictness. <span class="sidenote">They work +more alone in the Drama than elsewhere.</span> The drama is the species which +presents the essential qualities of poetry less mingled with foreign +adjuncts than they are in any other species; and there seems to be a +cause, (independent of its mechanical necessities,) enabling it to +dispense with those decorations which abound in other kinds of poetry. +The acted drama presents its picture of life directly to the senses, and +permits the imagination, without any previous exertion, to proceed at +once to its proper task of forming its own combinations from the +sensible forms thus offered to it; and even when the drama is read, the +office of the imagination in representing to itself the action and the +characters of the piece, is an easy one, and performed without the +necessity of great activity of mind. <span class="sidenote">In Epic and other poetry +relying only on words, the effort to turn them into a picture hinders +their prompt action.</span> On the other hand, in the epic, or any other +species of poetry which represents action by <a name="FNanchor_92:1_145" id="FNanchor_92:1_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_92:1_145" class="fnanchor">[92:1]</a>words, and not by an +imitation of the action itself, the imagination has at first to form, +from the successively presented features of the poetical description, a +picture which shall be the exciting cause of the poetical impression: +this supposes considerable energy of thought, and the necessity of +relief from that exertion seems to have suggested the introduction of +images of external nature and the like, on which the fancy may rest and +disport itself. <span class="sidenote">Didactic poetry is not true poetry, but +sermons in verse.</span> Those classes of poetry which are either partially or +wholly didactic, cannot receive a strict <!-- Page 93 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>[<a href="./images/93.png">93</a>]</span>application of the principles +of the pure art; because they are not properly poetry, but attempts to +make poetical forms serve purposes which are not poetical.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere again.</span></p> + +<p>Our journey has at length conducted us to Shakspeare, of many of whose +peculiar qualities we have been gaining scattered glimpses in our +progress. <span class="sidenote">He takes to Drama, because it's the noblest and +truest form of Poetry, the likest the mind of man.</span> We remark him +adopting that species of poetry which, necessarily confined by its +forms, is yet the noblest offspring of the poetical faculty, and the +truest to the purposes of the poetical art, because it is the most +faithful and impressive image of the mind and state of man. <span class="sidenote"> +And there he sits enthrond.</span>We find him seated like an eastern +sovereign amidst those who have adopted this highest form of poetry; and +we cannot be contented that, in reverentially acknowledging his +worthiness to fill the throne, we should render him only a hasty and +undiscerning homage. <span class="sidenote">But why?</span> A discrimination of the +particular qualities by which his sway is mainly supported, is rendered +the more necessary by that extraordinary union of qualities, which has +made him what he is, the unapproached and the unapproachable.—We are +accustomed to lavish commendations on his vast Imagination. <span class="sidenote"> +What does his <i>Imagination</i> mean?</span>Before we can perceive what rank this +quality of his deserves to hold in an estimate of his character, we must +understand precisely what the quality is which we mean to praise. +<span class="sidenote">his wealth of imagery?</span> If the term used denotes merely the +abundance of his illustrative conceptions, it expresses what is a +singular quality, especially as co-existent with so many other +endowments, but useful only as furnishing materials for the use of the +poetical power. <span class="sidenote">of fancy, of conception?</span> If the word is +meant to call attention to the strength and delicacy with which his mind +grasps and embodies the poetical relations of those overflowing +conceptions, (still considered simply as illustrative or decorative,) +<a name="FNanchor_93:1_146" id="FNanchor_93:1_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_93:1_146" class="fnanchor">[93:1]</a>the quality indicated is a rare and valuable gift, and is +especially to be noted in an attempt to trace a likeness to his manner. +<span class="sidenote">No.</span> Still however it is but a secondary ground of desert; it +is even imperfectly suited for developement in dramatic dialogue, and it +frequently tempts him to quit the genuine spirit and temper of his +scene. <span class="sidenote">Does Shakspere's imagination mean the grandeur or +loveliness he has given some of his characters?</span> If, again, in speaking +of the great poet's imagination, we have regard to the poetical +character of many of his leading conceptions, to the ideal grandeur or +terror of some of his preternatural characters, or even to the romantic +loveliness which he <!-- Page 94 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>[<a href="./images/94.png">94</a>]</span>has thrown, like the golden curtains of the +morning, over the youth and love of woman,—we point out a quality which +is admirable in itself, and almost divine in its union with others so +opposite, a quality to which we are glad to turn for repose from the +more severe portions of his works,—but still an excellence which is not +the most marked feature of his character, and which he could want +without losing the essential portion of his identity. <span class="sidenote">No.</span> +<span class="sidenote">We could give up</span> <span class="sidenote">Miranda,</span> +<span class="sidenote">Ariel,</span> <span class="sidenote">Juliet, Romeo,</span> +<span class="sidenote">and yet leave the true, the highest Shakspere behind, in Richard, +Macbeth, Lear, Hamlet.</span> We could conceive, (although the idea is +sacrilege to the genius and the altar of poetry,) we could conceive that +'The Tempest' had remained unwritten, that Miranda had not made +inexperience beautiful by the spell of innocence and youth, that the +hideous slave Caliban had never scowled and cursed, nor Ariel alighted +on the world like a shooting-star,—we could dismiss alike from our +memories the moon-light forest in which the Fairy Court revel, and the +lurid and spectre-peopled ghastliness of the cave of Hecate,—we +could in fancy remove from the gallery of the poet's art the picture +which exhibits the two self-destroyed lovers lying side by side in the +tomb of the Capulets,—and we could discard from our minds, and +hold as never having been invented by the poet, all which we find in his +works possessing a character similar to these scenes and figures;—and +yet we should leave behind that which would support Shakspeare as having +pursued the highest ends of his art, and as having attained those ends +more fully than any other who ever followed them: Richard would still be +his; Macbeth would think and tremble, and Lear weep and be mad; and +Hamlet would still pore over the riddle of life, and find in death the +solution of its mystery. <span class="sidenote">These show his Imagination, the force with +which he throws himself into their characters.</span> If it is to such +characters as these last that we refer when we speak of the poet's power +of imagina<a name="FNanchor_94:1_147" id="FNanchor_94:1_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_94:1_147" class="fnanchor">[94:1]</a>tion, and if we wish to designate by the word the force +with which he throws himself into the conception of those characters, +then we apprehend truly what the sphere is in which his greatness lies, +although we either describe the whole of a most complicated mental +process by naming a single step of it, or load the name of that one +mental act with a weight of meaning which it is unfit to bear.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Shakspere's supremacy lies in his characterization.</span></p> + +<p>It is here, in his mode of dealing with human character, that +Shakspeare's supremacy confessedly lies; and the conclusions which <!-- Page 95 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>[<a href="./images/95.png">95</a>]</span>we +have reached as to the great purpose of poetry, allow us easily to +perceive how excellence in this department justifies the universal +decision, which places at the summit of poetical art the poet who is +pre-eminently distinguished by it. <span class="sidenote">Why is his the best?</span> What +is there in Shakspeare's view of human character which entitles him to +this high praise? <span class="sidenote">How is he true to Nature and imagination?</span> +His truth of painting is usually specified as the source of his +strength; in what sense is he true to nature? Is that faithfulness to +nature consistent with any exercise of the imagination in the +representation of character? And how? And again, how does his reflective +temper of mind harmonize with or arise out of the view of human life +which he takes?</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Poetry (or Drama) represent passions.</span></p> + +<p>Poetry, as we have seen, and dramatic poetry more strictly than any +other species, must be judged primarily as a representation of passion +and feeling; and when it is defective as such, it has failed in its +proper end. Its prosecution of that end, however, is subject to two +important limitations. <span class="sidenote">But 1. it must show human nature +entirely, both its moving and hindering forces; man's mind as well as +his passions; 2. it must do this impressively, must have a high standard +of character.</span> First, if it is to be in any sense a <i>true</i> +representation of human action, it must represent human nature not +partially, but entirely; it must exhibit not only the moving influences +which produce action, but also the counteracting forces which in real +life always control it. It must be a mirror of the intellectual part of +the human mind, as well as of the passionate. Secondly, if, possessing +the first requisite, truth, it is to be also an <i>impressive</i> +representation, (that is, such a representation as shall effect the ends +of poetical art,) it must set up an ideal and elevated standard to +regulate its choice of the class of intellectual endowment which is to +form the foundation of the characters which it portrays. <span class="sidenote">Ben +Jonson faild in (2), the other Elizabethans in (1).</span> We discover the +cause of Jonson's inferiority in his failure in obedience to the latter +of these rules, though he scrupulously complied with <a name="FNanchor_95:1_148" id="FNanchor_95:1_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_95:1_148" class="fnanchor">[95:1]</a>the first: we +discover the prevailing defect of all the other dramatic writers of that +period, to consist in their neglect even of the first and subsidiary +rule, which involved a complete disregard to the other.—These latter +have, as well as Shakspeare, been proposed as models, from their close +imitation of nature. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's contemporaries don't imitate +Nature, they distort it, give Passion, and no Reason.</span> The merit of +truth to nature belongs to them only in a very confined sense. They +seize one oblique and partial aspect of human character, and represent +it as giving a true and direct view of the whole; they are the poets of +the passions, and no more; they <!-- Page 96 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>[<a href="./images/96.png">96</a>]</span>have failed to shadow forth that +control which the calmer principles of our nature always exert over the +active propensities. Their excellence consequently is to be looked for +only in scenes which properly admit the force of unchecked passion, or +of passions conflicting with each other; and in those scenes where the +more thoughtful spirit ought to work, we must be prepared to meet either +exaggeration of feeling or feebleness of thought, either the operation +of an evil principle, or, at best, a defect of the good one. <span class="sidenote"> +They like to show the mind in delirium.</span>Even in their passionate +scenes, the vigour of the drawing is the merit oftener than the +faithfulness of the portrait; they delight to figure the human mind as +in a state of delirium, with the restraining forces taken off, and the +passions and the imagination boiling, as if the brain were maddened by +opiates or fever. Fierce and exciting visions come across the soul in +such a paroxysm; and in the intensity of its stimulated perceptions, it +gazes down into the abysses of nature, with a profound though transitory +quickness of penetration. It is a high merit to have exhibited those +partial views of nature, or even this exaggerated phasis of the mind; +and the praise is shared by no dramatic school whatever; (for the +qualities of the ancient are different;) but it must not be assumed that +the drama fulfils its highest purposes, by representations so partial, +so distorted, or so disproportioned. <span class="sidenote">They are poets of +impulse.</span> As these poets of impulse bestowed no part of their attention +on the intellect in any view, they produced their peculiar effect, such +as it was, without any attempt at that higher task of selection and +elevation in intellectual character for which the universality of views +which they wanted must always serve as the foundation. <span class="sidenote">Ben +Jonson as broad in aim as Shakspere.</span> They had accordingly little scope +for the due introduction of reflection in their works; and their turn of +mind inclined them little to <a name="FNanchor_96:1_149" id="FNanchor_96:1_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_96:1_149" class="fnanchor">[96:1]</a>search for it when it did not +naturally present itself.—Jonson resembled Shakspeare in wideness of +aim: he is most unlike him in the method which he adopted in the pursuit +of his end. <span class="sidenote">Ben Jonson tried at truth to nature,</span> The two +stood alone in their age and class, as alone aiming at truth to nature +in any sense; both wished to read each of the opposite sides of the +scroll of human character: but the one read correctly the difficult +writing in which intellectual character is traced, while the other +misapprehended and misinterpreted its meaning, and even allowed the +<!-- Page 97 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>[<a href="./images/97.png">97</a>]</span>eagerness with which he perused this perplexing page, to withdraw his +attention from the more easy meaning of the other. <span class="sidenote">but drew +individuals only, portraits of reality, but no types,</span> The fault of his +characters as intellectual beings, is that they are individuals and no +more; faithful or grotesque portraits of reality, they are not touched +with that purple light which affords insight into universal relations +and hidden causes. <span class="sidenote">not poetic creations.</span> His failure is +shewn by its effect: his characters are not so conceived as to lead the +mind to the comprehension of anything beyond their own individual +peculiarities, or to elevate it into that region of active and +conceptive contemplation into which it is raised by the finest class of +poetry: he exhibited reality as reality, and not in its relation to +possibility; he even diverges into the investigation of causes, instead +of seeing them at a glance, and indicating them by effects; he +anatomised human life, and hung up its dry bones along the walls of his +study.</p> + +<p>In the close obedience which Shakspeare rendered to each of these two +canons, borne in upon his mind by the instantaneous suggestions of his +happy genius, we may discover the origin of his tremendous power. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's power lay in</span> <span class="sidenote">subordinating Fancy and +Passion to Intellect.</span> To commence at the point where his adherence to +the first and subsidiary rule is most slightly manifested, it is to be +noticed, that his works are marked throughout by a predominance of the +qualities of the understanding over the fancy and the passions. This is +not true of the fundamental conception of the work, nor of the relations +by which his characters are united into the dramatic groupes; in these +particulars the poetical faculty is allowed to work freely: but it is +after the initial steps have been taken under her guidance, that the +rule is committed to the sterner power of intellect. The stir of fancy +often breaks through the restraints which hold it in check; the warmth +of feeling effervesces very unfrequently. <span class="sidenote">All his characters +have quiet good sense.</span> <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's shrewdness in his minor +scenes.</span> The poet's personages <a name="FNanchor_97:1_150" id="FNanchor_97:1_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_97:1_150" class="fnanchor">[97:1]</a>are all more or less marked by an +air of quiet sense, which is extremely unusual in poetry, and +incompatible with the unnecessary or frequent display of feeling; and +accordingly, his less important scenes, whether they be gay or serious, +occupied in the business of the drama, or devoted to an exchange of +witty sallies, possess, where they aim at nothing higher, at least a +degree of intellectual shrewdness, which very often savours of worldly +coldness. <span class="sidenote">His soberness gives force to his passion.</span> Viewed +merely as increasing the effect of his passionate scenes, this +prevailing <!-- Page 98 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>[<a href="./images/98.png">98</a>]</span>sobriety of tone gives him an incalculable advantage: +passion in his works bursts out when it is let loose, like the spring of +a mastiff unchained. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's sober rationality.</span> It is of +this quality, his sober rationality, that we are apt to think when we +acknowledge his truth of representation; and the excellence is +indispensable to truth in any sense, because the want of it gives birth +to imperfection and distortion of views; but I apprehend that it is to +his aiming at a higher purpose that we have to look for the genuine +source of his power. <span class="sidenote">But he didn't reproduce the bare +reality.</span> While we mark the gradual rise of the intellectual element of +poetical character upwards from its lowest stage, we are in truth +approximating to a rule which issues in something beyond a bare and +unselected reproduction of reality. <span class="sidenote">Poetry aims at</span> +<span class="sidenote">general truth,</span> <span class="sidenote">brings out the relation of one +mind to universal nature;</span> <span class="sidenote">it idealizes and ennobles +realities.</span> Poetry aims at representing the whole of man's nature; and +yet a picture of human character, embracing all its features, but +neither skilfully selecting its aspect nor majestically combining its +component parts, would not effect the ends of poetry: for that art +contemplates not individual but general truth, not that which is really +produced, but that which may be conceived without doing violence to +acknowledged principles; instead of presenting a bare portraiture of +mental changes, it exhibits them in an aspect which teaches their +relation to the system of universal nature; it is seemingly conversant +with facts, but it imperceptibly hints at causes; it aims at exciting +the imagination to frame pictures for itself, and for that reason, if +for no other, it must be permitted to idealize and ennoble the +individual realities from which its materials are collected. <span class="sidenote"> +A Painting pictured a soldier in the midst of foes, yet showd him +alone.</span>The mode in which poetry affects the mind is illustrated by the +description which we read of a certain ancient painting. That piece +represented a young soldier surrounded by several enemies and +desperately defending himself; but his own figure alone was +<a name="FNanchor_98:1_151" id="FNanchor_98:1_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_98:1_151" class="fnanchor">[98:1]</a>admitted into the field of view, and the motions and place of his +unseen enemies were indicated solely by the life, energy, and +significance of the attitude in which he was drawn. Shakspeare's +attachment to truth of representation never tempted him to forget the +true purpose of his art. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere is true to nature in +Poetry's way.</span> <span class="sidenote">His characters</span> <span class="sidenote">are not monsters of +evil,</span> While he is true to nature by attempting the treatment of his +whole subject, he is true to it in the manner and with the restrictions +which the nature of poetry requires; he is true to principles which +admit of being conceived as producing effects, not to effects +individually <!-- Page 99 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>[<a href="./images/99.png">99</a>]</span>observed as resulting; the creatures of his conception +possess no qualities which unfit them for exciting the mind as poetical +character should excite it; they are not repulsive by the unexampled and +unatoned for congregation of evil qualities, not mean by the absence of +lofty thought, not devoid of poetical significance by confining the +imagination to the qualities by which they are individually marked. +<span class="sidenote">nor are they above the influence of evil.</span> You will +particularly remark, that, while he had to bring out the features of his +characters by subjecting them to tragic and calamitous events, he was +careful not to figure them as unsusceptible of the influence of those +external evils. <span class="sidenote">Brutus is his one stoical character.</span> The +lofty view which he took of human nature did indeed admit the idea of a +resistance to calamity, and a triumph over it, based on internal and +conscious grandeur; but this is an aspect in which he does not present +the human mind; the stoical Brutus is the only character in which he has +attempted such a conception, which he has there developed but partially. +But while he was contented, even in his noblest characters, to represent +passion in all its strength and directed towards its usual objects, he +had open to him sources of tragic strength unknown to those poets who +describe passion only. Where passion alone is represented, no spectacle +is so agitating as the conflict of contending passions; and the +narrowness of such views of nature permits that tragic opposition to be +no further exhibited. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere dealt not with the conflict +of Passions only, but with the strife between the Passions and the +Reason,</span> Shakspeare had before him a wider field of contrast—the +conflict between the passions and the reason—a struggle between powers +inspired with deadly animosity, and each, as he conceived them, +possessed of gigantic strength. <span class="sidenote">convulsing the whole being of +man.</span> He has worthily represented that terrible encounter, engaging +every principle and faculty of the soul, and shaking the whole kingdom +of man's being with <a name="FNanchor_99:1_152" id="FNanchor_99:1_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_99:1_152" class="fnanchor">[99:1]</a>internal convulsions. It is in such +representations that his power is mainly felt; and his pictures are at +the same time truest to nature and most faithful to the ends of tragic +art, by the subjugation of the intellectual principle which is the +catastrophe of the strife. The reason is assaulted by calamity from +without, and borne down by an host of rebellious feelings attacking it +internally. <span class="sidenote">Characters showing this mental strife, are +specially dear to Shakspere.</span> It is to the delineation of such +characters as afford scope for this exhibition of mental commotion that +Shakspeare has especially attached himself: the thoughtful and +reflective in <!-- Page 100 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>[<a href="./images/100.png">100</a>]</span>character is at once his favourite resort, and the field +of his triumph.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">He chose the intellectual and reflective in character.</span></p> + +<p>The poet's selection of the intellectual and reflective in character, as +the subject of his art, is thus indicated as his guiding principle, to +whose operation all other principles and rules are but subservient. The +reflective element however is in excess with Shakspeare, and its undue +prevalence is not destitute of harmony with the principle which produces +its legitimately moderated effects. <span class="sidenote">He's a Gnomic Poet.</span> He +is a Gnomic Poet; and he is so, because he is emphatically the poet of +man. <span class="sidenote">The solemnity of meditation is thro' all his soul.</span> He +pauses, he reflects, he aphorizes; because, looking on life and death as +he looked on them, viewing the nature of man from so lofty a station, +and with a power of vision so far-reaching, so acute, and so delicate, +it was impossible but the deepest solemnity of meditation should diffuse +itself through all the chambers of his soul. <span class="sidenote">He makes his +people hint the principles beneath the shews.</span> His enunciations of +general truth are often serious and elevated even in his gayer works; +and where the scene denied him an opportunity of introducing these in +strict accordance with the business of the drama, he makes his +personages, as it were, step out of the groupe, to meditate on the +meanings of the scene, to hold a delicately implied communication with +the spectator, and to hint the general maxims and principles which lurk +beneath the tragic and passionate shews. He has gone beyond this: he has +brought on the stage characters whose sole task is meditation, whose +sole purpose in the drama is the suggesting of high and serious +reflection. <span class="sidenote">Jaques, in <i>As You Like It</i>, is like a Greek +chorus, which</span> Jaques is the perfection of such a character; and the +office which he discharges bears more than a fanciful likeness in +conception to the task of the ancient chorus. <span class="sidenote">gave the +key-note to the audience.</span> That forgotten appendage of the Grecian drama +originated indeed from incidental causes; but, being continued as a part +of the dramatic plan, <a name="FNanchor_100:1_153" id="FNanchor_100:1_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_100:1_153" class="fnanchor">[100:1]</a>it had a momentous duty assigned to it: it +suggested, it interpreted, it sympathised, it gave the key-note to the +reflections of the audience. <span class="sidenote">The highest art made Shakspere +insert his reflective passages in his plays.</span> A profound sense of the +highest purposes and responsibilities of the art prompted this +employment of the choral songs; and no way dissimilar was the impression +which dictated to Shakspeare the introduction of the philosophically +cynical lover of nature in that one play, and the breaks of reflection +so frequent with him in many others.—It is <!-- Page 101 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>[<a href="./images/101.png">101</a>]</span>worthy of remark, that this +spirit of penetrating thought, ranging from every-day wisdom to +philosophical abstraction, never becomes morose or discontented.<a name="FNanchor_101:1_154" id="FNanchor_101:1_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_101:1_154" class="fnanchor">[101:1]</a> +Man is a selfish being, but not a malignant one; yet the acts resulting +from the two dispositions are often very similar, and it is the error of +the misanthrope to mistake the one for the other. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere +never made the misanthrope's mistake.</span> <span class="sidenote">His sarcasm did not +spring from envy.</span> Shakspeare's well-balanced mind was in no danger of +this mistake; his keen-sightedness often makes him sarcastic, but the +sarcasm forced on a mind which contrasts the poorness of reality with +the splendours of imagination, is of a different temper from that which +is bred from lowness of thought and fretful envy. <span class="sidenote"><i>Timon's</i></span> +<span class="sidenote">sternness is softened by tenderness.</span> Shakspeare has devoted +one admirable drama to the exhibition of the misanthrophic spirit, as +produced by wrongs in a noble heart; but the sternness which is the +master-note of that work is softened by the most beautiful intervals of +redeeming tenderness and good feeling. <span class="sidenote"><i>Troilus</i> is +Shakspere's only bitter play.</span> The only work of his evidently written in +ill humour with mankind, is the Troilus, which, both in idea and +execution, is the most bitter of satires.</p> + +<p>The application of the distinctive qualities of Shakspeare's tone of +thought to the spirit of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen', is a task for your own +judgment and discrimination, and would not be aided by suggestions of +mine. I have stated the result to which I have been led by such an +application; and I am confident that you will be able to reach the same +conclusion by a path which may be shorter than any which I could clear +for you. In connection however with this inquiry, I would direct your +attention to one other truth possessing a clear application here. +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's thoughtfulness a Moral distinction.</span> Shakspeare's +thoughtfulness goes the length of becoming a Moral distinction and +excellence. <span class="sidenote">His part of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> is of higher +tone, and purer, than Fletcher's.</span> That such a difference does exist +between Shakspeare and Fletcher, is denied by no one; and the moral tone +of this play, in those parts which I have <a name="FNanchor_101:2_155" id="FNanchor_101:2_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_101:2_155" class="fnanchor">[101:2]</a>ventured to call +Shakspeare's, is distinctly a higher one than Fletcher's. It is uniform +and pure, though the moral inquisition is less severe than Shakspeare's +often is. <span class="sidenote">Massinger and Ben Jonson too more moral than +Fletcher.</span> If Massinger or Jonson had been the poet alleged to have +written part or the whole of the work, it would have been difficult to +draw any inference from this circumstance by itself; but when the +question is only between Shakspeare and Fletcher, even an abstinence +<!-- Page 102 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>[<a href="./images/102.png">102</a>]</span>from gross violation or utter concealment of moral truth is an +important element in the decision; and the positively high strain here +maintained is a very strong argument in favour of the purer writer.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Are Johnson, &c. right in condemning Shakspere's morality.</span></p> + +<p>I am tempted, however, to carry you somewhat further on this head, +because I must confess that I cannot see the grounds on which Johnson +and others have rested their sweeping condemnation of Shakspeare's +morality. There is, it must be admitted, much to blame, but there is +also something worthy of praise; and praise on this score is what +Shakspeare has scarcely ever received. <span class="sidenote">He admits +licentiousness</span> He has been charged with licentiousness, and justly; but +even in this particular there are some circumstances of palliation, +besides the equivocal plea of universal example, and the doubt which +exists whether most of his grosser dialogues are not interpolations. +<span class="sidenote">and coarse speech.</span> Mere coarseness of language may offend +the taste, and yet be so used as to give no foundation for any heavier +charge. <span class="sidenote">But who can be tainted by Othello's words?</span> There +surely never was a mind which could receive one evil suggestion from the +language wrung from the agonized Othello. Even where this excuse does +not hold, Shakspeare preserves one most important distinction quite +unknown to his contemporaries. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's contemporaries +make their heroes loose livers.</span> By them, looseness of dialogue is +introduced indifferently anywhere in the play, licentiousness of +incident is admitted in any part of the plot, and debauchery of life is +attributed without scruple to those persons in whom interest is chiefly +meant to be excited. <span class="sidenote">He doesn't,</span> It may be safely stated +that Shakspeare almost invariably follows a rule exactly opposite. His +inferior characters may be sometimes gross and sensual; his principal +personages scarcely ever are so: these he refuses to degrade needlessly, +by attributing to them that carelessness of moral restraint of which +Fletcher's men of pleasure are so usually guilty. <span class="sidenote">except in +two plays.</span> There are only two plays<a name="FNanchor_102:1_156" id="FNanchor_102:1_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_102:1_156" class="fnanchor">[102:1]</a> in which he <a name="FNanchor_102:2_157" id="FNanchor_102:2_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_102:2_157" class="fnanchor">[102:2]</a>has +violated this rule, exclusively of some unguarded expressions elsewhere.</p> + +<p>But the language which has been held on this question would lead us to +believe that his guilt extends further,—that he is totally insensible +to any moral distinctions, and blind to moral aims and <!-- Page 103 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>[<a href="./images/103.png">103</a>]</span>influences. +<span class="sidenote">Most of Shakspere's contemporaries made pleasure the law of +their heroes' lives.</span> Of most dramatic writers of his time this charge +is too true. Their characters act because they will, not because they +ought,—for happiness, and not from duty:—the lowness of their aim may +be disguised, but it is inherent, and cannot be eradicated. We might +read every work of Fletcher's without discovering (if we were ignorant +of the fact before) that there exists for man any principle of action +loftier in its origin than his earthly nature, or more extended in its +object than the life which that nature enjoys. But nothing of this is +true as to Shakspeare. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's morality not of the +loftiest, not like Milton's and</span> That his morality is of the loftiest +sort cannot be asserted. <span class="sidenote">Michel Angelo's.</span> He does not, like +Milton, look out on life at intervals from the windows of his +sequestered hermitage, only to turn away from the sight and indulge in +the most fervent aspirations after immortal purity, and the deepest +adoration of uncreated power; nor does he grovel in the dust with that +ascetic humiliation and religious sense of guilt which overcame the +strong spirit of Michel Angelo. But he shares much of the solemnity of +moral feeling which possesses all great minds, though in him its +influence was restrained by external causes. <span class="sidenote">He was in the +world, and often of it,</span> He moves in the hurried pageant of the world, +and sometimes wants leisure to moralize the spectacle; and even when he +does pause to meditate, the world often hangs about his heart, and he +thinks of life as men in action are apt to think of it. <span class="sidenote">but +evil, to him, was evil, moral law was always shown supreme. Note the +general moral truth in his Tragedies.</span> But moral truth, seldom lost +sight of, is never misrepresented: evil is always described as being +evil: the great moral rule, though often stated as inoperative, is +always acknowledged as binding. Read carefully any of his more lofty +tragedies, and ponder the general truths there so lavishly scattered; +and you will find that an immense proportion of those apophthegms have a +moral bearing, often a most solemn and impressive one. <span class="sidenote">Even +in Comedy his reflections are moral.</span> Even in his lighter plays there is +much of the same spirit: in all he is often thoughtful, and he is never +long thoughtful without becoming morally didactic. This is much in any +poet, and especially in a drama<a name="FNanchor_103:1_158" id="FNanchor_103:1_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_103:1_158" class="fnanchor">[103:1]</a>tist, who exhibits humanity +directly as active, and is under continual temptations to forget what +action tempts men to forget in real life. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere right in +letting evil prevail, so long as he shows it evil.</span> His neglect of duly +distributing punishment and reward is no moral fault, so long as moral +truth is kept sight of in characterizing actions, while that neglect is +borrowed closely from reality. And the same thing is true <!-- Page 104 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>[<a href="./images/104.png">104</a>]</span>of his +craving wish for describing human guilt, and darkening even his fairest +characters with the shadows of weakness and sin. <span class="sidenote">Dramatic +poetry is truest when it shows man most the slave of evil.</span> The poetry +which depicts man in action is then unfortunately truest when it +represents him as most deeply enslaved by the evil powers which surround +him. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere bared man's soul,</span> Different poets have +proceeded to different lengths in the degree of influence which they +have assigned to the evil principle: most have feared to draw wholly +aside the veil which imagination always struggles to keep before the +nakedness of man's breast; and Shakspeare, by tearing away the curtain +with a harsher hand, has but enabled himself to add a tremendously +impressive element of truth to the likeness which his portrait otherwise +bears to the original. <span class="sidenote">and probed it to its depth.</span> +<span class="sidenote">This is why we hold to him.</span> His view of our state and nature +is often painful; but it is its reality that makes it so; and he would +have wanted one of his strongest holds on our hearts if he had probed +them less profoundly; it is by his unflinching scrutiny of mortal +infirmity that he has forged the very strongest chain which binds us to +his footstool. <span class="sidenote">He durst not paint good triumphant over evil, +because he knew in life it was not so.</span> He reverences human nature where +it deserves respect: he knows man's divinity of mind, and harbours and +expresses the loftiest of those hopes which haunt the heart like +recollections: he represents worthily and well the struggle between good +and evil, but he feared to represent the better principle as victorious: +he had looked on life till observation became prophetical, and he could +not fable that as existing which he sorrowfully saw could never be. +<span class="sidenote">Macbeth,</span> <span class="sidenote">Othello,</span> +<span class="sidenote">Hamlet, sink under their temptations.</span> The milk of human kindness in the bosom of Macbeth +is turned to venom by the breath of an embodied fiend; the tempered +nobility and gentleness of the Moor are made the craters through which +his evil passions blaze out like central fires; and in the wonderful +Hamlet, hate to the guilty pollutes the abhorrence of the +crime,—irresolution waits on consciousness,—and the misery of doubt +clings to the solemnity of meditation. <span class="sidenote">And so do we.</span> This is +an awful representation of the human soul; but is it <a name="FNanchor_104:1_159" id="FNanchor_104:1_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_104:1_159" class="fnanchor">[104:1]</a>not a true +one? <span class="sidenote">Man's history is written in blood and tears.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Shakspere's view of life the fittest to give us to the truth.</span> +The sibylline volume of man's history is open before us, and every page of +it is written in blood or tears. And not only are such views of human +fate the truest, but they are those which are most fitted to arouse the +mind to serious, to lofty, even to religious contemplation,—to guide it +to the fountains of moral truth,—to lead it to meditations on the dark +<!-- Page 105 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>[<a href="./images/105.png">105</a>]</span>foundations of our being,—to direct its gaze forward on that great +journey of the soul, in which mortal life is but a single step.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Analogy of this inquiry.</span></p> + +<p>Oftener than once in this inquiry, I have acted towards you like one +who, undertaking to guide a traveller through a beautiful valley, should +frequently lead him out of the beaten road to climb precipitous +eminences, promising that the delay in the accomplishment of the journey +should be compensated by the pleasure of extensive prospects over the +surrounding region. Conduct like this would be excusable in a guide, if +the person escorted had leisure for the divergence, and it would be +incumbent on him if the acquisition of a knowledge of the country were +one of the purposes of the journey; but in either case the labour of the +ascents would be recompensed to the traveller, only if the landscapes +presented were interesting and distinctly seen. <span class="sidenote">Aims of this +treatise;</span> For similar reasons, my endeavour to propose wider views than +the subject necessarily suggested, has, I conceive, been fully +justifiable; but it is for you to decide whether the attempt has been so +far successful as to repay your exertions in attending my excursive +steps. <span class="sidenote">1. from Shakspere's studies, to distinguish between +him and his coevals.</span> The first of our lengthened digressions has +allowed us to combine the known facts as to the kind and amount of +Shakspeare's studies, and to draw from them certain conclusions, which I +cannot think altogether valueless, as to some distinctions between him +and his dramatic coevals, and as to the source of some peculiarities of +his which have been visited with heavy censure. <span class="sidenote">2. to trace +the most characteristic qualities of his thought.</span> In the second +instance in which we have branched off from the main argument, we have +been led to reflect on the most characteristic qualities of the poet's +mode of thought. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's variety of faculty.</span> If there be +any truth or distinctness in the hints which have been imperfectly and +hastily thrown out on this head, your own mind will classify, modify, or +extend them; and, never forgetting what is <a name="FNanchor_105:1_160" id="FNanchor_105:1_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_105:1_160" class="fnanchor">[105:1]</a>the fundamental +principle of the great poet's strength, you will regard that essential +quality with the more lively admiration, when you discriminate the +operations of the power from the working of those other principles which +minister to it, and when you remark the number, the variety, the +opposition of the mental faculties, which are all thus enlisted under +the banners of the one intense and <!-- Page 106 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>[<a href="./images/106.png">106</a>]</span>almost philosophical Perception of +Dramatic Truth. <span class="sidenote">He, the stern inquisitor into man's heart,</span> +That stern inquisition into the human heart, which the finest sense of +dramatic perfection elevates into the ideal, and the richest fancy +touches with poetical repose, will awaken in your mind a softened +solemnity of feeling, like that under whose sway we have both wandered +in the mountainous forests which skirt our native river; the continuous +and gloomy canopy of the gigantic pines hanging over-head like a dungeon +roof, while the green sward which was the pavement of the woodland +temple, and the lines of natural columns which bounded its retiring +avenues, were flooded with the glad illumination of the descending +sunset. <span class="sidenote">the anxious searcher into truth, is yet the happiest +creator of beauty: the 'maker' of Ric. III. and Iago as well as Juliet +and Titania; of Macbeth as well as Hamlet.</span> We reflect with wonder that +the most anxious of all poetical inquirers into truth, is also the most +powerful painter of unearthly horrors, and the most felicitous creator +of romantic or imaginary beauty; that the poet of Richard and Iago is +also the poet of Juliet, of Ariel, and of Titania; that the fearfully +real self-torture, the judicially inflicted remorse, of Macbeth, is set +in contrast with the wildest figures which superstitious imagination +ever conceived; that on the same canvas on which Hamlet stands as a +personification of the Reason of man shaken by the assaults of evil +within him and without, the gates of the grave are visibly opened, and +the dead ascend to utter strange secrets in the ear of night. <span class="sidenote"> +His faculties early expanded consistently, and workt thro' all his life +actively.</span>But even this union is less extraordinary than the regular +and unparalleled consistency with which the poet's faculties early +expanded themselves, and the full activity with which through life all +continued to work. <span class="sidenote">Homer ebbd,</span> Even the dramatic soul of +Homer ebbed like the sea, sinking in old age into the substitution of +wild and minutely told adventure for the historical portraiture of +mental grandeur and passionate strength. <span class="sidenote">Milton sank poetry +in polemics.</span> The youth of Milton brooded over the love and loveliness +of external nature; it was not till his maturity of years that he soared +into the empyrean or descended sheer into the secrets of the abyss; and +<a name="FNanchor_106:1_161" id="FNanchor_106:1_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_106:1_161" class="fnanchor">[106:1]</a>advancing age brought weakness with it, and quenched in the +morass of polemical disputation the torch which had flamed with sacred +light. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere alone flowd full tide on.</span> +<span class="sidenote">Experience came soon to him; Fancy abode with him to the end.</span> +Shakspeare alone was the same from youth to age; in youth no +imperfection, in age no mortality or decay; he performed in his early +years every department of the task which he had to perform, and he +laboured in it with <!-- Page 107 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>[<a href="./images/107.png">107</a>]</span>unexhausted and uncrippled energies till the bowl +was broken at the fountain; experience visited him early, fancy lingered +with him to the last; the rapid developement of his powers was an +indication of the internal strength of his genius; their steady +continuance was a type and prognostic of the perpetual endurance of his +sway. <span class="sidenote">Gloster (Ric. III.) was early, Shylock and Hamlet of +middle time, Lear in ripe age,</span> <span class="sidenote"><i>The Tempest</i>, near his +death.</span> The cold and fiendish Gloster was an early conception; the eager +Shylock and the superhuman Hamlet were imagined simultaneously not long +afterwards; the tenderness of Lear was the fruit of the poet's ripest +age; and one of the closing years of his life gave birth to the savage +wildness and the youthful and aerial beauty of 'The Tempest.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Are you convinc't that Shakspere wrote much of <i>The Two Noble +Kinsmen</i>?</span></p> + +<p>Our last words are claimed by the proper subject of our inquiry. Have I +convinced you that in the composition of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen', +Shakspeare had the extensive participation which I have ascribed to him? +It is very probable that my reasoning is in many parts defective; but I +place so much confidence in the goodness of the cause itself, that I +would unhesitatingly leave the question, without a word of argument, to +be determined by any one, possessing a familiar acquaintance with both +the poets whose claims are to be balanced, and an ordinarily acute +discernment of their distinguishing qualities. <span class="sidenote">I'm sure the +question needs only attention.</span> I am firmly persuaded that the subject +needs only to have attention directed to it; and my investigation of it +cannot have been a failure in every particular. <span class="sidenote">The external +evidence doesn't include the internal.</span> The circumstances attending the +first publication of the drama do not, in the most unfavourable view +which can with any fairness be taken of them, exclude us from deciding +the question of Shakspeare's authorship by an examination of the work +itself: and it is unnecessary that the effect of the external evidence +should be estimated one step higher. <span class="sidenote">Does that give all the +play to Fletcher?</span> Do the internal proofs allot all to Fletcher, or +assign any share to Shakspeare? <span class="sidenote">The Story is alien to +Fletcher</span> The Story is ill-suited for the dramatic purposes <a name="FNanchor_107:1_162" id="FNanchor_107:1_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_107:1_162" class="fnanchor">[107:1]</a>of +the one poet, and belongs to a class of subjects at variance with his +style of thought, and not elsewhere chosen by him or any author of the +school to which he belonged; both the individual and the class accord +with the whole temper and all the purposes of the other poet, and the +class is one from which he has repeatedly selected themes. <span class="sidenote"> +Fletcher can't have chosen the subject of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>; nor +was its plan his.</span> <!-- Page 108 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>[<a href="./images/108.png">108</a>]</span>It is next to impossible that Fletcher can have +selected the subject; it is not unlikely that Shakspeare may have +suggested it; and if the execution of the plan shall be thought to +evince that he was in any degree connected with the work, we can hardly +avoid the conclusion that it was by him that the subject was chosen. The +proof here, (which I think has not been noticed by any one before me,) +seems to me to be stronger than in any other branch of the argument. +<span class="sidenote">Its Scenical Arrangement is like Shakspere's.</span> The Scenical +Arrangement of the drama offers points of resemblance to Shakspeare, +which, at the very least, have considerable strength when they are taken +together, and are corroborative of other circumstances. <span class="sidenote">Its +Execution is, in great part, so like his,</span> The Execution of that large +proportion of the drama which has been marked off as his, presents +circumstances of likeness to him, so numerous that they cannot possibly +have been accidental, and so strikingly characteristic that we cannot +conceive them to be the product of imitation. <span class="sidenote">that many +passages must be set down to him.</span> Even if it should be doubted whether +Shakspeare chose the subject, or arranged any part of the plot, it seems +to me that his claim to the authorship of these individual parts needs +only examination to be universally admitted; not that I consider the +proof here as stronger than that which establishes his choice of the +plot, but because it is of a nature to be more easily and intuitively +comprehended.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Look at all the circumstances together,</span></p> + +<p>In forming your opinion, you will be careful to view the circumstances, +not singly, but together, and to give each point of resemblance the +support of the others. <span class="sidenote">and see whether the many probabilities +do not make a certainty.</span> It may be that every consideration suggested +may not affect your mind with equal strength of conviction; but numerous +probabilities all tending the same way are sufficient to generate +positive certainty: and it argues no imperfection in a result that it is +brought out only by combined efforts. In those climates of the New World +which you have visited, a spacious and lofty chamber receives a +diffusive shower of light through a single narrow aperture, while in our +cloudy region we can gather sufficient light for our apart<a name="FNanchor_108:1_163" id="FNanchor_108:1_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_108:1_163" class="fnanchor">[108:1]</a>ments +only by opening large and numerous windows: the end is not gained in the +latter case without greater exertion than that which is required in the +former, but it is attained equally in both; for the aspect of our +habitations is not less cheerful than that of yours.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 109 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>[<a href="./images/109.png">109</a>]</span> +On the absolute merit of the work, I do not wish to anticipate your +judgment. <span class="sidenote">Shakspere's part in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, is but +a sketch; yet it's better than some of his finisht works.</span> So far as +Shakspeare's share in it is concerned, it can be regarded as no more +than a sketch, which would be seen to great disadvantage beside finished +drawings of the same master. Imperfect as it is, however, it would, if +it were admitted among Shakspeare's acknowledged works, outshine many, +and do discredit to none. It would be no unfair trial to compare it with +those works of his in which he abstains from his more profound +investigations into human nature, permitting the poetical world actively +to mingle with the dramatic, and the radiant spirit of hope to embrace +the sterner genius of knowledge. <span class="sidenote">Compare it with the +<i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>;</span> <span class="sidenote">the colouring and outline are +from the same hand. But best, set it beside <i>Henry VIII.</i></span> We may call +up before us the luxurious fancies of the 'Midsummer Night's Dream', or +even the sylvan landscapes of the Forest of Ardennes, and the pastoral +groupes which people it; and we shall gladly acknowledge a similar +though harsher style of colouring, and a strength of contour indicating +the same origin. But perhaps there is none of his works with which it +could be so fairly compared as 'Henry VIII'. <span class="sidenote">It's more like +that, and nearly as good.</span> In the tone of sentiment and imagination, as +well as in other particulars, I perceive many circumstances of likeness, +which it will gratify you to trace for yourself. The resemblance is more +than a fanciful one, and the neglected play does not materially suffer +by the comparison.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote"><i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> ought to be in every '<i>Shakspere's +Works</i>.'</span></p> + +<p>This drama will never receive the praise which it merits, till it shall +have been admitted among Shakspeare's undoubted works; and, I repeat, it +is entitled to insertion if any one of the conclusions to which I have +attempted to lead you be sound,—if it be true that he wrote all, or +most, or a few, of those portions of it, which more competent judges +than I have already confidently ascribed to him. Farewell.</p> + +<p class="author">W. S.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 1em;"><i>Edinburgh, March 1833.</i></p> + +<p>[In his article on 'Recent Shaksperian Literature' in No. 144 of the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, July, 1840, page 468, Prof. Spalding states that on +Shakspere's taking part in <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, his "opinion is not +now so decided as it once was."—F.]</p> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1:1_14" id="Footnote_1:1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1:1_14"><span class="label">[1:1]</span></a> Locrine—Sir John Oldcastle—Lord Cromwell—The London +Prodigal—The Puritan—The Yorkshire Tragedy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1:2_15" id="Footnote_1:2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1:2_15"><span class="label">[1:2]</span></a> page 2</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2:1_16" id="Footnote_2:1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2:1_16"><span class="label">[2:1]</span></a> page 3</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3:1_17" id="Footnote_3:1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3:1_17"><span class="label">[3:1]</span></a> page 4</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4:1_18" id="Footnote_4:1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4:1_18"><span class="label">[4:1]</span></a> "The Two Noble Kinsmen: presented at the Blackfriers, by +the Kings Majesties servants, with great Applause: written by the +memorable Worthies of their Time, Mr John Fletcher and Mr William +Shakspeare, Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, for John Watersone; +and are to be sold at the signe of the Crowne, in Pauls Church-yard: +1634."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4:2_19" id="Footnote_4:2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4:2_19"><span class="label">[4:2]</span></a> page 5</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5:1_20" id="Footnote_5:1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5:1_20"><span class="label">[5:1]</span></a> Gifford's Massinger, vol. i. p. xv. [Moxon's ed. p. +xxxix, and <i>B. and Fl.</i> i. xiii. The letter is from Nat. Field, Rob. +Daborne, and Philip Massinger, to Henslowe the manager: "You know there +is x. <i>l.</i> more at least to be receavd of you for the play. We desire +you to lend us v <i>l.</i> of that, which shall be allowd to you. Nat. +Field." "The money shall be abated out of the money remayns for <i>the +play of Mr. Fletcher and ours</i>. Rob. Daborne."—F.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5:2_21" id="Footnote_5:2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5:2_21"><span class="label">[5:2]</span></a> page 6</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6:1_22" id="Footnote_6:1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6:1_22"><span class="label">[6:1]</span></a> page 7</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7:1_23" id="Footnote_7:1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7:1_23"><span class="label">[7:1]</span></a> page 8</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8:1_24" id="Footnote_8:1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8:1_24"><span class="label">[8:1]</span></a> Act II. Scene 4. The plucking of the roses.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8:2_25" id="Footnote_8:2_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8:2_25"><span class="label">[8:2]</span></a> page 9</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9:1_26" id="Footnote_9:1_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9:1_26"><span class="label">[9:1]</span></a> page 10</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10:1_27" id="Footnote_10:1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10:1_27"><span class="label">[10:1]</span></a> Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. It would ill +become me to carp at an author whom I have expressly to thank for much +assistance in this inquiry, and to whom I am perhaps indebted for more +than my recollection suggests. But it must be owned, that M. Schlegel's +opinion loses somewhat of its weight from the fact, that he also +advocates Shakspeare's authorship of some of Malone's plays, a decision +in which it is neither desirable nor likely that the poet's countrymen +should acquiesce.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10:2_28" id="Footnote_10:2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10:2_28"><span class="label">[10:2]</span></a> page 11</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11:1_29" id="Footnote_11:1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11:1_29"><span class="label">[11:1]</span></a> Weber's Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. xiii., and Lamb, as +there quoted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11:2_30" id="Footnote_11:2_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11:2_30"><span class="label">[11:2]</span></a> page 12</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12:1_31" id="Footnote_12:1_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12:1_31"><span class="label">[12:1]</span></a> Sonnet 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12:2_32" id="Footnote_12:2_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12:2_32"><span class="label">[12:2]</span></a> page 13</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13:1_33" id="Footnote_13:1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13:1_33"><span class="label">[13:1]</span></a> page 14</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13:2_34" id="Footnote_13:2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13:2_34"><span class="label">[13:2]</span></a> There are numerous instances of both these effects in +the play before us. "<i>Counter-reflect</i> (a noun); <i>meditance</i>; <i>couch</i> +and <i>corslet</i> (used as verbs); <i>operance</i>; <i>appointment</i>, for military +accoutrements; <i>globy eyes</i>; <i>scurril</i>; <i>disroot</i>; <i>dis-seat</i>," &c. +<i>Weber.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14:1_35" id="Footnote_14:1_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14:1_35"><span class="label">[14:1]</span></a> page 15</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15:1_36" id="Footnote_15:1_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15:1_36"><span class="label">[15:1]</span></a> t. i. <i>mourn them ever</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15:2_37" id="Footnote_15:2_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15:2_37"><span class="label">[15:2]</span></a> page 16</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15:3_38" id="Footnote_15:3_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15:3_38"><span class="label">[15:3]</span></a> <i>ownest</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16:1_39" id="Footnote_16:1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16:1_39"><span class="label">[16:1]</span></a> page 17</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17:1_40" id="Footnote_17:1_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17:1_40"><span class="label">[17:1]</span></a> page 18</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18:1_41" id="Footnote_18:1_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18:1_41"><span class="label">[18:1]</span></a> page 19</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19:1_42" id="Footnote_19:1_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19:1_42"><span class="label">[19:1]</span></a> Farmer's Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19:2_43" id="Footnote_19:2_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19:2_43"><span class="label">[19:2]</span></a> A singularly rich and energetic piece of colouring in +this sort is near the beginning of the poem, commencing,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have been wooed, as I entreat thee now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even by the stern and direful God of War—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and extending through three stanzas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19:3_44" id="Footnote_19:3_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19:3_44"><span class="label">[19:3]</span></a> page 20</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20:1_45" id="Footnote_20:1_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20:1_45"><span class="label">[20:1]</span></a> page 21</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21:1_46" id="Footnote_21:1_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21:1_46"><span class="label">[21:1]</span></a> page 22</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22:1_47" id="Footnote_22:1_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22:1_47"><span class="label">[22:1]</span></a> page 23</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23:1_48" id="Footnote_23:1_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23:1_48"><span class="label">[23:1]</span></a> page 24</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24:1_49" id="Footnote_24:1_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24:1_49"><span class="label">[24:1]</span></a> The | is to show the double endings.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24:2_50" id="Footnote_24:2_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24:2_50"><span class="label">[24:2]</span></a> page 25</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25:1_51" id="Footnote_25:1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25:1_51"><span class="label">[25:1]</span></a> page 26</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26:1_52" id="Footnote_26:1_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26:1_52"><span class="label">[26:1]</span></a> page 27</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27:1_53" id="Footnote_27:1_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27:1_53"><span class="label">[27:1]</span></a> page 28</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28:1_54" id="Footnote_28:1_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28:1_54"><span class="label">[28:1]</span></a> page 29</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29:1_55" id="Footnote_29:1_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29:1_55"><span class="label">[29:1]</span></a> page 30</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29:2_56" id="Footnote_29:2_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29:2_56"><span class="label">[29:2]</span></a> Perhaps it is worth while to direct attention to this +form of speech. Verbal names expressing the agent occur, it is true, in +Fletcher and others, but they are in an especial manner frequent with +Shakspeare, who invents them to preserve his brevity, and always applies +them with great force and quaintness.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29:3_57" id="Footnote_29:3_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29:3_57"><span class="label">[29:3]</span></a> Probably Fletcher would not have committed this false +quantity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30:1_58" id="Footnote_30:1_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30:1_58"><span class="label">[30:1]</span></a> page 31</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30:2_59" id="Footnote_30:2_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30:2_59"><span class="label">[30:2]</span></a> 3 middle-rymes, <i>key</i>, <i>three</i>, <i>knee</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30:3_60" id="Footnote_30:3_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30:3_60"><span class="label">[30:3]</span></a> <i>in her eyes</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31:1_61" id="Footnote_31:1_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31:1_61"><span class="label">[31:1]</span></a> page 32</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32:1_62" id="Footnote_32:1_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32:1_62"><span class="label">[32:1]</span></a> page 33</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33:1_63" id="Footnote_33:1_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33:1_63"><span class="label">[33:1]</span></a> page 34</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33:2_64" id="Footnote_33:2_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33:2_64"><span class="label">[33:2]</span></a> The remainder of this speech, an extremely fine one, has +been quoted incidentally in page 26. Its richness of fancy is wonderful +and most characteristic.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34:1_65" id="Footnote_34:1_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34:1_65"><span class="label">[34:1]</span></a> page 35</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34:2_66" id="Footnote_34:2_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34:2_66"><span class="label">[34:2]</span></a> page 36</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35:1_67" id="Footnote_35:1_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35:1_67"><span class="label">[35:1]</span></a> page 37</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37:1_68" id="Footnote_37:1_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37:1_68"><span class="label">[37:1]</span></a> page 38</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37:2_69" id="Footnote_37:2_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37:2_69"><span class="label">[37:2]</span></a> This allusion is repeatedly found in Fletcher. Here the +expression of it is defective in precision.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37:3_70" id="Footnote_37:3_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37:3_70"><span class="label">[37:3]</span></a> page 39</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38:1_71" id="Footnote_38:1_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38:1_71"><span class="label">[38:1]</span></a> page 40</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39:1_72" id="Footnote_39:1_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39:1_72"><span class="label">[39:1]</span></a> page 41</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40:1_73" id="Footnote_40:1_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40:1_73"><span class="label">[40:1]</span></a> page 42</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41:1_74" id="Footnote_41:1_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41:1_74"><span class="label">[41:1]</span></a> page 43</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42:1_75" id="Footnote_42:1_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42:1_75"><span class="label">[42:1]</span></a> page 44</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43:1_76" id="Footnote_43:1_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43:1_76"><span class="label">[43:1]</span></a> page 45</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44:1_77" id="Footnote_44:1_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44:1_77"><span class="label">[44:1]</span></a> page 46</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45:1_78" id="Footnote_45:1_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45:1_78"><span class="label">[45:1]</span></a> In Philaster, Act IV. last scene.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Place me, some god, upon a Piramis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Higher than hill of earth, and lend a voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud as your thunder, to me, that from thence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I may discourse, to all the under world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The worth that dwells in him.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Shakspeare, too, was not the most likely person to have given the true +meaning of the <ins class="greek" title="boôpis potnia Hêrê">βοωπις ποτνια Ἡρη</ins>. I am not aware that either +Hall or Chapman shewed him the way. Chapman in the First Book (v. 551) +has it; "She with the cowes fair eyes, Respected Juno."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45:2_79" id="Footnote_45:2_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45:2_79"><span class="label">[45:2]</span></a> page 47</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45:3_80" id="Footnote_45:3_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45:3_80"><span class="label">[45:3]</span></a> <i>2 N. K.</i>, Act V. sc. i, ii, iii. Weber, are V. i. +Littledale.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46:1_81" id="Footnote_46:1_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46:1_81"><span class="label">[46:1]</span></a> This beautiful address has been spoken of already.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46:2_82" id="Footnote_46:2_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46:2_82"><span class="label">[46:2]</span></a> page 48</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47:1_83" id="Footnote_47:1_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47:1_83"><span class="label">[47:1]</span></a> page 49</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48:1_84" id="Footnote_48:1_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48:1_84"><span class="label">[48:1]</span></a> page 50</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49:1_85" id="Footnote_49:1_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49:1_85"><span class="label">[49:1]</span></a> Romeo and Juliet:—Midsummer Night's Dream:—also in Don +Quixote, Parte II. capit. xi.: "Los ojos de Dulcinea deben ser de +<i>verdes esmeraldas</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49:2_86" id="Footnote_49:2_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49:2_86"><span class="label">[49:2]</span></a> This is the character of Emilia, by Chaucer and +Shakspere, but not by Fletcher of IV. ii., and the author of V. v. (or +iii. Littledale)—if he is not Fletcher—with their inconsistencies of +Emilia's weak balancing of Palamon against Arcite, now liking one best, +then the other, and being afraid that Palamon may get his <i>figure +spoilt</i>! F. J. F.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49:3_87" id="Footnote_49:3_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49:3_87"><span class="label">[49:3]</span></a> page 51</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50:1_88" id="Footnote_50:1_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50:1_88"><span class="label">[50:1]</span></a> page 52</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50:2_89" id="Footnote_50:2_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50:2_89"><span class="label">[50:2]</span></a> The thought here is frequent in Shakspeare's dramas: and +the expression of it closely resembles some stanzas in the Lucrece, +especially those beginning, "Oh, comfort-killing night!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51:1_90" id="Footnote_51:1_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51:1_90"><span class="label">[51:1]</span></a> Cp. Beatrice on Don John and Benedick, in <i>Much Ado</i> II. +i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51:2_91" id="Footnote_51:2_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51:2_91"><span class="label">[51:2]</span></a> page 53</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52:1_92" id="Footnote_52:1_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52:1_92"><span class="label">[52:1]</span></a> page 54</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52:2_93" id="Footnote_52:2_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52:2_93"><span class="label">[52:2]</span></a> It may be well to mention, that this scene contains +allusions, extending through several lines, to the every-way luckless +jailor's daughter. If I conceal the fact from you, you will, on finding +it out for yourself, suspect that I consider it as making against my +hypothesis, which assigns those episodical adventures to a different +author from this scene. Be assured that I do not regard it in that +light. It is plain that the underplot, however bad, has been worked up +with much pains; and we can conceive that its author would have been +loth to abandon it finally in the incomplete posture in which the fourth +scene of this act left it. Ten lines in this scene sufficed to end the +story, by relating the cure of the insane girl; and there can have been +no difficulty in their introduction, even on my supposition of this +scene being the work of the other author. If the two wrote at the same +time, the poet who wrote the rest of the scene may have inserted them on +the suggestion of the other; or if the drama afterwards came into the +hands of that other, (which there seems some reason to believe,) he +could easily insert them for himself. In any view these lines are no +argument against my theory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53:1_94" id="Footnote_53:1_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53:1_94"><span class="label">[53:1]</span></a> ? Shakspere and one daughter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53:2_95" id="Footnote_53:2_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53:2_95"><span class="label">[53:2]</span></a> Cf. p. 54-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53:3_96" id="Footnote_53:3_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53:3_96"><span class="label">[53:3]</span></a> page 55</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53:4_97" id="Footnote_53:4_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53:4_97"><span class="label">[53:4]</span></a> The description which we have read of Mars's attributes +reminds one strongly and directly of the fine speech in the poem, where +old Saturn, the god of time, enumerates his own powers of destruction. +It is far from unlikely that the one passage suggested the other. The +rich can afford to borrow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54:1_98" id="Footnote_54:1_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54:1_98"><span class="label">[54:1]</span></a> page 56</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55:1_99" id="Footnote_55:1_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55:1_99"><span class="label">[55:1]</span></a> page 57</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56:1_100" id="Footnote_56:1_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56:1_100"><span class="label">[56:1]</span></a> page 58</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57:1_101" id="Footnote_57:1_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57:1_101"><span class="label">[57:1]</span></a> Beaumont's style is unluckily not characterized. F.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57:2_102" id="Footnote_57:2_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57:2_102"><span class="label">[57:2]</span></a> page 59</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58:1_103" id="Footnote_58:1_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58:1_103"><span class="label">[58:1]</span></a> page 60</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59:1_104" id="Footnote_59:1_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59:1_104"><span class="label">[59:1]</span></a> page 61</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60:1_105" id="Footnote_60:1_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60:1_105"><span class="label">[60:1]</span></a> page 62</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61:1_106" id="Footnote_61:1_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61:1_106"><span class="label">[61:1]</span></a> page 63</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62:1_107" id="Footnote_62:1_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62:1_107"><span class="label">[62:1]</span></a> page 64</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63:1_108" id="Footnote_63:1_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63:1_108"><span class="label">[63:1]</span></a> page 65</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64:1_109" id="Footnote_64:1_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64:1_109"><span class="label">[64:1]</span></a> page 66</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65:1_110" id="Footnote_65:1_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65:1_110"><span class="label">[65:1]</span></a> page 67</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66:1_111" id="Footnote_66:1_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66:1_111"><span class="label">[66:1]</span></a> The Knight of the Burning Pestle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66:2_112" id="Footnote_66:2_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66:2_112"><span class="label">[66:2]</span></a> page 68</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66:3_113" id="Footnote_66:3_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66:3_113"><span class="label">[66:3]</span></a> Weber's Beaumont and Fletcher. Henslowe MSS. published +by Malone:—Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 303. [See Appx. I. to my +Harrison <i>Forewords</i>.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67:1_114" id="Footnote_67:1_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67:1_114"><span class="label">[67:1]</span></a> page 69</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68:1_115" id="Footnote_68:1_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68:1_115"><span class="label">[68:1]</span></a> page 70</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68:2_116" id="Footnote_68:2_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68:2_116"><span class="label">[68:2]</span></a> N.B. The Gower choruses in <i>Pericles</i> are <span class="allcapsc">NOT</span> +Shakspere's.—F.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69:1_117" id="Footnote_69:1_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69:1_117"><span class="label">[69:1]</span></a> page 71</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69:2_118" id="Footnote_69:2_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69:2_118"><span class="label">[69:2]</span></a> With Knowledge comes the retreat to Invention.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70:1_119" id="Footnote_70:1_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70:1_119"><span class="label">[70:1]</span></a> page 72</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71:1_120" id="Footnote_71:1_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71:1_120"><span class="label">[71:1]</span></a> page 73</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72:1_121" id="Footnote_72:1_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72:1_121"><span class="label">[72:1]</span></a> page 74</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73:1_122" id="Footnote_73:1_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73:1_122"><span class="label">[73:1]</span></a> page 75</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74:1_123" id="Footnote_74:1_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74:1_123"><span class="label">[74:1]</span></a> page 76</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75:1_124" id="Footnote_75:1_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75:1_124"><span class="label">[75:1]</span></a> page 77</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76:1_125" id="Footnote_76:1_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76:1_125"><span class="label">[76:1]</span></a> page 78</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77:1_126" id="Footnote_77:1_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77:1_126"><span class="label">[77:1]</span></a> page 79</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78:1_127" id="Footnote_78:1_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78:1_127"><span class="label">[78:1]</span></a> page 80</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79:1_128" id="Footnote_79:1_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79:1_128"><span class="label">[79:1]</span></a> page 81</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80:1_129" id="Footnote_80:1_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80:1_129"><span class="label">[80:1]</span></a> page 82</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81:1_130" id="Footnote_81:1_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81:1_130"><span class="label">[81:1]</span></a> page 83</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82:1_131" id="Footnote_82:1_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82:1_131"><span class="label">[82:1]</span></a> page 84</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82:2_132" id="Footnote_82:2_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82:2_132"><span class="label">[82:2]</span></a> page 85</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83:1_133" id="Footnote_83:1_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83:1_133"><span class="label">[83:1]</span></a> It would be unfair not to state, that I quote and refer +to the translation of the Laocoon published by Mr. De Quincey, in +Blackwood's Magazine for November 1826; and that I am not otherwise +acquainted with that or any other work of Lessing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83:2_134" id="Footnote_83:2_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83:2_134"><span class="label">[83:2]</span></a> page 86</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84:1_135" id="Footnote_84:1_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84:1_135"><span class="label">[84:1]</span></a> page 87</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85:1_136" id="Footnote_85:1_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85:1_136"><span class="label">[85:1]</span></a> page 88</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86:1_137" id="Footnote_86:1_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86:1_137"><span class="label">[86:1]</span></a> page 89</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87:1_138" id="Footnote_87:1_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87:1_138"><span class="label">[87:1]</span></a> page 90</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88:1_139" id="Footnote_88:1_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88:1_139"><span class="label">[88:1]</span></a> page 91</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89:1_140" id="Footnote_89:1_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89:1_140"><span class="label">[89:1]</span></a> The theory which, denying to the Beautiful any capacity +of giving pleasure through its innate qualities, ascribes its effects +exclusively to the associated ideas which the contemplation of it calls +up, proceeds wholly on the assumption, that the sentiment awakened by +Beauty when it is beheld bodily present, is the same with that which +flows from a poetical description of it. If it be true (as I must +believe it is) that the feelings in the two cases are essentially +different, the hypothesis falls to the ground. Its maintainers seem in +truth to have drawn their conclusions altogether from reflection on the +effects produced by Beauty when it is represented in poetry, where +association is undoubtedly the source of the enjoyment; and an attention +to the working of the fine arts would have taught other inferences.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90:1_141" id="Footnote_90:1_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90:1_141"><span class="label">[90:1]</span></a> page 92</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90:2_142" id="Footnote_90:2_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90:2_142"><span class="label">[90:2]</span></a> page 93</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91:1_143" id="Footnote_91:1_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91:1_143"><span class="label">[91:1]</span></a> page 94.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91:2_144" id="Footnote_91:2_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91:2_144"><span class="label">[91:2]</span></a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">Invention is making a <i>new</i> thing out of a thing already +made.</span></p> + +<p>Alfieri appears to have himself perceived accurately wherein it is that +his power lies, when he says, with his usual self-reliance: "Se la +parola 'invenzione' in tragedia si restringe al trattare soltanto +soggetti non prima trattati, nessuno autore ha inventato meno di me." +"Se poi la parola 'invenzione' si estende fino al <i>far cosa nuova di +cosa già fatta</i>, io son costretto a credere che nessuno autore abba +inventato piu di me."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92:1_145" id="Footnote_92:1_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92:1_145"><span class="label">[92:1]</span></a> page 95</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93:1_146" id="Footnote_93:1_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93:1_146"><span class="label">[93:1]</span></a> page 96</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94:1_147" id="Footnote_94:1_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94:1_147"><span class="label">[94:1]</span></a> page 97</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95:1_148" id="Footnote_95:1_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95:1_148"><span class="label">[95:1]</span></a> page 98</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96:1_149" id="Footnote_96:1_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96:1_149"><span class="label">[96:1]</span></a> page 99</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97:1_150" id="Footnote_97:1_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97:1_150"><span class="label">[97:1]</span></a> page 100</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98:1_151" id="Footnote_98:1_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98:1_151"><span class="label">[98:1]</span></a> page 101</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99:1_152" id="Footnote_99:1_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99:1_152"><span class="label">[99:1]</span></a> page 102</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100:1_153" id="Footnote_100:1_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100:1_153"><span class="label">[100:1]</span></a> page 103</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101:1_154" id="Footnote_101:1_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101:1_154"><span class="label">[101:1]</span></a> ? in Jaques.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101:2_155" id="Footnote_101:2_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101:2_155"><span class="label">[101:2]</span></a> page 104</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102:1_156" id="Footnote_102:1_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102:1_156"><span class="label">[102:1]</span></a> ? <i>All's Well</i>, Bertram; <i>Othello</i>, Cassio; <i>Meas. for +Meas.</i> Claudio; <i>Ant. & Cleop.</i> Antony; <i>Timon</i>, Alcibiades.—F.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102:2_157" id="Footnote_102:2_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102:2_157"><span class="label">[102:2]</span></a> page 105</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103:1_158" id="Footnote_103:1_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103:1_158"><span class="label">[103:1]</span></a> page 106</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104:1_159" id="Footnote_104:1_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104:1_159"><span class="label">[104:1]</span></a> page <ins class="corr" title="original has 7">107</ins></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105:1_160" id="Footnote_105:1_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105:1_160"><span class="label">[105:1]</span></a> page 108</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106:1_161" id="Footnote_106:1_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106:1_161"><span class="label">[106:1]</span></a> page 109</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107:1_162" id="Footnote_107:1_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107:1_162"><span class="label">[107:1]</span></a> page 110</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108:1_163" id="Footnote_108:1_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108:1_163"><span class="label">[108:1]</span></a> page 111</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 110 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>[<a href="./images/110.png">110</a>]</span></p> +<h2>A FEW INSTANCES OF SHAKSPERE'S PECULIARITIES AS NOTED BY SPALDING.</h2> + + +<p><b>Repetition</b>, p. 12. 1. Prologue to <i>Henry V.</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9">'And at his heels,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crouch for employment.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Compare <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, Act I. scene iv.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Where thou slew'st, Hirtus and Pausa, consuls, at thy heel<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Did famine follow.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>2. <i>Macbeth</i>, Act V. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'They have tied me to a stake: I cannot fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">But, bear-like, I must fight the course';<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and <i>Lear</i>, Act III. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><b>Conciseness verging on obscurity</b>, p. 13. <i>Macbeth</i>, Act I. scene iii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Present fears are less than horrible imaginings:<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Shakes so my single state of man, that function<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">But what is not.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Act I. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'If it were done when 'tis done,' etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Act V. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">'Now does he feel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His secret murders sticking on his hands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those he commands, move only in command,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nothing in love.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Coriolanus</i>, Act IV. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">'Whether 'twas pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which out of daily fortune ever taints<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The happy man; whether defect of judgement,<br /></span> +<!-- Page 111 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>[<a href="./images/111.png">111</a>]</span> +<span class="i0">To fail in the disposing of those chances<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which he was lord of; or whether nature,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not to be other than one thing, not moving<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even with the same austerity and garb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he controlled the war; but one of these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he hath spices of them all, not all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I dare so far free him,—made him feared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So hated, and so banished.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><b>Metaphors crowded with ideas</b>, p. 17. <i>Julius Cæsar</i>, Act II. scene i. l. +81-4.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6h">'Seek none, conspiracy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hide it thy visage in smiles and affability;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For if thou <i>path</i>, thy native semblance on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not Erebus itself were dim enough to hide thee from <i>prevention</i>.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Macbeth</i>, Act V. scene vii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And with him pour we in our country's purge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Each drop of us. Or so much as it needs<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>(rather strained figures).</p> + +<p><i>Hamlet</i>, Act I. scene iv.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'So, oft it chances in particular men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">That for some <i>vicious mole</i> of nature in them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">As, in their birth,—wherein they are not guilty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Since nature cannot choose his origin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">By the <i>o'ergrowth</i> of some <i>complexion</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Oft breaking down <i>pales</i> and <i>forts</i> of Reason,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Or by some habit that too much o'er <i>leavens</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0i">The form of plausive manners, that these men<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Carrying, I say, the <i>stamp</i> of one defect,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Being <i>nature's livery</i>, or <i>fortune's star</i>,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Their virtues else—be they as pure as grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">As infinite as man may undergo,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Shall in the general censure take <i>corruption</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0i">From that particular fault.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><b>Conceits and Wordplay</b>, p. 22. <i>Richard II</i>, Act II. scene i.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Old Gaunt indeed and gaunt in being old,' etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>, Act IV. scene iii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'They have pitched a toil, I am toiling in a pitch!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><!-- Page 112 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>[<a href="./images/112.png">112</a>]</span> +<b>Personification</b>, p. 25. <i>Two Gentlemen</i>, Act I. scene i.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5h">'So <i>eating Love</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inhabits in the finest wits of all.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Richard II</i>, Act III. scene ii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Foul <i>Rebellion's</i> arms.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The debt that <i>bankrupt Sleep</i> doth Sorrow owe.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Henry V</i>, Act II. scene ii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'<i>Treason</i> and <i>Murder</i> ever kept together.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Macbeth</i>, Act I. scene iii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'If <i>Chance</i> will have me king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Why <i>Chance</i> may crown me.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Act II. scene i.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">'<i>Witchcraft</i> celebrates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale Hecate's offerings, and withered <i>Murder</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, Act III. scene iii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'<i>Welcome</i> ever smiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And <i>Farewell</i> goes out sighing.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>p. v. <i>Marigolds.</i> Dr Prior, writing from his place, Halse, near +Taunton, 11 Oct., 1876, says, "I asked in a family here whether they had +ever heard of marigolds being strown on the beds of dying persons, and +they referred me to a book by Lady C. Davies, <i>Recollections of +Society</i>, 1873. At p. 129:</p> + +<p>"'Is Little Trianon ominous to crowned women?'</p> + +<p>"'Passing through the garden,' said the King, 'I perceived some <i>soucis</i> +(marigolds, emblems of sorrow and care) growing near a tuft of lilies. +This coincidence struck me, and I murmured:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dans les jardins de Trianon<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Je cueillais des roses nouvelles.<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Mais, helas! les fleurs les plus belles<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Avaient péri sous les glaçons.<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">J'eus beau chercher les dons de Flore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Les hivers les avaient detruits;<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Je ne trouvai que des <i>soucis</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Qu'humectaient les pleurs de l'Aurore."'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"I am inclined to hold my first opinion that <i>cradle</i> and <i>death-bed</i> +refer to the use of the flowers, and not to anything in their growth or +appearance."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 113 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>[<a href="./images/113.png">113</a>]</span> +p. 1. <i>My dear L—.</i> Altho' Prof. Spalding says that L. was an early +and later friend of his, of great gifts and taste, and that he had +visited the New World (p. 108), yet Mrs Spalding and Dr Burton have +never been able to identify L., and they believe him to be a creation of +the author's.—F.</p> + +<p>p. 4. <i>Shakspere had fallen much into neglect by 1634.</i> "After the death +of Shakspeare, the plays of Fletcher appear for several years to have +been more admired, or at least to have been more frequently acted, than +those of our poet." Malone, <i>Hist. Account of the English Stage</i>, +Variorum Shakspere of 1821, vol. ii. p. 224. And see the lists +following, by which he proves his statement.—F.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><a name="Stack" id="Stack"></a>From the Paper with which Mr J. Herbert Stack opend the discussion at +our Reading of the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, he has allowd me to make the +following extracts:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><ins class="corr" title="original has extraneous quotation mark">To</ins> judge the question clearly, let us note how far the author +or authors of the <i>Two N. K.</i> followed what was the basis of +their drama—Chaucer's Knightes Tale. We have there the same +opening incident—the petitions of the Queens, then the +capture of the Two, then their sight of Emily from the prison +window, the release of Arcite, his entry into Emilia's +service, the escape of Palamon, the fight in the wood, the +decree of Theseus, the prayers to Diana, Venus, and Mars, the +combat, the victory in arms to Arcite, his death, and +Palamon's eventual victory in love. But Chaucer is far +superior to the dramatists. He has no Gaoler's Daughter to +distract our thoughts. The language of his Palamon is more +blunt, more soldierlike, more characteristic. His Emilia, +instead of being equally in love with two men at the same +time, prefers maidenhood to marriage, loves neither, but +pities both. At the end of the <i>play</i> we have something +coarse and hurried: Emilia, during the Tournament, is ready +to jump into anybody's arms, so that he comes victorious; +then she accepts Arcite; and on his sudden death, she dries +her tears with more than the supposed celerity of a modern +fashionable widow; and, before she is the widow of Arcite, +consents to become the wife of Palamon. Contrast this with +Chaucer, where the poem dedicates some beautiful lines to the +funeral of Arcite and the grief of all, and only makes Emilia +yield after years to the silent pleading of the woful Palamon +and the urgency of her brother. Contrast the dying speeches +in the two works. In the play, Arcite transfers Emilia almost +as if he were making a will: "<i>Item</i>, I leave my bride to +Palamon." In Chaucer, he says to Emilia that he knows of no +man</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'So worthy to be loved as Palamon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">And if that you shal ever be a wyf<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Forget not Palamon that gentil man.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now here we have a play founded on a poem, the original +delicate and noble, where the other is coarse and trivial; +and we ask, 'Was this Shakspere's way of treating his +originals?' In his earlier years he based his <i>Romeo and +Juliet</i> on Brooke's poem of the same name—a fine work, and +little disfigured by the coarseness of the time. Yet he +pruned it of all really offensive matter, and has given us a +perfect love-story, as ardent as it is pure. His skill in +omission is remarkably shown in one respect. In Brooke's +poem, Juliet, reflecting when alone on Romeo's sudden love, +remembers that he is an enemy to her house, and suspects that +he <!-- Page 114 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>[<a href="./images/114.png">114</a>]</span>may intend dishonourable love as a base means of wreaking +vengeance on hereditary foes. It seems to me that a thought +so cunning is out of character with Juliet—certainly would +have been felt as a stain on Shakspere's Juliet. That +Shakspere deliberately omitted this, is known by one slight +reference. Juliet says to Romeo,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'If thy intent of love be honourable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0i">Thy purpose marriage.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That is all—no cunning caution, no base doubt.</p> + +<p>Now if in this original, and in this play, we trace the very +manner of Shakspere's working—taking up gold mixed with +dross, and purifying it in the furnace of his genius—are we +to suppose that later in life, with taste more fastidious, +even if his imagination were less strong, he carried out a +converse process; that he took Chaucer's gold, and mixed it +with alloy? That, I greatly doubt. Also, would he imitate +himself so closely as he is imitated in certain scenes of the +<i>Two N. K.</i>?</p> + +<p>Another point. Love between persons of very different rank +has been held by many dramatists to be a fine subject for the +stage. Shakspere never introduces it. <i>Ophelia</i> loves a +Prince, and <i>Violet</i> a duke, and Rosalind a Squire's son; but +gentlehood unites all. Helena in <i>All's Well</i> is a +gentlewoman. With anything like levelling aspirations +Shakspere had clearly no sympathy. In no undoubted play of +his have we, so far as I remember, any attempt to make the +love of the lowly born for the high a subject of sympathy: +there is no Beggar maid to any of his King Cophetuas. Goneril +and Regan stoop to Edmund through baseness; Malvolio's love +for Olivia is made ridiculous. The Gaoler's Daughter of the +<i>Two N. K.</i> stands alone: like the waiting-maid in the +<i>Critic</i>, she goes mad in white linen, and as painfully +recalls Ophelia, as our cousins the monkeys remind us of men.</p> + +<p>In some other respects the poem is far superior to the play. +Chaucer introduces the supernatural powers with excellent +effect and tact—so as to soften the rigour of the Duke's +decrees. In the Temple, Palamon, the more warlike in manners +of the two, is the more reckless and ardent in his love: of a +simpler nature, Venus entirely subdues and, at the same time, +effectually befriends him. He prays to her not for Victory: +for that he cares not: it matters not how events are brought +about 'so that I have my lady in mine arms.' Arcite, the +softer and more refined knight, prays simply for Victory. If +it be true that love changes the nature of men, here we have +the transformation. The prayer of each is granted, though +they seem opposed—thus Arcite experiences what many of those +who consulted old oracles found, 'the word of promise kept to +the ear, broken to the hope.' Then in the poem Theseus freely +forgives the two knights, but decides on the Tournament as a +means of seeing who shall have Emilia. In the play he decides +that one is to live and marry, the other to die. The +absurdity of this needless cruelty is evident: it was +possibly introduced to satisfy the coarse tastes of the +audiences who liked the sight of an executioner and a block.</p> + +<p>In fact I would say the play is not mainly Shakspere's +because of its un-Shaksperean depth. Who can sympathize with +the cold, coarse balancing of Emilia between the two +men—eager to have one, ready to take either; betrothed in +haste to one, married in haste to another—so far flying in +the face of the pure <!-- Page 115 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>[<a href="./images/115.png">115</a>]</span>beauty of the original, where Emilia +never loses maidenly reserve. Then the final marriage of the +Gaoler's Daughter is as destructive of our sympathy as if +Ophelia had been saved from drowning by the grave-digger, and +married to Horatio at the end of the piece. The pedantry of +Gerrold is poor, the fun of the rustics forced and feeble, +the sternness of Theseus brutal and untouched by final +gentleness as in Chaucer.</p> + +<p>Another argument against Shakspere's responsibility for the +whole play is the manner in which the minor characters are +introduced and the underplot managed. A secondary plot is a +characteristic of the Elizabethan drama, borrowed from that +of Spain. But Shakspere is peculiar in the skill with which +he interweaves the two plots and brings together the +principal and the inferior personages. In <i>Hamlet</i> the +soldiers on the watch, the grave-diggers, the players, the +two walking gentlemen, even Osric, all help on the action of +the drama and come into relation with the hero himself. In +<i>King Lear</i>, Edmund and Gloster and Edgar, though engaged in +a subsidiary drama of their own, get mixed up with the +fortunes of the King and his daughters. In <i>Othello</i>, the +foolish Venetian Roderigo and Bianca the courtesan have some +hand in the progress of the play. In <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, the +Nurse and the Friar are agents of the main plot, and the ball +scene pushes on the action. In <i>Shylock</i>, Lancelot Gobbo is +servant to the Jew, and helps Jessica to escape. I need not +multiply instances, as in <i>Much Ado about Nothing</i>, Dogberry, +&c. As far as my own recollection serves, I do not believe +that in any play undoubtedly Shakspere's we have a single +instance of an underplot like that of the Gaoler's Daughter. +It might be altogether omitted without affecting the story. +Theseus, Emilia, Hippolyta, Arcite, Palamon, never exchange a +word with the group of Gaoler's Daughter, Wooer, Brother, two +Friends and Doctor; and Palamon's only remembrance of her +services is that at his supposed moment of execution he +generously leaves her the money he had no further need of to +help her to get married to a remarkably tame young man who +assumes the name of his rival in order to bring his +sweetheart to her senses. If this underplot is due to +Shakspere, why is there none like it in all his works? If +these exceedingly thin and very detached minor characters are +his, where in his undoubted plays are others like them—thus +hanging loosely on to the main machinery of a play? Nor must +we forget that if this underplot is Shakspere's, it is his +when he was an experienced dramatist—so that after being a +skilful constructor and connecter of plot and underplot in +his youth, 'his right hand forgot its cunning' in his middle +age.</p> + +<p>Two other arguments. In the Prologue of the play, written and +recited when it was acted, there are two passages expressing +great fears as to the result,—one that Chaucer might rise to +condemn the dramatist for spoiling his story,—another that +the play might be damned, and destroy the fortunes of the +Theatre<a name="FNanchor_115:1_164" id="FNanchor_115:1_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_115:1_164" class="fnanchor">[115:1]</a>. Is this the way in which a play partly +written by Shakspere—then near the close of his successful +stage career—would be spoken of on its production?</p> + +<p>Another argument is, if Shakspere, using Chaucer's poem as a +model, spoiled it in dramatising it<a name="FNanchor_115:2_165" id="FNanchor_115:2_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_115:2_165" class="fnanchor">[115:2]</a>, then as a poet he +was inferior to Chaucer—which is absurd.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 116 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>[<a href="./images/116.png">116</a>]</span> +Following high authorities, anybody may adopt any opinion on +this play and find backers—the extremes being the German +Tieck, who entirely rejects the idea of Shakspere's +authorship, and Mr Hickson, who throws on him the +responsibility for the whole framework of a play and the +groundwork of every character. I should incline to the middle +opinion<a name="FNanchor_116:1_166" id="FNanchor_116:1_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_116:1_166" class="fnanchor">[116:1]</a>, that Shakspere selected the subject, began +the play, wrote many passages; had no underplot, and +generally left it in a skeleton state; that Fletcher took it +up, patched it here and there, and added an underplot;—that +Fletcher, not Shakspere, is answerable for all the departures +from Chaucer, for all the underplot, and for the revised play +as it stands. There is nothing improbable in this. After +Shakspere retired to Stratford, Fletcher may have found the +play amongst the MSS. of the Theatre, and then produced it +after due changes made—not giving the author's name. At that +time it was the custom that a play remained the property of +the company of actors who produced it. That the Blackfriars +Company did <i>not</i> regard the play as Shakspere's is pretty +plain—for in the edition of 1623, published by Heminge and +Condell of that company, Shakspere's own fellow-players, the +play is not included. Nor does the part authorship account +for the omission, as plays with less of Shakspere's undoubted +authorship are there included. But the omission is +intelligible if the play had been so Fletcherised that it +was, when acted, generally regarded as Fletcher's. Fletcher +was alive in 1623 to claim all as his property; but in 1634 +he was dead. Then the publisher, knowing or hearing that +Shakspere had a share, printed <i>his</i> name, after +<i>Fletcher's</i>, as part dramatist. Thus I return to the older +verdict of Coleridge and Lamb, that Shakspere wrote passages +of this play, perhaps also the outlines, but that Fletcher +filled up, added an underplot, and finally revised.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 90%;" /> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115:1_164" id="Footnote_115:1_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115:1_164"><span class="label">[115:1]</span></a> Does not this as much imply that Fletcher knew he had +spoiled what <ins class="corr" title="original has Shakpere">Shakspere</ins> would have done well?—H. L.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115:2_165" id="Footnote_115:2_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115:2_165"><span class="label">[115:2]</span></a> But this is confessedly the case with Chaucer's +<i>Troilus</i>.—F. [Not quite. In <i>Troilus</i> the travestie is intentional: in +the <i>Two N. K.</i> Chaucer is solemnly Cibberised.—J. H. S.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116:1_166" id="Footnote_116:1_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116:1_166"><span class="label">[116:1]</span></a> Also my view—though I hesitate to express a firm +opinion on the matter—<span class="allcapsc">PERHAPS</span> Shakspere worked on the 1594 play as a +basis?—H. L.</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><!-- Page 117 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>[<a href="./images/117.png">117</a>]</span></p> +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + + +<ul class="list"> + <li><span class="smcap">Alfieri.</span> His intensity, p. <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + + <li>Apollo, the statue, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + + <li><i>As you like it</i>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Beaumont.</span> Partnership with Fletcher, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + + <li>Beautiful, the, in Art, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + + <li>Bridal Song in <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Characterization, Shakspere's, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Chaucer.</span> Correspondences in the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i> with the <i>Knight's Tale</i>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">differences from it, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his classical subjects, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">influence on Shakspere, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">school founded by him, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">version of the story, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> + + <li>Classical allusions in contemporary writers, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + + <li>Classical mythology in Shakspere, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">poetry, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">story, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li>Contemporary dramatists. Their licentiousness, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">points in common with Shakspere, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">representations of passion, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">stage effects, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">subjects, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Dante</span>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + + <li>Date of the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i> 1634, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + + <li>Didactic poetry, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Editors, Shakspere's first, <a href="#Page_6">6-8</a>.</li> + + <li>Epic poetry, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + + <li>Evidence as to authorship of the <i>Two N. K.</i>, Historical, <a href="#Page_3">3-5</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Internal, <a href="#Page_10">10-25</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Fine art, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Fletcher.</span> His co-authors, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">diffuseness and elaboration, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">differences between him and Shakspere, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his 'men of pleasure,' <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">popularity, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">plots <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">poverty in metaphor, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>,</li> + <li class="listsubsub">and in thought, compared with Shakspere, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + <li class="listsubitem">His rhythm, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his share in the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>: all second act, five scenes in third act, all fourth act, one scene in fifth act, <a href="#Page_35">35-40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42-45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his slowness of association, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">vague, ill-graspt imagery, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">want of personification, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">wit, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + + <li>Folios, Shakspere's first and second, <a href="#Page_6">6-9</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Ford.</span> Choice of plots, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">'Death of Annabella,' <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Greek arts of design, poetry contrasted with modern, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Hamlet, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Henry VIII</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Imagination, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> + + <li>Invention defind by Alfieri, <a href="#Footnote_91:2_144">92 <i>n.</i></a></li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Jailer's daughter, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + + <li>Jaques, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, Dr Sam, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Jonson, Ben.</span> Comparative failure in delineating passion, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his plots and Shakspere's, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his humour, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his likeness to Shakspere, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">partnership with Fletcher, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">'Sejanus' untoucht by Shakspere, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Laocoon, the sculpture, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Lear</i>, the end of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Lessing's</span> <i>Laocoon</i>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">principles of plastic art, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Lodge</span>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Lyly.</span> His faults, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="sectctr"><!-- Page 118 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>[<a href="./images/118.png">118</a>]</span></p> + +<ul class="list"> + <li><i>Macbeth</i>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Marlowe</span>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Massinger.</span> Reach of thought, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">repetitions, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">sensational situations, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + + <li>Metaphor. Shakspere's metaphorical style, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">examples, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31-33</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">simile and metaphor, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Middleton</span>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Milton.</span> Inequality of early and late work, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">love of early legend, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">powerful conception, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">purity of mind, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">use of language, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li>Origin of the story of <i>Two N. K.</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Othello</i>, Act III, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><i>Palamon and Arcite</i> by Edwards, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>Passions the chief subjects of poetry, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Peele</span>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Pericles</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + + <li>Personification, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> + + <li>Plots of plays by Shakspere and others, contrasted, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + + <li>Poetry. Characteristics, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">contrast with plastic art, <a href="#Page_84">84-86</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">dramatic poetry the highest form, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">its true functions, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">its true subject, Mind, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">aims, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">and limitations, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">mental effect of poetry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Schlegel</span> on the <i>Two Noble Kinsmen</i>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Shakspere.</span> Arrangement of plots, <a href="#Page_73">73-78</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">belongs to the old school, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">characteristics of his style, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57-59</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">choice of his subjects, well-known stories, <a href="#Page_62">62-66</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">conceits and word-play, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">conciseness, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">contrast to Fletcher, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">detaild description over-labourd, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">difficulty of imitating Shakspere, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>,</li> + <li class="listsubsub">distinctness of his images, <a href="#Page_61"><ins class="corr" title="page number missing in original">61</ins></a>.</li> + <li class="listsubitem">His familiar images sometimes harsh and coarse, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">imagination, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">mannerism, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Metaphors, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">morality, <a href="#Page_101">101-103</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">obscurity, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">over-rapid conception, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">personification, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">range of power, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">repetition, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">representations of evil, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">share in the play: first act, one scene in second act, fifth act all but one scene, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">sober rationality, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">stage spectacles avoided by him, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">studies, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">tendency to reflection, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">his thought, active, inquiring, put into all his characters, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">treatment of all human nature, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">unity of conception, <a href="#Page_79">79-81</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">versification, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">wit, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + + <li>Sketch of the <i>Two N. K.</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26-55</a>.</li> + + <li>Spectacle. How Shakspere avoided stage spectacles, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Spenser</span>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><i>Tempest</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + + <li>Theseus, the centre of the <i>Two N. K.</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Timon</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Titus Andronicus</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Shakspere's only bitter play, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + + <li><i>Two Noble Kinsmen.</i> Date, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">origin of its story, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">plot chosen by Shakspere, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">sketch of it, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Shakspere's parts of it, <a href="#Page_27">27-35</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45-55</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Fletcher's parts, <a href="#Page_35">35-40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42-45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Summary of the argument for Shakspere's authorship, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">Table of the opinions on, p. <a href="#Page_vi">vi.</a>, see too p. <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">temper of the whole play, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">underplot not Shakspere's, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li> + <li class="listsubitem">leading idea of the play, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><i>Venus and Adonis</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + + <li>Venus de Medici, statue, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + + <li> </li> + + <li><span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span> The poetical interest of all outward things to, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="notebox"> +<h2><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</h2> + +<p>Page ii is blank in the original.</p> + +<p>The following corrections have been made to the text:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Page xvii: [original has extraneous quotation mark]P. S. As I +am no great scholar</p> + +<p>Page 36 sidenote: II.[period missing in original] i. one of the finest +scenes that Fletcher ever wrote.</p> + +<p>Page 40 sidenote: Act II. scene v. (Weber, sc. vi. [original has extra +parenthesis]Littledale), are all Fletcher's.</p> + +<p>Page 43 sidenote: Act III. scene iv. v. Fletcher's.[period missing in +original]</p> + +<p>Page 53 sidenote: Chaucer's[letter "s" missing in original] celestial +agency to work out the plot.</p> + +<p>Page 63 sidenote: Beaumont and[word "and" missing in original] +Fletcher's.</p> + +<p>Page 85 sidenote: Expression in Painting and Sculpture is a borrowd +quality.[period missing in original]</p> + +<p>Page 113: [original has extraneous quotation mark]To judge the question +clearly</p> + +<p>Page 118, under "Shakspere": distinctness of his images, +61[page number missing in original].</p> + +<p>[104:1] page 107[original has 7]</p> + +<p>[115:1] he had spoiled what Shakspere[original has Shakpere] +would have done</p></div> + +<p>Some sidenotes are repeated on successive pages in the original. The +following sidenotes are in the original, but, because of duplication, +they have been omitted from this text.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Page 8: It contains two plays not Shakspere's:</p> + +<p>Page 50: Act V. scene v. (Weber, or sc. iii. Littledale).</p> + +<p>Page 52: Act V. scene v. (Weber; or iii. Littledale).</p> + +<p>Page 53: Act V. scene vi. (Weber; sc. iv. Littledale) Shakspere's.</p> + +<p>Page 54: Act V. scene vi. (Weber; sc. iv. Littledale).</p> + +<p>Page 55: Act V. scene vi. (Weber; sc. iv. Littledale).</p> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of +The Two Noble Kinsmen, by William Spalding + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKSPERE'S AUTHORSHIP--TWO NOBLE KINSMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 35631-h.htm or 35631-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/6/3/35631/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Mike Zeug, Lisa Reigel, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + +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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