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through the revelation of the Seen. And then he finds the strength and sustenance with which Shakspere has enriched the world.

"The true question to ask,' says the Librarian of Congress, in a paper read before the Social Science Convention, at New York, October 1869, The true question to ask respecting a book, is, Has it helped any human soul !' This is the hint, statement, not only of the great Literatus, his book, but of every great Artist. It may be that all works of art are to be first tried by their art-qualities, their image-forming talent, and their dramatic, pictorial, plot-constructing, euphonious, and other talents. Then, whenever claiming to be first-class works, they are to be strictly and sternly tried by their foundation in, and radiation, in the highest sense, and always indirectly, of the ethic principles, and eligibility to free, arouse, dilate."

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What shall be said of Shakspere's radiation through art of the ultimate truths of conscience and of conduct? What shall be said of his power of freeing, arousing, dilating? Something may be gathered out of the foregoing chapters in answer to these questions. But the answers remain insufficient. There is an admirable sentence by Emerson: "A good reader can in a sort nestle into Plato's brain, and think from thence; but not into Shakspere's. We are still out of doors."

We are still out of doors; and for the present let us cheerfully remain in the large, good space. Let us not attenuate Shakspere to a theory. He is careful that we shall not thus lose our true reward; "The secrets of

* Whitman. Democratic Vistas, p. 67.

Nature have not more gift in taciturnity." *

Shakspere

does not supply us with a doctrine, with an interpretation, with a revelation. What he brings to us, is this-to each one, courage, and energy, and strength, to dedicate himself and his work to that,-whatever it be,—which life has revealed to him as best, and highest, and most real.

* Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Scene 2.

INDEX.

Alcibiades, practical wisdom of,

390.

All's Well that ends Well, date of,
85.

Antony and Cleopatra, contrasted
with Julius Cæsar, 307; linked
with Coriolanus, 279.
Antony, character of, 289; failure
of, 309.

As You Like It, characteristics of,
80; and Winter's Tale, date of, 76.
Aufidius and Coriolanus, 333.
Autolycus, 376.

Bacon and Shakspere compared, 18.
Bagehot, W., on Shakspere's politics,
327; on religious teaching of
Shakspere, 39.

Beauty, feeling for, in last plays,
414.

Berowne as exponent of Shakspere's
mind, 64.

Bolingbroke, causes of success of,
204; strength of, and weakness
of Richard II. contrasted, 196.
Bottom and Titania, humour and
fancy combined in, 361.
Broglie, Duc de, on Iago, 238.
Brutus, mistakes of, 305.
Brutus and Cassius, 302; contrasted,
283; speeches of, apologetic, 301.

Cæsar, character of, 284; weakness
of, 285.

Capulet and Montague, strife of,

105.

Chasles, M., criticism of Romeo and
Juliet, by, 101.
Chronological, arrangement, value
of, 379; study of Shakspere, 6;
groups of plays, Preface.
Clarke, C. C., on notes of time in
Romeo and Juliet, 119.

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Farce, unpleasing to Shakspere, 342. | Henry VI., as a prisoner, 179;
Female characters, change in type

of, 91.

Fleay, Mr., on Witches of Macbeth,
245.

Friar Laurence, position of, in play,

120.

Furnivall, on Shakspere's part in
The Taming of the Shrew, 342;
on Venus and Adonis and Lucrece,
49.

Gertrude, Queen, emptiness of
character of, 136.

Goethe, criticism of Hamlet of, 128.
Goneril and Regan compared, 263.
Great minds, belief in supernatural
of, 248.

Greatness of Shakspere's heroes,

317.

Grotesque, perception of, useful, 354.

Hamlet, indications of later style in,
125; literature, 160; turning
point in career of Shakspere, 222.
Hamlet, compared with Romeo,
132; causes of failure of, 156;
cause of weakness of, 146; con-
duct of, at the play, 155; effect
of Ghost on, 143; fatalism of,
157; love of truth of, 151; mad-
ness of, 144; mind of, incapable
of certitude, 133; position of, at
opening of play, 134; Shakspere's
own character illustrated by, 160.
Hazlitt, W., on love of Desdemona,
233; on Venus and Adonis and
Lucrece, 52.

Hebler, on symmetry of some plays,
61.

Helena, Bertram's good, sole aim of,
86; energy of, 86.

Henry V., conduct in war of, 219;
double character of, 212; hearty
piety of, 215; hero of historical
plays, 219; his realization of fact,
212; inner character of, 210;
relentlessness of wrath of, 218;
Shakspere's ideal of practical
character, 74.

Henry VI., authorship of first part,
173; origin of second part and of
third part, 180.

causes of failure of, 174; timid
saintliness of, 175; vacillation of,
177.

Henry VIII., authorship of, 413.
Hermione, calm justice of, 412.
Hogarth, study of laughter by, 338.
Hooker, influence of, on Reformation,

22.

Horatio and Hamlet, 153.
Hudson, Mr., on Fool in Lear, 273.
Humour of Shakspere, influence of,
337; innocence of, 359; two
stages of, 355.

Iago, personification of fraudful evil,
237.

Ideal and Real, conflict of, in mind
of Shakspere, 36, 47.
Imogen, 413.

Impartiality of Shakspere, source
of, 345.

Incongruity, tragic and comic, 351.
Ingram, Professor, on chronology of
last plays, 380.

Interest of Shakspere in his art
diminishing, 404.
Interpenetration of humour, pathos,
and tragedy, 374.
Isabella, energy and will of, 82.

Jameson, Mrs., on Cleopatra, 314.
Juliet, state of mind of, when taking
the poison, 115.

Julius Caesar, date of, Preface ;
dominant power of, 287.
Julius Cæsar, apparent inconsistency
of character of, 291.

Katharine, love of Henry V. to, 191.
King John, substance of, misery and
failure, 172

King John, fails from weakness of
his wickedness, 169; strength in
early scenes not real, 170.
King Lear, creed of leading persons
in, 269; ethics of, 268; greatest
Teutonic poem, 257; irony of,
258; Shakspere's treatment of
history in, 261; significance of
secondary plot in, 265; teaching
of, 260.

Knowledge of a great mind a great | Prospero, conduct of, to his enemies,
good, 4.

Kreyssig, on Shakspere's freedom
from party spirit, 324.
Lady Macbeth, appearance of, 251.
Lady Percy and Portia contrasted,
298.

Laertes, superficiality of, 137.
Last Plays, characteristics of, 403.
Laughter, of men of genius, 340;
Shakspere's, history of, 357.
Leontes and Othello contrasted, 407.
Love's Labour's Lost, character
and design of, 62.
Macbeth, motto of, 244.

Macbeth, and the Witches, 249; and

-411; Shakspere's ideal character,
76; Shakspere seen in, 417.
Queen Katharine, chief interest to
Shakspere in Henry VIII., 414.

Reconciliation, characteristic of last
plays, 406.

Reformation in England, charac-
teristics of, 20.

Renascence, ethics of, 11; posi-

tivism characteristic of, 23.
Richard II., aims at effect without
definite end, 194; and Jacques
compared, 203; boyishness of,
193; unreality of, discussed, 201.

Lady M. contrasted, 251; dis-Richard III., uniqueness of, and re-
honourable death of, 255; weak-
ness of, 250.

Maginn, on Theseus, 69.

Margaret, Queen, an avenging fury,

191.

Marlowe, influence of, on Shak-
spere, 97.

Mental progress, style a sign of, 61.
Mercutio, character of, 117.
Merry Wives of Windsor, criticism
of, 369.

Middle Ages, ethics and idealism
of, 10.

Morality of Shakspere's writings,
396.

Morgann M., criticism of Falstaff,
364.

Mysteries of Life, Shakspere's treat-
ment of, 226.

Ophelia, compared with Juliet, 139.
Othello, aim of, to contrast Iago and
Othello, 242.

Othello, forcefulness of, 234;
strength and weakness of, 230.

semblance to Marlowe's work,
180.

Richard III., cynicism and devilry
of, 184; energy of, best seen in
battle, 186; Shakspere's teaching
from character of, 189; sources
of power of, 182.

Roman Plays, measure of greatness
in, 280; Shakspere's and Jonson's
contrasted, 276; significance of
date of, 278.

Romeo and Juliet, feeling evoked
by last scene of, 123; Shakspere's
variation from original, 119.
Romeo, contrasted with Mercutio,

116: development of character of,
117; love of, for Rosaline and
Juliet, 106.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 149.
Rushton on Euphuism of Shakspere,

141.

Ruskin on Iago, 237.
Runnawayes Eyes, note on, 124.

Satire, late and early, of Shakspere
contrasted, 374.
Secondary plots, function of, 389.

Periods, four, in art-life of Shak- Second period, characteristics of,

spere, 357, 362, 371.

Polonius, morality of, 141.
Portia, strength of, 299.

Portia and Brutus, noble relations
of, 296.

Posthumus, reconciliation of, with
Imogen, 499.

Progress of Shakspere, cautious, 53.

368.

Shakspere, as a poet of feudalism,

319; caution of, in trying styles,
99; character of, 164; character
illustrated by life, 31; develop-
ment of nature of, 44; enormous
receptivity of, 43; ideal of prac
tical strength of, 221; incapable

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