and I think him no improvement on Launce. But if we follow back that hint and turn the pages of the earlier play, we soon begin to rub our eyes. Inured as we are to Shakespeare's habit of economising his material, of turning old plots, tricks, situations to new uses, his "rifacciamenting" (if I may coin the word) of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in The Merchant of Venice is audacious. For a sample, compare the two early scenes in which the two heroines discuss their lovers; while, as for the main device of The Two Gentlemen of Verona-the heroine in mannish disguise-in The Merchant of Venice there are but three female characters, and they all don man's clothes! (4) "This is a play," wrote Hazlitt, “that in spite of the change of manners still holds undisputed possession of the stage. It does to-day; and yet on the stage, sophisticated by actors, it had always vexed me, until, coming to live with an acting version, I came to track the marvellous stage-cleverness of it all; when, in revulsion, I grew impatient with all judgments of Shakespeare passed on the mere reading of him. This had happened to me before with The Taming of the Shrew a play noisier in the study than on the stage; strident, setting the teeth on edge; odious, until acted; when it straightway becomes not only tolerable, but pleasant, and not only pleasant, but straightforwardly effective. In particular, I had to own of The Merchant of Venice that the lines which really told on the stage were lines the reader passes by casually, not pausing to take their impression. It fairly surprised me, for an example, that Lorenzo's famous speech in the last Act-about the music and the moonlight and the stars-though well delivered, carried less weight than four little words of Portia's. (5) And this brings me to the last Act, so often discussed. It became plain to me that Shakespeare had made at least one attempt at it before satisfying himself; as plain as that, if we resolutely hold the Trial Scene back to focus, this finish becomes the most delightful Act in the play. That Shakespeare tried other ways is made evident by one line. Upon Lorenzo's and Jessica's lovely duet there breaks a footfall. Lorenzo, startled by it, demands Lorenzo. Who comes so fast in the silence of the night? Lorenza. A friend? What friend? Your name, I pray you, Stephano. Stephano is my name; and I bring word Lorenzo. Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about Who comes with her? Nothing loose in literature-in play or in poem-ever caught Dr. Johnson napping. "I do not perceive," says Johnson, in his unfaltering accent, "the use of this hermit, of whom nothing is seen or heard afterwards. The Poet had first planned his fable some other way; and inadvertently, when he changed his scheme, retained something of the original design." But the Fifth Act, as Shakespeare finally gives it to us, is lovely past compare, even after professionals have done their worst on the Trial Scene. Nay, whatever they did or omitted, the atmosphere of the Doge's court was thunderous, heavily charged; after all, a good man's life was at stake, and we have hung on the lips of the pleaders. We have to be won back to a saner, happier acceptance of life; and so we are, by gracious, most playful comedy. It is all absurd, if we please. The unsealing of a letter telling Antonio, to make joy complete, that Three of your argosies Are richly come to harbour suddenly, is unbelievable. "You shall not know," Portia adds You shall not know by what strange accident I chanced on this letter. No; nor anyone else! It is absurd as the conclusion of The Vicar of Wakefield. Yet it is not more absurd than the ending of most fairy-tales. And while all this has been passing, the moon has sunk and every thicket around Belmont has begun to thrill and sing of dawn. Portia lifts a hand. Let us go in. It is almost morning. . . . CHAPTER VI AS YOU LIKE IT Lodge's Rosalynde, and The Tale of Gamelyn-The Forest of Arden-Its site on the Avon-A fantasy in colourJacques and Touchstone-A fantastic criticism of life— Playing at Robin Hood-Swinburne and George SandThe influence of Lyly-An incongruous patch. (1) FOR the actual plot of As You Like It we have not to seek very far. Shakespeare took his story from a contemporary novel, Rosalynde, Euphues' Golden Legacie, written by Thomas Lodge and first published in 1590. Lodge derived a good part of his story from The Tale of Gamelyn, included in some MSS. of the Canterbury Tales, but certainly not written by Chaucer and probably packed by him among his papers as material for the Yeoman's Tale which he never wrote.1 1 1 On this I cannot do better than quote Professor Skeat : "Some have supposed, with great reason, that this tale occurs among the rest because it is one which Chaucer intended to recast, although, in fact, he did not live to rewrite a single line of it. This is the more likely because the tale is a capital one in itself, well worthy of being rewritten even by so great a poet; indeed, it is well known that the plot of the favourite play known to us all by the title of As you Like It was derived The Tale of Gamelyn (as the reader may remember) runs in this fashion : Litheth and lesteneth || and herkeneth aright, And ye schulle heere a talking || of a doughty knight; and he leaves three sons. The eldest, succeeding to the estate, misuses the youngest brother, who triumphs in a wrestling-bout and, escaping to the greenwood with an old retainer, Adam the Spencer, becomes an outlaw. The eldest brother, Johan, as sheriff, pursues him-just as the proud sheriff of Nottingham pursues Robin Hood. He is taken, and bailed; returns, in ballad-fashion (like the Heir of Linne, for example), just in time to save his bail, and the wicked Johan is sent to the gallows. Upon this artless ballad Lodge tacked and embroidered a love-story-of an exiled King of France and of his daughter, Rosalind, who falls in love with the young wrestler, and escapes with the usurper's daughter Alieda (Celia) to the greenwood. As in the ... from it at second-hand. But I cannot but protest against the stupidity of the botcher whose hand wrote above it, 'The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn.' This was done because it happened to be found next after the Coke's Tale. . . . The fitness of things ought to show at once that this 'Tale of Gamelyn,' a tale of the woods in true Robin Hood style, could only have been placed in the mouth of him 'who bare a mighty bow,' and who knew all the ways of wood-craft; in one word, of the Yeoman. . . And we get hence the additional hint, that the Yeoman's Tale was to have followed the Coke's Tale, a tale of fresh country life succeeding one of the close back-streets of the city. No better place could be found for it.' |