No More Learning

The
plastic arts deal with space, and have
for their proper objects bodies with their
visible attributes; they may, however,
suggest these bodies as being in action.
Poetry deals with time, and has for its
proper objects a succession of events or
actions; at the same time it may suggest
the description of bodies. Homer al-
ready knew this principle, for in describ-
ing the shield of Achilles he invites us
to be present at its making. In like
manner we know what Agamemnon wore
by watching him dress. All descriptive
poetry and allegorical painting is hereby
ruled out of court. There is yet another
difference. The plastic arts in their
highest development treat only of beauty.
Poetry, not being confined to the pass-
ing moment, has at its disposal the
whole of nature. It treats not only of
what is beautiful or agreeable, but also
of what is ugly and terrible.
These principles, developed by Lessing
in his small treatise, came like a revela-
tion to the German mind. Goethe thus
described the effect: “We heartily wel-
comed the light which that fine thinker,
brought down to us out of dark clouds.
Illumined as by lightning we saw all the
consequences of that glorious thought
which made clear the difference be-
tween the plastic and the poetic arts.
All the current criticism was thrown
aside as a worn-out coat. )
Laokoon. Lessing's Laokoon,' written
in 1766, marked an epoch in German
art-criticism. It derives its title from
the celebrated piece of sculpture by the
Greek artists Polydor, Agesander, and
Athenodor, which is taken as the start-
ing-point for a discussion on the differ-
ence between poetry and the plastic arts.
The group represents the well-known
episode during the siege of Troy, when
the Trojan priest, Laokoon, and his two
sons, are devoured by snakes as a pun-
ishment for having advised against ad-
mitting the decoy horse of the Greeks
into the town. In this group Laokoon
apparently does not scream, but only
Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann
Wolfgang Goethe, is German
idyllic pastoral of about 2,000 hexameter
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380
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
1
now
seem
an
man.
lines. The scene is the broad Rhine- sophical digressions, which
plain, and the time the poet's own. This tedious and foreign to the action, were
poem, considered the finest specimen of then greatly admired. Ben Jonson, in
Goethe's narrative verse, was published his poem prefixed to Mabbe's transla-
in 1797, during the period of the author's tion, describes the hero as “The Spanish
inspiring friendship with Schiller. The Proteus
formed with the world's
sweet bucolic narrative describes how wit. Though inferior to Mendoza's (La-
the host of the Golden Lion and his zarillo) in grace and vivacity, this ro-
(sensible wife » have sent their stalwart mance enables us to get a clear idea of
and dutiful son, Hermann, to minister certain aspects of society in the Spain
to the wants of a band of exiles, who and Italy of the sixteenth century, not-
are journeying from their homes, burned withstanding the exaggeration and excess
by the ravages of war. Among the ex- of color in its descriptions. The French
iles Hermann meets, and immediately translation by Le Sage omits the di-
loves, Dorothea. How this buxom Teu- gressions and philosophical reflections of
tonic maiden of excellent good sense is the original, to which it is far superior.
wooed and won, taking a daughter's
place in the cheerful hostelry, is told Bible in Spain, The, by George Bor-
,
with charming simplicity. The poem is
row, was published in 1843. It is
account of the author's five-years'
instinct with the breath of mystic scenes,
residence in Spain as an agent of the
and the characters are as minutely drawn
English Bible Society. In the preface he
as in the great national epics.
thus explains his book:
“Many things, it is true, will be found
G uzman de Alfarache, by Mateo Ale-
in the following volumes, which have lit-
This romance, dealing with
tle connection with religion or religious
the lives and adventures of picaros or
enterprise; I offer, however, no apology
rogues, contains more varied and highly
for introducing them. I was, as I may
colored pictures of thieves, beggars, and
say, from first to last adrift in Spain, the
outlaws than any other work in this pe-
land of old renown, the land of wonder
culiar department of Spanish literature.
It is divided into two parts, of which
and mystery, with better opportunities
the first was published in 1599, the sec-
of becoming acquainted with its strange
ond in 1605. Guzman relates his own
secrets and peculiarities than perhaps
ever yet were afforded to any individual,
life from his birth up to the moment
certainly to foreigner; and if in many
when his crimes consign him to the gal-
instances I have introduced scenes and
leys. When a mere boy, he runs away
from his mother after his father's death;
characters perhaps unprecedented in a
work of this description, I have only to
goes to Madrid, where he is by turns
observe that during my sojourn in Spain
scullion, cook, and errand boy; escapes
to Toledo with some money intrusted to
so unavoidably mixed up with
such, that I could scarcely have given a
him, and sets up as a fine gentleman.
faithful narrative of what befell me had
After wasting all his money in profli-
I not brought them forward in the man-
gacy he enlists, is sent to Italy, and
ner I have done. »
quickly becomes the associate of cut-
purses and vagabonds of every descripcinating story of adventure and pictur-
(The Bible in Spain) is therefore a fas-
tion. He is a versatile rascal, and feels
esque life in a land where, to the writer
equally at home among beggars and in
at least, the unusual predominates. As a
the palace of a Roman cardinal, who
reviewer wrote of the book at the time
takes an interest in him and makes him
of its publication, We are frequently
his page. But his natural depravity does
not allow him to hold this position long;
reminded of Gil Blas in the narratives
of this pious, single-hearted man. ) Bor-
and he returns to Spain, where he event-
row's work is unique in the annals of mis-
ually becomes a lackey in the French am-
bassador's household. The adventures
sionary literature.
he meets with there form the closing Shakespeare's Plays.
Love's LA-
chapters of the story.
Bour's Lost is Shakespeare's first
immensely popular, ran through several dramatic production, written about 1588
editions, and was translated into French or '89, and has all the marks of imma-
and English immediately after its ap- ture style; yet its repartees and witti-
pearance. The episodes and long philo- cisms give it a sprightly cast, and its
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
381
>
constant good-humor and good-nature
make it readable. The plot, as far as is
known, is Shakespeare's own. There is
an air of unreality about it, as if all the
characters had eaten of the insane root,
or were at least light-headed with cham-
pagne. Incessant are their quick venues
of wit, - (snip, snap, quick, and home. ”
In a nutshell, the play is a satire of
utopias, of all thwarting of natural in-
stincts. Ferdinand, King of Navarre,
and his three associate lords, Biron, Du-
main, and Longaville, have taken oath
to form themselves into a kind of mo-
nastic academy for study. They swear
to fast, to eat but one meal a day, and
for three years not to look on the face
of woman; all of which «is flat treason
against the kingly state of youth. But,
alas! the King had forgotten that he
was about to see the Princess of France
and three of her ladies, come on a mat-
ter of State business. However, he will
not admit them into his palace, but has
pavilions pitched in the park. At the
first glance all four men fall violently in
love, each with one of the ladies, - the
king with the princess, Biron with Rosa-
line, etc. : Cupid has thumped them all
(with his bird-bolt under the left pap. ”
They write sentimental verses,
and
while reading them aloud in the park,
all find each other out, each assuming a
stern severity with the perjured ones
until he himself is detected. One of the
humorous characters is Don Adriano de
Armado, “who draweth out the thread
of his verbosity finer than the staple of
his argument. " In him, and in the pre-
posterous pedant Holofernes, and the
curate Sir Nathaniel, the poet satirizes
the euphuistic affectations of the time, –
the taffeta phrases, three-piled hyper-
boles, and foreign language scraps, ever
on the tongues of these fashionable
dudes. The “pathetical nit, Moth, is
Armado's page, a keen-witted rogueling.
Dull is a constable of twice-sodden
simplicity, and Costard
the
witty
clown. Rosaline is the Beatrice of the
comedy, brilliant and caustic in her wit.
Bovet is an old courtier who serves as a
kind of usher or male lady's-maid to the
princess and her retinue. The loves of
the noblesse are parodied in those of
Costard and of the country wench
Jaquenetta. The gentlemen devise, to
entertain the ladies, Muscovite
masque and a play by the clown and
pedants. The ladies get wind of the
masque, and, being masked themselves,
guy the Muscovites who go off «all dry-
beaten with pure scoff”; Rosaline sug-
gests that maybe they are sea-sick with
coming from Muscovy. The burlesque
play tallies that in Midsummer Night's
Dream,' the great folk making satirical
remarks on the clown's performances.
Costard is cast for Pompey the Huge,
and it transpires that the Don has no
shirt on when he challenges Costard to
a duel.
While the fun is at its height
comes word that sobers all: the prin-
cess's father is dead. As a test of their
love the princess and Rosaline impose a
year's severe penance on their lovers,
and if their love proves true, promise to
have them; and so do the other ladies
promise to their wooers. Thus love's
labor is, for the present, lost. The
comedy ends with two fine lyrics, – the
cuckoo song (“Spring'), and the (Tu-
whit, tu-whoo) song of the owl (“Win-
ter').
Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, one of
Shakespeare's earliest and least attract-
ive comedies, for the plot of which he
was slightly indebted to Bandello, to
Sidney's Arcadia,' and to Montemayor's
Diana Enamorada. ' The scene is laid
alternately in Verona and in Milan. The
noble Valentine of Verona remarks to
his friend Proteus that «home-keeping
youths have ever homely wits”; hence
he will travel to Milan, with his servant
Speed. Proteus, a mean-souled, treach-
erous, fickle young sprig, is in love with
Julia, or thinks he is. His servant's
name is Launce, a droll fellow who is as
rich in humor as Launcelot Gobbo of the
Merchant of Venice. Julia is the hero-
ine of the piece; a pretty, faithful girl.
Proteus soon posts after Valentine to
Milan, and at once forgets Julia and
falls (over boots in love with Silvia.
Julia also goes to Milan, disguised as a
boy, and
takes service with Proteus.
The latter treacherously betrayed Val-
entine's plan of elopement with Silvia to
the duke her father, who met Valentine,
pulled the rope ladder from under his
cloak, and then banished him. As in
the play of (As You Like It,' all the par-
ties finally meet in the forest, where
Valentine has been chosen leader by a
band of respectable outlaws. Julia con-
fesses her identity; Valentine, with a
maudlin, milk-sop charity, not only for-
gives Proteus (whom he has just over-
heard avowing to Silvia that he will
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382
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
outrage her if he cannot get her love), sends his Dromio to the inn with a bag
but, on Proteus repenting, actually offers of gold, and presently meets Dromio of
to give up Silvia to him. But Julia Ephesus, who mistaking him, urges him
swoons, and Proteus's love for her re- to come at once to dinner: his wife and
turns. A double marriage ends this sister are waiting. In no mood for jok-
huddled-up finale. Launce affines with ing, he beats his supposed servant. The
Touchstone, Grumio, Autolycus, and the other Dromio also gets a beating for
Dromios. He is irresistibly funny in the denying that he had just talked about
enumeration of his milkmaid's points," dinner and wife. In the mean time,
and in the scenes with his dog Crab. Adriana and her sister meet the Syra-
This cruel-hearted cur, when all at home cusans on the street, and amaze them
were weeping over Launce's departure, by their reproaches. As in a dream the
and the very cat was wringing her men follow them home, and Dromio of
hands, shed not a tear; and when, in Syracuse is bid keep the door. Now
Madam Silvia's dining-room, he stole a comes home the rightful owner with
chicken-leg from the trencher and mis- guests, and knocks in vain for admit-
behaved in an unmentionable manner, tance. So he goes off in a rage to an
Launce manfully took a whipping for inn to dine. At his home the coil
him. Nay, he stood on the pillory for thickens. There Antipholus of Syracuse
geese he had killed, and stood in the makes love to Luciana, and down-stairs
stocks for puddings he had stolen. Crab the amazed Dromio of Syracuse flies
enjoys the honor of being the only dog from the greasy kitchen wench who
that sat to Shakespeare for his portrait,
claims him as her own. Master and
although others are mentioned in his man finally resolve to set sail at once
works.
from this place of enchantment. After
THE COMEDY OF Errors, by its irre- a great many more laughable puzzles
sistibly laughable plot (and it is all and contretemps, comes Adriana, with
plot), is perennially popular. It is the a conjurer — Doctor Pinch-and others,
shortest of the plays, and one of the who bind her husband and servant as
very earliest written. The main story madmen and send them away. Pres-
is from the Menæchmi? of Plautus. ently enter the bewildered Syracusans
The Syracusans and the men of Ephe- with drawn swords, and away fies
sus have mutually decreed death to a Adriana, crying, “They are loose again! )
citizen of one city caught in the other, The Syracusans take refuge in the ab-
unless he
pay a heavy ransom. bey. Along comes the duke leading
Ægeon of Syracuse is doomed to death Ægeon to execution. Meantime the real
by the Duke of Ephesus. He tells husband and slave have really broken
the duke his story,-how at Epidam- loose, bound Doctor Pinch, singed off
many years ago his wife had his beard, and nicked his hair with
borne male twins, and at the same hour scissors. At last both pairs of twins
a meaner woman near by had also twin meet face to face, and Ægeon and
boys; how he had bought and brought Æmilia solve all puzzles.
up the latter; and how he and his wife ROMEO AND JULIET was first published
had become separated by shipwreck, she in 1597. The plot was taken from a poem
with one of each pair of twins and he by Arthur Brooke, and from the prose
with one of each; and how five years story in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure. )
ago his boy and servant had set out in The comical underplot of the servants of
search of their twin brothers, and he Capulet vs. those of Montagu; the fatal
himself was now searching them and his duels, the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt;
wife. Of these twins, one Antipholus the ball where Romeo, a Montagu, falls
and one Dromio live in Ephesus as mas- in love with Juliet; the impassioned love-
ter and servant respectively, the former scenes in the orchard; the encounter of
being married to Adriana, whose sister the Nurse and Peter with the mocking
Luciana dwells with her. By chance gallants; the meetings at Friar Lau-
the Syracusan Antipholus and
his rence's cell, and the marriage of Juliet
Dromio are at this time in Ephesus. there; Romeo's banishment; the attempt
The mother Æmilia is abbess of to force Juliet to marry the County
priory in the town. Through a laby- Paris; the Friar's device of the sleeping-
rinth of errors they all finally discover potion; the night scene at the tomb,
each other. Antipholus of Syracuse Romeo first unwillingly killing Paris and
can
num
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
383
of
>>
then taking poison; the waking of Juliet, grasped the crown from Richard II. , the
who stabs herself by her husband's body; rightful owner, and became the founder
the reconciliation of the rival families, of the house of Lancaster.
About 1455
such are the incidents in this old Italian began the Wars of the Roses. (The
story, which has touched the hearts of Lancastrians wore as a badge the white
men now for six hundred years. It is rose, the Yorkists the red; Shakespeare
the drama of youth, «the first bewil- gives the origin of the custom in Henry
dered stammering interview
the VI. , Part i. , Act ii. , Scene 4, adherents
heart, with the delicious passion, pure of each party chancing in the Temple
as dew, of first love, but love thwarted Garden, London, to pluck each a rose of
by fate and death. Sampson bites his this color or that as symbol of his
thumb at a Montagu; Tybalt and Mer- adherency. ) In 1485 the Lancastrian
cutio fall. Friar John is delayed; Romeo Henry VII. , the conqueror of Richard
and Juliet die. Such is the irony of III. , ended these disastrous wars, and
destiny. The medieval manners at once reconciled the rival houses by marriage
fierce and polished, - Benvenuto limns with Elizabeth of York. The three parts
them. We are in the warm south : the of Henry VI. ,' like (Richard II. ,' present
dense gray dew on leaf and grass at a picture of a king too weak-willed to
morn, the cicada's song, the nightingale, properly defend the dignity of the
the half-closed flower-cups, the drifting throne. They are reeking with blood
perfume of the orange blossom, stars and echoing with the clash of arms.
burning dilated in the blue vault. Then They are sensationally and bombasti-
the deep melancholy of the story. And cally written, and such parts of them as
yet there is a kind of triumph in the are by Shakespeare are known to be his
death of the lovers: for in four or five earliest work. In Part i. the scene lies
days they had lived an eternity; death chiefly in France, where the brave Tal-
made them immortal. On fire, both, bot and Exeter and the savage York
with impatience, in vain the Friar warns and Warwick are fighting the French.
them that violent delights have violent Joan of Arc is here represented by the
ends. Blinded by love, they only half poet (who only followed English chron-
note the prescience of their own souls. icle and tradition) as a charlatan, a
'Twas written in the stars that Romeo witch, and a strumpet. The picture is
to be unlucky: at the supper he an absurd caricature of the truth. In
makes a mortal enemy; his interference Part ii. , the leading character is Mar-
in a duel gets Mercutio killed; his over- garet, whom the Duke of Suffolk has
haste to poison himself leads to brought over from France and married
Juliet's death. As for the garrulous old to the weak and nerveless poltroon King
Nurse, foul-mouthed and tantalizing, she Henry VI. , but is himself her guilty
is too close to nature not to be a por- lover. He and Buckingham and Mar-
trait from life; her advice to marry garet conspire successfully against the
Paris ) reveals the full depth of her life of the Protector, Duke Humphrey,
banality. Old Capulet is Italian and Suffolk is killed during the rebellion
Squire Western, a chough of lands and of Jack Cade, - an uprising of the peo-
houses, who treats this exquisite daughter ple which the play merely burlesques.
just as the Squire treats Sophia. Mer- Part iii. is taken up with the horrible
cutio is everybody's favorite: the gallant murders done by fiendish Gloster (after-
loyal gentleman, of infinite teeming ward Richard III. ), the defeat and im-
fancy, in all his raillery not an unkind prisonment of Henry VI. and his
word, brave as a lion, tender-hearted as assassination in prison by Gloster, and
a girl, his quips and sparkles of wit the seating of Gloster's brother Edward
ceasing not even when his eyes are (IV. ) on the throne. The brothers, in-
glazing in death.
cluding Clarence, stab Queen Margaret's
HENRY VI. , Parts i. , ii. , iii. Of the and imprison her.
She appears
eight closely linked Shakespeare his- again as a subordinate character in
torical plays, these three are the last (Richard III. In 1476 she renounced her
but one. The eight cover nearly all of claim to the throne and returned to the
the fifteenth century in this order: Continent.
(Richard II. ”; (Henry IV. , Parts i. and RICHARD III. , the last of a closely
ii. ; Henry V. ? ; (Henry VI. (three linked group of historical tragedies.
parts); and (Richard III. ) – Henry IV. (See (Henry VI. ') Still a popular play
was
on
an
.
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384
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
ence
.
on the boards; Edwin Booth as Richard
will long be remembered. As the drama
opens, Clarence, the brother of Richard
(or Gloster as he is called) is being led
away to the Tower, where, through Glos-
ter's intrigues, he is soon murdered on
a royal warrant. The dream of Clar-
is a famous passage, - how he
thought Richard drowned him at sea;
and in hell the shade of Prince Edward,
whom he himself had helped to assas-
sinate at Tewkesbury, wandered by, its
bright hair dabbled in blood, and cry.
ing: -
« Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clar-
ence. ”
Gloster also imprisons the son of Clar-
ence, and meanly matches Clarence's
daughter. The Prince Edward mentioned
was son of the gentle Henry VI. , whom
Richard stabbed in the Tower. This
hunch-backed devil next had the effront-
ery to woo to wife Anne, widow of the
Edward he had slain.
She had not a
moment's happiness with him, and de-
served none. He soon killed her, and
announced his intention of seeking the
hand of Elizabeth, his niece, after hav-
ing hired one Tyrrel to murder her
brothers, the tender young princes, sons
of Edward IV. , in the Tower. Tyrrel
employed two hardened villains to
smother these pretty boys; and even the
murderers wept as they told how they
lay asleep, “girdling one another within
their innocent alabaster arms,” a prayer-
book on their pillow, and their red lips
almost touching. The savage boar also
stained bimself with the blood of Lord
Hastings, of the brother and son of Ed-
ward IV. 's widow, and of Buckingham,
who, almost as remorseless as himself,
had helped him to the crown, but fell
from him when he asked him to murder
the young princes. At length at Bos-
worth Field the monster met his match
in the person of Richmond, afterward
Henry VII. On the night before the
battle, the poet represents each leader
as visited by dreams,- Richmond seeing
pass before him the ghosts of all whom
Richard has murdered, who encourage
him and bid him be conqueror on the
morrow; and Richard seeing the same
ghosts pass menacingly by him, bidding
him despair and promising to sit heavy
on his soul on the day of battle. He
awakes, cold drops of sweat standing on
his brow; the lights burn blue in his
tent: "Is there a murderer here? No.
Yes, I am: then fly. What, from my-
self ? ” Day breaks; the battle is joined;
Richard fights with fury, and his horse
is killed under him: "A horse! a horse!
my kingdom for a horse! » But soon
brave Richmond has him down, crying,
«The day is ours: the bloody dog is
dead. ”
The story of Richard III. reads more
like that of an Oriental or African des-
pot than that of an English monarch.
Titus ANDRONICUS. — A most repuls-
ive drama of bloodshed and unnatural
crimes, not written by Shakespeare, but
probably touched up for the stage by
him when a young man.
It is included
in the original Folio Edition of 1623.
No one who has once supped on its
horrors will care to read it again. Here
is a specimen of them: Titus Androni-
cus, a Roman noble, in revenge for the
ravishing of his daughter Lavinia and
the cutting off of her hands and tongue,
cuts the throats of the two ravishers,
while his daughter holds between the
stumps of her arms a basin to catch the
blood. The father then makes a paste
of the ground bones and blood of the
slain men, and in that paste bakes their
two heads, and serving them up at a
feast, causes their mother to eat of the
dish. Iago seems a gentleman beside
the hellish Moor, Aaron, of this blood-
soaked tragedy.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is a drama
of Shakespeare's middle period (1594).
The story of the bond and that of the
caskets are both found in the old Gesta
Romanorum, but the poet used espe-
cially Fiorentino's Il Pecorone) (Milan,
1558). An atmosphere of high breeding
and noble manners enwraps this most
popular of Shakespeare's plays. The
merchant Antonio is the ideal friend,
his magnificent generosity a foil against
which Shylock's avarice glows with a
more baleful lustre. Shylock has long
hated him, both for personal insults and
for lending money gratis. Now, some
twenty and odd miles away, at Belmont,
lives Portia, with her golden hair and
golden ducats; and Bassanio asks his
friend Antonio for a loan, that he may
go that way a-wooing. Antonio Seeks
the money of Shylock, who bethinks him
now of a possible revenge. He offers
three thousand ducats gratis for three
months, if Antonio will seal to a merry
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
385
as
day of payment, the Jew may cut from tion and the sorrows of this lady form
his breast, nearest the heart, a pound a central feature of the drama. Ar-
of flesh. Antonio expects ships home a thur's father Geoffrey has long been
month before the day, and signs. While dead, but his mother has enlisted in
Shylock is feeding at the Christian's ex- his behalf the kings of Austria and
pense, Lorenzo runs away with sweet of France. Their forces engage King
Jessica, his dark-eyed daughter, and John's army under the walls of Angiers.
sundry bags of ducats and jewels. Bas- While the day is still undecided, peace
sanio is off to Belmont. Portia is to be is made, and a match formed between
won by him who, out of three caskets, Lewis, dauphin of France, and John's
- of gold, silver, and lead, respectively, — niece Blanche. The young couple are
shall choose that containing her por- scarcely married when the pope's legate
trait. Bassanio makes the right choice. causes the league to be broken. The
But at once comes word that blanches armies again clash in arms, and John
his cheeks: all of Antonio's ships are is victorious, and carries off Prince
reported lost at sea; his day of payment Arthur to England, where he is con-
has passed, and Shylock clamors for his fined in a castle and confided to one
dreadful forfeit. Bassanio, and his fol- Hubert. John secretly gives a written
lower Gratiano, only tarry to be mar- warrant to Hubert to put him to death.
ried, the one to Portia, and the other to The scene in which the executioners
her maid Nerissa; and then, with money appear with red-hot irons to put out
furnished by Portia, they speed away the boy's eyes, and his innocent and
toward Venice. Portia follows, diguised affectionate prattle with Hubert, remind-
as a young doctor-at-law, and Nerissa as ing him how he had watched by him
her clerk. Arrived in Venice, they are when ill, is one of the most famous
ushered into court, where Shylock, fell and pathetic in all the Shakespearian
a famished tiger, is snapping out historical dramas. Hubert relents; but
fierce calls for justice and his pound of the frightened boy disguises himself as
flesh, Antonio pale and hopeless, and a sailor lad, and leaping down from
Bassanio in vain offering him thrice the the walls of the castle, is killed. Many
value of his bond. Portia, too, in vain of the powerful lords of England are
pleads with him for mercy.
Well, says
so infuriated by this pitiful event (vir-
Portia, the law must take its course. tually a murder, and really thought to
Then, “A Daniel come to judgment! » be such by them), that they join the
cries the Jew; «Come, prepare, prepare. ” Dauphin, who has landed to claim
Stop, says the young doctor, your bond England's crown in the name of his
gives you flesh, but no blood; if you wife. King John meets him on the
shed one drop of blood you die, and battle-field, but is taken ill, and forced
your lands and goods are confiscate to to retire to Swinstead Abbey. He has
the State. The Jew cringes, and offers been poisoned by a monk, and dies
to accept Bassanio's offer of thrice the in the orchard of the abbey in great
value of the bond in cash; but learns agony. His right-hand man in his wars
that for plotting against the life of a and in counsel has been a bastard son
citizen of Venice all his property is for- of Richard I. , by Lady Faulconbridge.
feited, half to Antonio and half to the The bastard figures conspicuously in
State. As the play closes, the little band the play as braggart and ranter; yet
of friends are grouped on Portia's lawn he is withal brave and patriotic to the
in the moonlight, under the vast blue last. Lewis, the dauphin, it should be
dome of stars. The poet, however, ex- said, makes peace and retires to France.
cites our pity for the baited Jew.
MIDSUMMER Night's DREAM was writ-
KING JOHN, a drama, the source of ten previous to 1598; the poet drawing
which is an older play published in for materials on Plutarch, Ovid, and
1591. The date of the action is 1200 Chaucer. The roguish sprite Puck, or
A. D. John is on the throne of Eng- Robin Goodfellow, is sort of half-
land, but without right; his brother, brother of Ariel, and obeys Oberon as
Richard the Lion-Hearted, had made Ariel obeys Prospero. The theme of this
his nephew Arthur of Bretagne his heir. joyous comedy is love and marriage.
Arthur is a pure and amiable lad of Duke Theseus is about to wed the fair
fourteen, the pride and hope of his Hippolyta. Lysander is in love with
mother Constance. The maternal affec- Hermia, and so is Demetrius; though
a
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in the end, Demetrius, by the aid of English gentleman, large-molded, gra-
Oberon, is led back to his first love cious, and wise. His greatness is shown
Helena. The scene lies chiefly in the in his genuine kindness to the poor
enchanted wood near the duke's palace players in their attempt to please him.
in Athens. In this wood Lysander and RICHARD II. (Compare (Henry VI. ')
Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena, This drama (based Holinshed's
wander all night and meet with strange (Chronicle) tells the story of the sup-
adventures at the hands of Puck and planting, on the throne of England, of
the tiny fairies of Queen Titania's train. the handsome and sweet-natured, but
Like her namesake in All's Well,' Hel- weak-willed Richard II. , by the politic
ena is here the wooer: "Apollo Aies and Bolingbroke (Henry IV. ). The land is
Daphne leads the chase. ” Oberon pities impoverished by Richard's extrava-
her, and sprinkling the juice of the gances. He is surrounded by flatterers
magic flower love-in-idleness in Deme- and boon companions (Bushy, Bagot,
trius's eyes, restores his love for her; but and Green), and has lost the good-will
not before Puck, by a mistake in anoint- of his people. The central idea of
ing the wrong man's eyes, has caused a (Richard II. ' is that the kingly office
train of woes and perplexities to attend cannot be maintained without strength
the footsteps of the wandering lovers. of brain and hand. Old John of Gaunt
Puck, for fun, claps an ass's head on to (or Ghent) is loyal to Richard; but on
weaver Bottom's shoulders, who there- his death-bed sermons him severely, and
upon calls for oats and a bottle of hay. dying. prophesies of England, - this
By the same flower juice, sprinkled in seat of Mars,
her eyes, Oberon leads Titania to dote
on Bottom, whose hairy head she has
« This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
garlanded with flowers, and stuck musk
This happy breed of men, this little world. ”
roses behind his ears. Everybody seems
to dream: Titania, in her bower car- Richard lets him talk; but no sooner
peted with violets and canopied with is the breath out of his body than he
honeysuckle and sweet-briar, dreamed seizes all his movable or personal wealth
she was enamored of an ass, and Bottom and that of his banished son Boling-
dared not say aloud what he dreamed broke, to get money for his Irish wars.
he was; while in the fresh morning the This step costs Richard his throne.
lovers felt the fumes of the sleepy en- While absent in Ireland Bolingbroke
chantment still about them.
lands with a French force, to regain his
But we must introduce the immortal property and legal rights as a nobleman
players of Pyramus and Thisbe. ) Bot- and open the purple testament of bleed-
tom is a first cousin of Dogberry, his ing war. The country rises to welcome
drollery the richer for being partly self- him. Even a force in Wales, tired of
conscious. With good strings to their waiting for Richard, who was detained
beards and
ribbons for their by contrary winds, disperses just a day
pumps, he and his men meet at the before he landed. Entirely destitute of
palace, “on the duke's wedding-day at troops, he humbly submits, and in Lon-
night. ”
Snout presents Wall; in one don a little later gives up his crown to
hand he holds some lime, some plaster Henry IV. Richard is imprisoned at
and a stone, and with the open fingers Pomfret Castle. Here, one day, he is
of the other makes a cranny through visited by a man who was formerly a
which the lovers whisper. A fellow with poor groom of his stable, and who tells
lantern and thorn-bush stands for Moon. him how it irked him to see his roan
The actors kindly and in detail explain Barbary with Bolingbroke on his back
to the audience what each one person- on coronation day, stepping along as if
ates; and the lion bids them not to be proud of his new master. Just then one
afeard, for he is only Snug the joiner, Exton appears, in obedience to a hint
who roars extempore. The master of from Henry IV. , with men armed to
the revels laughs at the delicious humor kill. Richard at last (but too late)
till the tears run down his cheeks (and shows a manly spirit; and snatching a
you don't wonder), and the lords and weapon from one of the assassins, kills
ladies keep up the fun by a running fire him and then another, but is at once
of witticisms when they can keep their struck dead by Exton. Henry IV. la-
faces straight. Theseus is an idealized mented this bloody deed to the day of
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a
or-
-
excuse
his death, and it cost him dear in the
censures of his people.
All's WELL THAT ENDS WELL is
play, the story of which came to the poet
from Boccaccio, through Paynter's Pal-
ace of Pleasure, although he introduces
variations. It tells how Helen de Nar-
bon, a physician's daughter, and
phaned, forced her love on a handsome
and birth-proud young French nobleman,
Bertram de Rousillon, with whom she
had been brought up from childhood.
It is a tale of husband-catching by a
curious kind of trick. To most men the
play is repellent. Yet Shakespeare has
treated the theme again in (Twelfth
Night (Olivia), and in Midsummer
Night's Dream) (Helena). Many women
woo in courtship - by word, glance, or
gesture at least; and among the lower
orders the courting is quite undisguised.
Shakespeare endows Helena with such
virtues that we
and applaud.
All's well that ends well. She heals the
king with her father's receipt, asks for
and accepts Bertram as her reward, and
is married. But the proud boy flies to
the Florentine wars on his wedding-day,
leaving his marriage unconsummated.
Helen returns sorrowfully to Rousillon;
and finds there a letter from her hus-
band, to the effect that when she gets
his ring upon her finger and shows him a
child begotten of his body, then he will
acknowledge her as his wife.
She un-
dertakes to outwit him and reclaim him.
Leaving Rousillon on pretense of a pil-
grimage to the shrine of Saint Jacques
le Grand, she presently contrives to have
it thought she is dead. In reality she
goes to Italy, and becomes Bertram's wife
in fact and not mere name, by the secret
substitution of herself for the pretty
Diana, with whom he has an assignation
arranged. There is an entanglement of
petty accidents and incidents connected
with an exchange of rings, etc. But,
finally, Helen makes good before the
King her claim of having fulfilled Bert-
ram's conditions; and she having vowed
obedience, he takes her to his heart, and
we may suppose they live happily to-
gether «till there comes to them the de-
stroyer of delights and the sunderer of
societies. ) One's heart warms to the
noble old Countess of Rousillon, who
loves Helen as her own daughter. She
is wise and ware in worldly matters, and
yet full of sympathy, remembering her
own youth. Parolles is a cross between
Thersites and Pistol,- a volte-faced scoun.
drel who has to pull the devil by the
tail for a living. His pretense of fetch-
ing off his drum, and his trial blind-
folded before the soldiers, raises a laugh;
but the humor is much inferior to that of
(Henry IV. )
THE TAMING OF THE SHREw, partly by
Shakespeare and partly by an unknown
hand, is a witty comedy of intrigue,
founded on an old play about the tam-
ing of the shrew » and on Ariosto's (I
Suppositi); and is preceded by another
briefer bit of dramatic fun (the induc-
tion”) on a different topic,-i. e. , how a
drunken tinker, picked up on a heath
before an alehouse by a lord and his
huntsmen, is carried unconscious to the
castle, and put to bed, and waited on
by obsequious servants, treated to sump-
tuous fare, and music, and perfumes, and
told that for many years he has been
out of his head, and imagining that he
was a poor tinker. (What! am I not
Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burton
Heath?
ask Marian Hacket, the
fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me
not. ” At length this Sancho Panza, who
still retains his fondness for small ale,
sits down to see the laughter-moving
comedy (The Taming of the Shrew,' en-
acted for his sole benefit by some stroll-
ing players. The brainless sot found
its delicious humor dull; not so the pub-
lic. Baptista, a rich old gentleman of
Padua, has two daughters. The fair
Katharina has a bit of a devil in her, is
curst with a shrewish temper; but this
is partly due to envy of the good for-
tune of the mincing artificial beauty,
Bianca, her sister, whose demure gentle
ways make the men mad over her. Yet
Kate, when «tamed,” proves after all to
be the best wife. The other gallants
will none of her; but the whimsical
Petruchio of Verona has come to wive
it wealthily in Padua,” and nothing
daunted, wooes and wives the young
shrew in astonishing fashion. The law
of the time made the wife the chattel of
her husband, otherwise even Petruchio
might have failed. His method was to
conquer her will, «to kill her in her
own humor. »
He comes very late to
the wedding, clothed like a scarecrow,
an old rusty sword by his side, and rid-
ing a sunken-backed spavined horse with
rotten saddle and bridle. His waggish
man Grumio is similarly accoutred. At
the altar he gives the priest a terrible
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box on the ear, refuses to stay to the the Percys revolt from the too haughty
wedding dinner, and on the way to his monarch; and at Shrewsbury the Hot-
country-house
like madman.
spur faction, greatly outnumbered by
Arrived home, he storms at and beats the King's glittering host, is defeated,
the servants, allows Kate not a morsel and Percy himself slain by Prince
of food for two days, preaches conti- Harry. For the humorous portions we
nence to her, throws the pillows around have first the broad talk of the carriers
the chamber, and raises Cain a-nights in the inn-yard at Rochester; then the
generally so that she can get no sleep, night robbery at Gadshill, where old
denies her the bonnet and dress the Jack frets like a gummed varlet, and
tailor has brought, and manages lards the earth with perspiration as he
things as to seem to do all out of love seeks his horse hidden by Bardolph
to her and regard for her health, and behind a hedge. Prince Hal and Poins
without once losing his good-humor. In rob the robbers. Falstaff and his men
short he subdues her, breaks her will, hack their swords, and tickle their noses
and makes his supreme; so that at the with grass to make them bleed. Then
end she makes a speech to the other after supper, at the Boar's Head, in
wives about the duty of obedience, that slink the disappointed Falstaffians, and
would make the new woman” of our Jack regales the Prince and Poins with
time smile in scorn. Of Bianca's three his amusing whoppers about the dozen
suitors the youngest, Lucentio, gets the or so of rogues in Kendal green that
prize by a series of smart tricks. Dis- set upon them at Gadshill. Hal puts
guised as a tutor of languages he gets him down with a plain tale. Great
her love as they study, while his rivals, hilarity all around. Hal and Jack are
« like a gemini of baboons,” blow their in the midst of a mutual mock-judicial
nails out in the cold and whistle. Lu- examination when the sheriff knocks at
centio at the very start gets his servant the door. The fat knight falls asleep
Tranio to personate himself, and an old behind the arras, and has his pockets
pedant is hired to stand for his father; | picked by the Prince. Next day the
and while Baptista, the father of Bi- latter has the money paid back, and
anca, is gone to arrange for the dower he and Falstaff set off for the seat of
with this precious pair of humbugs, war, Jack marching by Coventry with
Lucentio and his sweetheart run off to his regiment of tattered prodigals. At-
church and get married. The arrival of tacked by Douglas in the battle, Falstaff
the real father of Lucentio makes the falls, feigning death. He sees the Prince
plot verily crackle with life and sen- kill Hotspur, and afterwards rises, gives
sation.
the corpse a fresh stab, lugs it off on
KING HENRY IV. , PART i. , stands at his back, and swears he and Hotspur
the head of all Shakespeare's histori- fought a good hour by Shrewsbury
cal comedies, as Falstaff is by far his clock, and that he himself killed him.
best humorous character. The two parts The prince magnanimously agrees to
of the drama were first published in gild the lie with the happiest terms he
1598 and 1600 respectively, the source- has, if it will do his old friend any
texts for both being Holinshed's (Chron- grace.
icles) and the old play, The famous KING HENRY IV. , Part ii. , forms a
Victories of Henry the Fifth. The con. dramatic whole with the preceding. The
trasted portraits of the impetuous Hot- serious parts are more of the nature of
spur (Henry Percy) and the chivalric dramatized chronicle; but the humorous
Prince Henry in Part i. , are masterly scenes are fully as delightful and varied
done. King Henry, with the crime of as in the first part. Hotspur is dead,
Richard II. 's death on his conscience, and King Henry is afflicted with in-
was going on a crusade, to divert at- somnia and nearing his end.
tention from himself; but Glendower lies the head that wears
a crown,” he
and Hotspur give him his hands full says in the fine apostrophe to sleep. At
at home. Hotspur has refused to de- Gaultree Forest his son Prince John
liver up certain prisoners taken tricks his enemies into surrender, and
Holmedon field: My liege, I did deny sends the leaders to execution.
The
no prisoners,” he says in the well-known death-bed speeches of the King and
speech painting to the life the perfumed Prince Henry are deservedly famous.
dandy on the field of battle. However, All the low-comedy characters reappear
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in this sequel. Dame Quickly appears, long as it is. The figures on this rich
with officers Snare and Fang, to arrest old tapestry resolve themselves, on in-
Falstaff, who has put all her substance spection, into groups: The jolly ranter
into that great belly of his. In Part i. and bottle-rinser, mine host of the
we found him already in her debt: for Garter Inn, with Sir John Falstaff and
one thing, she had bought him a dozen his men, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol;
of shirts to his back.