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.
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.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
(three linked group of historical tragedies.
parts); and (Richard III. ) – Henry IV. (See (Henry VI. ') Still a popular play
was
on
an
.
son
## p. 384 (#420) ############################################
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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
bond pledging that if he shall fail his
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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
XXX-25
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
on
>
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
new
## p. 387 (#423) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTEP BOOKS
387
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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acts
a
SO
1
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
«Uneasy
on
## p. 389 (#425) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
389
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. Further, sitting in the merry wives, Mrs. Ford and Mrs.
the Dolphin chamber by a sea-coal fire, Page, and their families; then Shallow
had he not sworn upon a parcel-gilt gob- (the country justice), with his cousin of
let to marry her ? But the merry old
the <
wee little face and little yellow
villain deludes her still more, and she beard » (Slender), and the latter's man
now pawns her plate and tapestry for Simple; further Dr. Caius, the French
him. Now enter Prince Hal and Poins physician, who speaks broken English,
from the wars, and ribald and coarse are as does Parson Hugh Evans, the Welsh-
the scenes unveiled. Dame Quickly has man; lastly Dame Quickly (the doctor's
deteriorated: in the last act of this play housekeeper), and Master Fenton, in
she is shown being dragged to prison love with sweet Anne Page. Shallow
with Doll Tearsheet, to answer the death has a grievance against Sir John for
of a man at her inn. The accounts of killing his deer; and Slender has matter
the trull Doll, and her billingsgate talk in his head against him, for Sir John
with Pistol, are too unsavory to be en- broke it. But Falstaff and his men out-
tirely pleasant reading; and one gladly face the two cheese-parings, and they
turns from the atmosphere of the slums forget their “pribbles and prabbles » in
to the fresh country air of Gloucester- the parson's scheme of marrying Slender
shire, where, at Justice Shallow's manse, to Anne Page. But the irascible doctor
Falstaff is pricking down » his new has looked that way too, and sends a
recruits, - Mouldy, Feeble, Wart, etc. shallenge to Evans. Mine host fools
Shallow is like a forked radish with a them both by sending each to a separate
beard carved on it, or a man made out place for the duel. They make friends,
of a cheese-paring. He is given to tell- and avenge themselves on the Boniface
ing big stories about what a wild rake by getting his horses run off with. Fal-
he was at Clement's Inn in his youth. staff sends identically worded love-letters
Sir John swindles the poor fellow out of to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, hoping to
a thousand pounds. But listen to Shal- replenish his purse from their husbands
low: «Let me see, Davy; let me see, gold. But Pistol and Nym, in revenge
Davy; let me see. ” «Sow the headland for dismissal, peach to said husbands.
with red wheat, Davy; » «Let the smith's The jealous Ford visits Falstaff under
note for shoeing and plough-irons be the name of Brook, and offers him a
cast and paid. ” “Nay, Sir John, you bag of gold if he will seduce Mrs. Ford
shall see my orchard, where, in an arbor, for him. Jack assures him that he has
we shall eat a last year's pippin of my an appointment with her that very day.
own graffing, with a dish of caraways And so he has. But the two wives pun-
and so forth. ) Amid right merry chaff- ish him badly, and he gets nothing from
ing and drinking enters Pistol with news them but a cast out of a buck-basket
of the crowning of Henry V. «Away, into a dirty ditch, and a sound beating
Bardolph! saddle my horse; we'll ride from Ford. The midnight scene in
all night; boot, boot, Master Shallow, I Windsor Park, where Falstaff, disguised
know the King is sick for me," shouts as Herne the Hunter, with stag-horns on
old Jack.
Alas for his hopes! he and his head, is guyed by the wives and
his companions are banished the new their husbands and pinched and burned
King's presence, although provided with by the fairies' tapers, is most amusing.
the means to live.
During the fairies' song Fenton steals
MERRY WIVES WINDSOR (printed
away Anne Page and marries her. The
1602) is a play written at the request of doctor, by previous arrangement with
Queen Elizabeth, who wanted to see mother Ford, leads away a fairy in
Falstaff in love. With its air of village green to a priest, only to discover that
domesticity and out-o'-doorness is united he has married a boy. And Slender
the quintessential spirit of fun and wag- barely escapes the same fate; for he
gery. Its gay humor never fails, and leads off to Eton Church another great
its readers always wish it five times as lubberly boy, dressed in white
OF
as
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
own.
a
agreed with Mr. Page. Anne has given fleur, Bardolph, of the purple and bu-
the slip to both father and mother, hav- bukled nose, cries, “On to the breach! »
ing promised her father to wear white very valorously, but is soon hanged for
for Slender and her mother to dress in robbing a church. Le grand Capitaine
green for the doctor. But she dressed Pistol so awes a poor Johnny Crapaud
boy substitutes in white and green, of a prisoner that he offers him two
and fooled them all.
hundred crowns in ransom. Pistol fires
KING HENRY V. is the last of Shake- off some stinging bullets of wit at the
speare's ten great war dramas.
It was
Saint Tavy's day leek in the cap of
first printed in 1600, the materials be- Fluellen, who presently makes him eat
ing derived from Holinshed and the old a leek, giving him the cudgel over the
play on the same subject. Henry IV.
head for sauce. The blackguard hies
is dead, and bluff King Hal is show- him bome to London to swear he got
ing himself to be every inch a king. his scalp wound in the wars.
His claim to the crown of France is Much ADO ABOUT NOTHING was first
solemnly sanctioned. The Dauphin has published in 1600. The mere skeleton of
sent him his merry mock of tennis balls, the serious portions of the drama he
and got his stern answer. The traitors took from Bandello, through Belleforest's
– Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey — have translation; the comic scenes are all his
been sent to their death. The choice
In the portrayal of Beatrice, Bene-
youth of England (and some riff-raff, dick, and Dogberry, he lavishes all his
too, such as Bardolph, Nym, and Pis- skill. The constable Dog berry is hit off
tol) have embarked at Southampton, and to the life, with his irresistibly funny
the threaden sails have drawn the huge malapropisms. He is lovable old
bottoms through the sea to France. The heart-of-gold, who is always taking off
third act opens in the very heat of an his hat to himself and his office, and
attack upon the walls of the seaport of absurdly pardons every crime except the
Harfleur, and King Harry is urging on calling of himself an ass. The scene is
his men in that impassioned speech laid in Messina. Benedick is just home
-Once more unto the breach, dear from the wars. He and Beatrice have
friends » – which thrills the heart like a had some sparring matches before, and
slogan in battle. We also catch glimpses thick and fast now fly the tart and
of the army in Picardy, and finally see merry witticisms between them,- she
it on the eve of Agincourt. The night «the sauciest, most piquant madcap girl
is rainy and dark, the hostile camps are that Shakespeare ever drew, yet genu-
closely joined. King Henry, cheerful inely sympathetic; he a genial wit who
and strong, goes disguised through his tempts fate by his oaths that he will
camp, and finds that whatever the issue
marry.
From the wars comes
of the war may be, he is expected to too Claudio, brave, but a light-weight
bear all the responsibility. A private fop, selfish, and touchy about his honor.
soldier — Williams - impeaches the King's He loves Hero, daughter of Leonato.
good faith, and the disguised Henry Beatrice is the latter's niece, and in his
accepts his glove as a gauge and chal- house and orchard the action mostly
lenge for the morrow. Day dawns, the takes place. The gentlemen lay a merry
fight is on, the dogged English win the plot to ensnare Beatrice and Benedick.
day. Then, as a relief to his nerves, The latter is reading in the orchard, and
Henry has his bit of fun with Williams, overhears their talk about the violent
who has sworn to box the ear of the love of Beatrice for him, and how (Hero
man caught wearing the mate of his has said) she would rather die than con-
glove. The wooing by King Henry of fess it. The bait is eagerly swallowed.
Kate, the French King's daughter, ends Next Beatrice, hearing that Hero and
the play.
But all through the drama Ursula are talking about her in the
runs also a comic vein. The humorous garden, runs, stooping like a lapwing,
characters are Pistol, - now married to and hides her in the honeysuckle arbor.
Nell Quickly,- Bardolph, Nym, and With a strange fire in her ears she over-
Fluellen. Falstaff, his heart «fracted hears how desperately in love with her
and corroborate » by the King's casting is Benedick. The bird is limed; she
of him off, and babbling o' green fields, swears to herself to requite his devotion.
has gone to
Arthur's bosom. ) His Hero's wedding-day is fixed: Claudio is
followers are off for the wars. At Har- the lucky man. But the villain Don John
never
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a
concocts a plot which has most painful and Celia disguised as shepherd men
results -- for twenty-four hours at least. have slipped away with Touchstone.
He takes Claudio and his friend Don Now Rosalind has been deeply smitten
Pedro to the orchard, and shows them, with Orlando since she saw him over-
as it seemed, Hero bidding John's fol- come the duke's wrestler, and he is
lower Borachio a thousand good-nights: | equally in love with her. We may im-
it is really her maid Margaret in her agine her as “a nut-brown maid, tall,
garments. Claudio in a rage allows her strong, rustically clad in rough forest
to go to church, but before the altar garments, and possessing a perennial
scornfully rejects her. Her father is in flow of cheerful spirits, a humor of the
despair, Beatrice nobly indignant and in- freshest and kindliest. Touchstone is a
credulous. Hero swoons, and the officiat- fellow of twinkling eye and dry and
ing friar advises the giving out that she caustic wit, his face as solemn as
is dead from the shock. Claudio believes church-yard while his hearers are all
it, and hangs verses on her tomb. Mean- agrin. He and Jacques look at life with
time Dogberry's famous night-watch a cynical squint. Jacques is a blasé lib-
have overheard Borachio confess the vil- ertine, who is pleased when things run
lainous practice of John and himself. counter and athwart with people, but is
Then Hero's joyful friends plan a little after all not so bad as he feigns to be.
surprise for Claudio. Leonato makes Like a series of dissolving views, scene
him promise, in reparation, to marry a after scene is glimpsed through the for-
cousin of Hero's, who turns out to be est glades,- here the forester lords sing-
Hero herself come to life. A double ing, and bearing the antlers of the stag;
wedding follows, for Benedick willingly there love-sick Orlando carving verses
suffers himself to be chaffed for eating on the bark of trees, or rescuing his
his words and becoming “the married brother from the lion. The youth
man. ) Yet both he and Beatrice vow Ganymede (really Rosalind) pretends
they take each other only out of pity. she can cure Orlando of his love-sick-
As You LIKE IT. -In this happiest of ness by teaching him to woo him as if
his middle-period comedies, Shakespeare he were Rosalind, all of which makes a
is at no pains to avoid a tinge of the pretty pastoral picture. Anon Touch-
fantastical and ideal. Its realism lies in
stone passes by, leading by the hand
its gay riant feeling. the fresh woodland the captive of his spear, Audrey, who
sentiment, the exhilaration of spirits has never heard of poetry; or in another
that attend the escape from the artifi- part of the woodland he is busy mysti-
cialities of urban society. For one rea- fying and guying the shepherd Corin.
or another all the characters get Ganymede gets the heartless coquette
exiled, and all meet in the Forest of Phebe to promise that if she ever re-
Arden, where (as you like it is the fuses to wed him (with whom she is
order of the day. There is the manly smitten) she will wed her scorned and
young Orlando, his villainous elder despairing admirer Silvius, and makes
brother Oliver, and their servant Adam. her father promise to give Rosalind to
At court is the reigning duke, his Orlando; then retires and comes back in
daughter Celia, her cousin Rosalind, her own garments as Rosalind. The
and Touchstone the clown. In the for- play ends with a fourfold marriage and
est, the banished elder duke (father of a dance under the trees.
Rosalind) and the melancholy Jacques, TWELFTH Night, Or What You Will,
and other lords who are blowzed with is a delightfully humorous comedy. An
and wind a-chasing the dappled item in the manuscript diary of John
deer under the greenwood tree; the Manningham shows that it was played
pealing bugle, the leaping arrow. the February 2d, 1601, in the fine old hall of
al fresco table loaded with the juicy the Middle Temple, London, - a hall still
roast of venison, and long idle summer in existence. The twelfth night after
hours of leisurely converse.
On the out- Christmas was anciently given up to
skirts of the forest are shepherd swains sport and games; hence the name. The
and lasses,-old Corin, Silvius (in love fresh, gay feeling of a whistling plow-
with Phebe), and the wench Audrey. boy in June was the mood of the writer
Orlando has had to fly from his murder- of (Twelfth Night. ) Tipsy Sir Toby's
ous brother. Rosalind has been ban- humor is catching; his brain is like a
ished the court by her uncle, and she bottle of champagne; his heels are
son
sun
>
as
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cut
light as his head, and one feels he could after frightening each nearly out of his
a pigeon-wing with capering Sir wits with stories of the other's ferocity,
Andrew to make all split,” or sing a at length gets them for form's sake to
song “to make the welkin dance. » The draw their swords; when in comes Cap-
scene is a seaport city of Illyria, where tain Antonio, and mistaking Cesario for
a sentimental young duke is fallen into Sebastian, takes his part. In the mean
a love-melancholy over the pitiless lady time, Olivia has married Sebastian by
Olivia. Now the fair Viola and her mistake for Cesario, and the two knights
brother Sebastian, --strikingly alike in both get their heads broken through a
feature, - unknown to each other reach similar misunderstanding; for however
the same city, Sebastian in company it may be with Cesario, Sebastian is “a
with his friend Captain Antonio. Viola very devil incardinate with his sword.
enters the service of the duke as a page, Presently Sebastian and Cesario meet,
in garments such as her brother wore. and the mystery is solved: Viola avows
With the rich Olivia dwell her Puritan- her sex, and marries the duke, whom
ical steward Malvolio, her kinsman Sir she ardently loves.
Toby Belch, and her maid Maria, and Julius CÆSAR. — The material for this
other servants. Olivia has a suitor, and stately drama, the noblest of Shakes-
Sir Toby an echo, in the lean-witted Sir peare's historical plays, was taken from
Andrew Aguecheek. Malvolio is unpopu-
Plutarch. The action covers nearly two
lar: he thinks because he is virtuous
years, — 44 to 42 B. C. The dramatic
there shall be no more cakes and ale; treatment, and all the splendid portrait-
but Maria lays a trap for his vanity, ure and ornamentation, cluster around
which is fathoms deep. She drops a two points or nodes, - the passing of
mysterious letter in Malvolio's path, Cæsar to the Capitol and his assassina-
penned in Olivia's hand («her very C's, tion there, and the battle of Philippi.
her U's, and her T's”). The letter Of the three chief conspirators,— Brutus,
begins with “MOAI doth sway my Cassius, and Casca, — Brutus had the
life, ” bids him be opposite with a kins- purest motives: (all the conspirators,
man and surly with servants, recall who save only he, did that they did in envy
commended his yellow stockings and of great Cæsar”; but Brutus, while lov-
wished to see him cross-gartered, and ing him, slew him for his ambition and
remember that
have greatness to serve his country. His very virtues
thrust upon them. He swallows the wrought Brutus's ruin: he was too gen-
bait, and makes himself such a ridicu- erous and unsuspecting. The lean-faced
lous ass that Olivia thinks him out of Cassius gave him good practical advice:
his wits, and Sir Toby has him bound — first, to take off Antony too; and sec-
and put into a dark room. Malvolio has ond, not to allow him to make an oration
called the clown (a barren rascal, » and
Cæsar's body. Brutus overruled
this keen-witted lovable fellow now has him: he spoke to the fickle populace
a delicious bit of retaliation. Assuming first, and told them that Antony spoke
the voice of the curate Sir Topas, he only by permission of the patriots. The
assures him that until he can hold the eloquent and subtle Antony seized the
opinion of Pythagoras that the soul of advantage of the last word, and swayed
his grandam might haply inhabit a bird, all hearts to his will. There lay the
he shall not advise his release. Then body of the world-conqueror and winner
resuming his own voice he indulges in of hearts, now a mere piece of bleeding
more excellent fooling. When last seen earth, with none so poor to do him rev-
Malvolio is free, and bolting out of the erence. Antony had but to hold up the
swears he will be «revenged on toga with its dagger-rents and show the
the whole pack of them. To return: pitiful spectacle of the hacked body, and
Viola (as “Cesario”) becomes the duke's read the will of Cæsar,—giving each
messenger
Olivia by proxy. citizen a neat sum of money, and to all
Olivia falls desperately in love with the a beautiful park for their recreations, –
messenger; and when Aguecheek spies to excite them a frenzy of rage
her showing him favors, he is egged on against the patriots. These fly from
by roguish Sir Toby to write him a Rome, and, drawing their forces to a
challenge. But Cesario is afraid of the head at Philippi, are beaten by Octavius
very sight of naked steel, and Sir An- Cæsar and Antony. Both Brutus and
drew is an arrant coward. Sir Toby, Cassius fall upon their swords. The
some
over
room
to
WOO
to
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393
men
nerves
great “show” passages of the play are Ophelia; kills the wary old counselor Polo-
the speech of the tribune Marullus (“O nius; and is sent off to England under
you hard hearts, you cruel
of the escort of the treacherous courtiers
Rome”); the speeches of Antony by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to be put
Pompey's statue (“O mighty Cæsar! to death. On the way he rises in the
dost thou lie so low? »-«Here wast night, unseals their murderous commis-
thou bayed, brave hart. ” – “Over thy sion, rewrites it, and seals it with his
wounds now do I prophesy”); and of father's ring, having worded it so that
Brutus and Antony in the rostrum (“Not they themselves shall be the victims
that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved when they reach England. In a fight
Rome more »); and “I come to bury with pirates Hamlet boards their ship,
Cæsar, not to praise him”,- these, to- and is conveyed by them back to Den-
gether with the quarrel and reconcilia- mark, where he tells his adventures to
tion of Brutus and Cassius in the tent his faithful friend Horatio. At Ophe-
at Philippi. Certain episodes, too, are lia's grave he encounters Laertes, her
deservedly famous: such as the descrip- brother; and presently, in a fencing
tion by blunt-speaking, superstitious bout with him, is killed by Laertes's
Casca of the night-storm of thunder and poisoned sword, but not before he has
lightning and rain (the ghosts, the surly- stabbed his treacherous uncle and forced
glaring lion, and other portents); the the fatal cup of poison down his throat.
dispute at Brutus's house about the His mother Gertrude has just died from
points of the compass (“Yon grey lines accidentally drinking the same poison,
that fret the clouds are messengers of prepared by the King for Hamlet. The
day”); the scenes in which that type old threadbare question, «Was Hamlet
of loyal wifeliness, Portia, appears (the
insane? » is hardly an open question
wound she gave herself to prove her nowadays. The verdict is that he was
fortitude, and her sad death by swal- not. The strain upon his
of
lowing fire); and finally the pretty scene discovering his father's murderer, yet
in the last act, of the little page falling in such a manner that he could not
asleep over his musical instrument, in prove it (i. l. , by the agency of a
the tent in the dead silence of the small ghost), was so great that he verges on
hours of morning, when by the wan- insanity, and this suggests to him the
ing taper as he read, Brutus saw the feigning of it. But if you deprive him
ghost of murdered Cæsar glide before wholly of reason, you destroy our in-
him, a premonition of his death on the terest in the play.
morrow at Philippi.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA is one of the
Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest and later products of Shakespeare's pen.
most famous play. It draws when Whether he got his facts from Chaucer,
acted as full a house to-day as it ever or from mediæval tales about Troy, is
did. It is the drama of the intellect, uncertain. The drama is his wisest play,
of the soul, of man, of domestic tra- and yet the least pleasing as a whole,
gedy. Five quarto editions appeared owing to the free talk of the detestable
during the poet's life, the first in 1603.
parts); and (Richard III. ) – Henry IV. (See (Henry VI. ') Still a popular play
was
on
an
.
son
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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
bond pledging that if he shall fail his
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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
XXX-25
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
on
>
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
new
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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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acts
a
SO
1
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
«Uneasy
on
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
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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. Further, sitting in the merry wives, Mrs. Ford and Mrs.
the Dolphin chamber by a sea-coal fire, Page, and their families; then Shallow
had he not sworn upon a parcel-gilt gob- (the country justice), with his cousin of
let to marry her ? But the merry old
the <
wee little face and little yellow
villain deludes her still more, and she beard » (Slender), and the latter's man
now pawns her plate and tapestry for Simple; further Dr. Caius, the French
him. Now enter Prince Hal and Poins physician, who speaks broken English,
from the wars, and ribald and coarse are as does Parson Hugh Evans, the Welsh-
the scenes unveiled. Dame Quickly has man; lastly Dame Quickly (the doctor's
deteriorated: in the last act of this play housekeeper), and Master Fenton, in
she is shown being dragged to prison love with sweet Anne Page. Shallow
with Doll Tearsheet, to answer the death has a grievance against Sir John for
of a man at her inn. The accounts of killing his deer; and Slender has matter
the trull Doll, and her billingsgate talk in his head against him, for Sir John
with Pistol, are too unsavory to be en- broke it. But Falstaff and his men out-
tirely pleasant reading; and one gladly face the two cheese-parings, and they
turns from the atmosphere of the slums forget their “pribbles and prabbles » in
to the fresh country air of Gloucester- the parson's scheme of marrying Slender
shire, where, at Justice Shallow's manse, to Anne Page. But the irascible doctor
Falstaff is pricking down » his new has looked that way too, and sends a
recruits, - Mouldy, Feeble, Wart, etc. shallenge to Evans. Mine host fools
Shallow is like a forked radish with a them both by sending each to a separate
beard carved on it, or a man made out place for the duel. They make friends,
of a cheese-paring. He is given to tell- and avenge themselves on the Boniface
ing big stories about what a wild rake by getting his horses run off with. Fal-
he was at Clement's Inn in his youth. staff sends identically worded love-letters
Sir John swindles the poor fellow out of to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, hoping to
a thousand pounds. But listen to Shal- replenish his purse from their husbands
low: «Let me see, Davy; let me see, gold. But Pistol and Nym, in revenge
Davy; let me see. ” «Sow the headland for dismissal, peach to said husbands.
with red wheat, Davy; » «Let the smith's The jealous Ford visits Falstaff under
note for shoeing and plough-irons be the name of Brook, and offers him a
cast and paid. ” “Nay, Sir John, you bag of gold if he will seduce Mrs. Ford
shall see my orchard, where, in an arbor, for him. Jack assures him that he has
we shall eat a last year's pippin of my an appointment with her that very day.
own graffing, with a dish of caraways And so he has. But the two wives pun-
and so forth. ) Amid right merry chaff- ish him badly, and he gets nothing from
ing and drinking enters Pistol with news them but a cast out of a buck-basket
of the crowning of Henry V. «Away, into a dirty ditch, and a sound beating
Bardolph! saddle my horse; we'll ride from Ford. The midnight scene in
all night; boot, boot, Master Shallow, I Windsor Park, where Falstaff, disguised
know the King is sick for me," shouts as Herne the Hunter, with stag-horns on
old Jack.
Alas for his hopes! he and his head, is guyed by the wives and
his companions are banished the new their husbands and pinched and burned
King's presence, although provided with by the fairies' tapers, is most amusing.
the means to live.
During the fairies' song Fenton steals
MERRY WIVES WINDSOR (printed
away Anne Page and marries her. The
1602) is a play written at the request of doctor, by previous arrangement with
Queen Elizabeth, who wanted to see mother Ford, leads away a fairy in
Falstaff in love. With its air of village green to a priest, only to discover that
domesticity and out-o'-doorness is united he has married a boy. And Slender
the quintessential spirit of fun and wag- barely escapes the same fate; for he
gery. Its gay humor never fails, and leads off to Eton Church another great
its readers always wish it five times as lubberly boy, dressed in white
OF
as
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
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a
agreed with Mr. Page. Anne has given fleur, Bardolph, of the purple and bu-
the slip to both father and mother, hav- bukled nose, cries, “On to the breach! »
ing promised her father to wear white very valorously, but is soon hanged for
for Slender and her mother to dress in robbing a church. Le grand Capitaine
green for the doctor. But she dressed Pistol so awes a poor Johnny Crapaud
boy substitutes in white and green, of a prisoner that he offers him two
and fooled them all.
hundred crowns in ransom. Pistol fires
KING HENRY V. is the last of Shake- off some stinging bullets of wit at the
speare's ten great war dramas.
It was
Saint Tavy's day leek in the cap of
first printed in 1600, the materials be- Fluellen, who presently makes him eat
ing derived from Holinshed and the old a leek, giving him the cudgel over the
play on the same subject. Henry IV.
head for sauce. The blackguard hies
is dead, and bluff King Hal is show- him bome to London to swear he got
ing himself to be every inch a king. his scalp wound in the wars.
His claim to the crown of France is Much ADO ABOUT NOTHING was first
solemnly sanctioned. The Dauphin has published in 1600. The mere skeleton of
sent him his merry mock of tennis balls, the serious portions of the drama he
and got his stern answer. The traitors took from Bandello, through Belleforest's
– Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey — have translation; the comic scenes are all his
been sent to their death. The choice
In the portrayal of Beatrice, Bene-
youth of England (and some riff-raff, dick, and Dogberry, he lavishes all his
too, such as Bardolph, Nym, and Pis- skill. The constable Dog berry is hit off
tol) have embarked at Southampton, and to the life, with his irresistibly funny
the threaden sails have drawn the huge malapropisms. He is lovable old
bottoms through the sea to France. The heart-of-gold, who is always taking off
third act opens in the very heat of an his hat to himself and his office, and
attack upon the walls of the seaport of absurdly pardons every crime except the
Harfleur, and King Harry is urging on calling of himself an ass. The scene is
his men in that impassioned speech laid in Messina. Benedick is just home
-Once more unto the breach, dear from the wars. He and Beatrice have
friends » – which thrills the heart like a had some sparring matches before, and
slogan in battle. We also catch glimpses thick and fast now fly the tart and
of the army in Picardy, and finally see merry witticisms between them,- she
it on the eve of Agincourt. The night «the sauciest, most piquant madcap girl
is rainy and dark, the hostile camps are that Shakespeare ever drew, yet genu-
closely joined. King Henry, cheerful inely sympathetic; he a genial wit who
and strong, goes disguised through his tempts fate by his oaths that he will
camp, and finds that whatever the issue
marry.
From the wars comes
of the war may be, he is expected to too Claudio, brave, but a light-weight
bear all the responsibility. A private fop, selfish, and touchy about his honor.
soldier — Williams - impeaches the King's He loves Hero, daughter of Leonato.
good faith, and the disguised Henry Beatrice is the latter's niece, and in his
accepts his glove as a gauge and chal- house and orchard the action mostly
lenge for the morrow. Day dawns, the takes place. The gentlemen lay a merry
fight is on, the dogged English win the plot to ensnare Beatrice and Benedick.
day. Then, as a relief to his nerves, The latter is reading in the orchard, and
Henry has his bit of fun with Williams, overhears their talk about the violent
who has sworn to box the ear of the love of Beatrice for him, and how (Hero
man caught wearing the mate of his has said) she would rather die than con-
glove. The wooing by King Henry of fess it. The bait is eagerly swallowed.
Kate, the French King's daughter, ends Next Beatrice, hearing that Hero and
the play.
But all through the drama Ursula are talking about her in the
runs also a comic vein. The humorous garden, runs, stooping like a lapwing,
characters are Pistol, - now married to and hides her in the honeysuckle arbor.
Nell Quickly,- Bardolph, Nym, and With a strange fire in her ears she over-
Fluellen. Falstaff, his heart «fracted hears how desperately in love with her
and corroborate » by the King's casting is Benedick. The bird is limed; she
of him off, and babbling o' green fields, swears to herself to requite his devotion.
has gone to
Arthur's bosom. ) His Hero's wedding-day is fixed: Claudio is
followers are off for the wars. At Har- the lucky man. But the villain Don John
never
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a
concocts a plot which has most painful and Celia disguised as shepherd men
results -- for twenty-four hours at least. have slipped away with Touchstone.
He takes Claudio and his friend Don Now Rosalind has been deeply smitten
Pedro to the orchard, and shows them, with Orlando since she saw him over-
as it seemed, Hero bidding John's fol- come the duke's wrestler, and he is
lower Borachio a thousand good-nights: | equally in love with her. We may im-
it is really her maid Margaret in her agine her as “a nut-brown maid, tall,
garments. Claudio in a rage allows her strong, rustically clad in rough forest
to go to church, but before the altar garments, and possessing a perennial
scornfully rejects her. Her father is in flow of cheerful spirits, a humor of the
despair, Beatrice nobly indignant and in- freshest and kindliest. Touchstone is a
credulous. Hero swoons, and the officiat- fellow of twinkling eye and dry and
ing friar advises the giving out that she caustic wit, his face as solemn as
is dead from the shock. Claudio believes church-yard while his hearers are all
it, and hangs verses on her tomb. Mean- agrin. He and Jacques look at life with
time Dogberry's famous night-watch a cynical squint. Jacques is a blasé lib-
have overheard Borachio confess the vil- ertine, who is pleased when things run
lainous practice of John and himself. counter and athwart with people, but is
Then Hero's joyful friends plan a little after all not so bad as he feigns to be.
surprise for Claudio. Leonato makes Like a series of dissolving views, scene
him promise, in reparation, to marry a after scene is glimpsed through the for-
cousin of Hero's, who turns out to be est glades,- here the forester lords sing-
Hero herself come to life. A double ing, and bearing the antlers of the stag;
wedding follows, for Benedick willingly there love-sick Orlando carving verses
suffers himself to be chaffed for eating on the bark of trees, or rescuing his
his words and becoming “the married brother from the lion. The youth
man. ) Yet both he and Beatrice vow Ganymede (really Rosalind) pretends
they take each other only out of pity. she can cure Orlando of his love-sick-
As You LIKE IT. -In this happiest of ness by teaching him to woo him as if
his middle-period comedies, Shakespeare he were Rosalind, all of which makes a
is at no pains to avoid a tinge of the pretty pastoral picture. Anon Touch-
fantastical and ideal. Its realism lies in
stone passes by, leading by the hand
its gay riant feeling. the fresh woodland the captive of his spear, Audrey, who
sentiment, the exhilaration of spirits has never heard of poetry; or in another
that attend the escape from the artifi- part of the woodland he is busy mysti-
cialities of urban society. For one rea- fying and guying the shepherd Corin.
or another all the characters get Ganymede gets the heartless coquette
exiled, and all meet in the Forest of Phebe to promise that if she ever re-
Arden, where (as you like it is the fuses to wed him (with whom she is
order of the day. There is the manly smitten) she will wed her scorned and
young Orlando, his villainous elder despairing admirer Silvius, and makes
brother Oliver, and their servant Adam. her father promise to give Rosalind to
At court is the reigning duke, his Orlando; then retires and comes back in
daughter Celia, her cousin Rosalind, her own garments as Rosalind. The
and Touchstone the clown. In the for- play ends with a fourfold marriage and
est, the banished elder duke (father of a dance under the trees.
Rosalind) and the melancholy Jacques, TWELFTH Night, Or What You Will,
and other lords who are blowzed with is a delightfully humorous comedy. An
and wind a-chasing the dappled item in the manuscript diary of John
deer under the greenwood tree; the Manningham shows that it was played
pealing bugle, the leaping arrow. the February 2d, 1601, in the fine old hall of
al fresco table loaded with the juicy the Middle Temple, London, - a hall still
roast of venison, and long idle summer in existence. The twelfth night after
hours of leisurely converse.
On the out- Christmas was anciently given up to
skirts of the forest are shepherd swains sport and games; hence the name. The
and lasses,-old Corin, Silvius (in love fresh, gay feeling of a whistling plow-
with Phebe), and the wench Audrey. boy in June was the mood of the writer
Orlando has had to fly from his murder- of (Twelfth Night. ) Tipsy Sir Toby's
ous brother. Rosalind has been ban- humor is catching; his brain is like a
ished the court by her uncle, and she bottle of champagne; his heels are
son
sun
>
as
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cut
light as his head, and one feels he could after frightening each nearly out of his
a pigeon-wing with capering Sir wits with stories of the other's ferocity,
Andrew to make all split,” or sing a at length gets them for form's sake to
song “to make the welkin dance. » The draw their swords; when in comes Cap-
scene is a seaport city of Illyria, where tain Antonio, and mistaking Cesario for
a sentimental young duke is fallen into Sebastian, takes his part. In the mean
a love-melancholy over the pitiless lady time, Olivia has married Sebastian by
Olivia. Now the fair Viola and her mistake for Cesario, and the two knights
brother Sebastian, --strikingly alike in both get their heads broken through a
feature, - unknown to each other reach similar misunderstanding; for however
the same city, Sebastian in company it may be with Cesario, Sebastian is “a
with his friend Captain Antonio. Viola very devil incardinate with his sword.
enters the service of the duke as a page, Presently Sebastian and Cesario meet,
in garments such as her brother wore. and the mystery is solved: Viola avows
With the rich Olivia dwell her Puritan- her sex, and marries the duke, whom
ical steward Malvolio, her kinsman Sir she ardently loves.
Toby Belch, and her maid Maria, and Julius CÆSAR. — The material for this
other servants. Olivia has a suitor, and stately drama, the noblest of Shakes-
Sir Toby an echo, in the lean-witted Sir peare's historical plays, was taken from
Andrew Aguecheek. Malvolio is unpopu-
Plutarch. The action covers nearly two
lar: he thinks because he is virtuous
years, — 44 to 42 B. C. The dramatic
there shall be no more cakes and ale; treatment, and all the splendid portrait-
but Maria lays a trap for his vanity, ure and ornamentation, cluster around
which is fathoms deep. She drops a two points or nodes, - the passing of
mysterious letter in Malvolio's path, Cæsar to the Capitol and his assassina-
penned in Olivia's hand («her very C's, tion there, and the battle of Philippi.
her U's, and her T's”). The letter Of the three chief conspirators,— Brutus,
begins with “MOAI doth sway my Cassius, and Casca, — Brutus had the
life, ” bids him be opposite with a kins- purest motives: (all the conspirators,
man and surly with servants, recall who save only he, did that they did in envy
commended his yellow stockings and of great Cæsar”; but Brutus, while lov-
wished to see him cross-gartered, and ing him, slew him for his ambition and
remember that
have greatness to serve his country. His very virtues
thrust upon them. He swallows the wrought Brutus's ruin: he was too gen-
bait, and makes himself such a ridicu- erous and unsuspecting. The lean-faced
lous ass that Olivia thinks him out of Cassius gave him good practical advice:
his wits, and Sir Toby has him bound — first, to take off Antony too; and sec-
and put into a dark room. Malvolio has ond, not to allow him to make an oration
called the clown (a barren rascal, » and
Cæsar's body. Brutus overruled
this keen-witted lovable fellow now has him: he spoke to the fickle populace
a delicious bit of retaliation. Assuming first, and told them that Antony spoke
the voice of the curate Sir Topas, he only by permission of the patriots. The
assures him that until he can hold the eloquent and subtle Antony seized the
opinion of Pythagoras that the soul of advantage of the last word, and swayed
his grandam might haply inhabit a bird, all hearts to his will. There lay the
he shall not advise his release. Then body of the world-conqueror and winner
resuming his own voice he indulges in of hearts, now a mere piece of bleeding
more excellent fooling. When last seen earth, with none so poor to do him rev-
Malvolio is free, and bolting out of the erence. Antony had but to hold up the
swears he will be «revenged on toga with its dagger-rents and show the
the whole pack of them. To return: pitiful spectacle of the hacked body, and
Viola (as “Cesario”) becomes the duke's read the will of Cæsar,—giving each
messenger
Olivia by proxy. citizen a neat sum of money, and to all
Olivia falls desperately in love with the a beautiful park for their recreations, –
messenger; and when Aguecheek spies to excite them a frenzy of rage
her showing him favors, he is egged on against the patriots. These fly from
by roguish Sir Toby to write him a Rome, and, drawing their forces to a
challenge. But Cesario is afraid of the head at Philippi, are beaten by Octavius
very sight of naked steel, and Sir An- Cæsar and Antony. Both Brutus and
drew is an arrant coward. Sir Toby, Cassius fall upon their swords. The
some
over
room
to
WOO
to
## p. 393 (#429) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
393
men
nerves
great “show” passages of the play are Ophelia; kills the wary old counselor Polo-
the speech of the tribune Marullus (“O nius; and is sent off to England under
you hard hearts, you cruel
of the escort of the treacherous courtiers
Rome”); the speeches of Antony by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to be put
Pompey's statue (“O mighty Cæsar! to death. On the way he rises in the
dost thou lie so low? »-«Here wast night, unseals their murderous commis-
thou bayed, brave hart. ” – “Over thy sion, rewrites it, and seals it with his
wounds now do I prophesy”); and of father's ring, having worded it so that
Brutus and Antony in the rostrum (“Not they themselves shall be the victims
that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved when they reach England. In a fight
Rome more »); and “I come to bury with pirates Hamlet boards their ship,
Cæsar, not to praise him”,- these, to- and is conveyed by them back to Den-
gether with the quarrel and reconcilia- mark, where he tells his adventures to
tion of Brutus and Cassius in the tent his faithful friend Horatio. At Ophe-
at Philippi. Certain episodes, too, are lia's grave he encounters Laertes, her
deservedly famous: such as the descrip- brother; and presently, in a fencing
tion by blunt-speaking, superstitious bout with him, is killed by Laertes's
Casca of the night-storm of thunder and poisoned sword, but not before he has
lightning and rain (the ghosts, the surly- stabbed his treacherous uncle and forced
glaring lion, and other portents); the the fatal cup of poison down his throat.
dispute at Brutus's house about the His mother Gertrude has just died from
points of the compass (“Yon grey lines accidentally drinking the same poison,
that fret the clouds are messengers of prepared by the King for Hamlet. The
day”); the scenes in which that type old threadbare question, «Was Hamlet
of loyal wifeliness, Portia, appears (the
insane? » is hardly an open question
wound she gave herself to prove her nowadays. The verdict is that he was
fortitude, and her sad death by swal- not. The strain upon his
of
lowing fire); and finally the pretty scene discovering his father's murderer, yet
in the last act, of the little page falling in such a manner that he could not
asleep over his musical instrument, in prove it (i. l. , by the agency of a
the tent in the dead silence of the small ghost), was so great that he verges on
hours of morning, when by the wan- insanity, and this suggests to him the
ing taper as he read, Brutus saw the feigning of it. But if you deprive him
ghost of murdered Cæsar glide before wholly of reason, you destroy our in-
him, a premonition of his death on the terest in the play.
morrow at Philippi.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA is one of the
Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest and later products of Shakespeare's pen.
most famous play. It draws when Whether he got his facts from Chaucer,
acted as full a house to-day as it ever or from mediæval tales about Troy, is
did. It is the drama of the intellect, uncertain. The drama is his wisest play,
of the soul, of man, of domestic tra- and yet the least pleasing as a whole,
gedy. Five quarto editions appeared owing to the free talk of the detestable
during the poet's life, the first in 1603.
