No More Learning

Some have thought the
old black-letter quarto, «The Historie of piece to be an ironical and satirical bur-
Hamblet, translated from the French of lesque of Homer. There is very little
Belleforest, who in turn translated it plot. The young Trojan, Troilus, in love
from the Danish History of Saxo Gram- with Cressida, is brave as a lion in battle
maticus. Some time in winter (“C'tis bit- and green as a goose in knowledge of
ter cold”), the scene opens on a terrace
(But “to be wise and love ex-
in front of the castle of Kronberg in ceeds man's might. ”) His amour, fur-
Elsinore, Denmark. The ghost of his thered by Cressida's uncle, Pandarus, is
father appears to Hamlet, - moody and scarcely begun when Cressida is ex-
depressed over his mother's marriage changed for a Trojan prisoner and led
with Claudius, her brother-in-law. Ham- off by Diomed to the Greek camp. On
let learns from his father the fatal arriving, she allows herself to be kissed
secret of his death at the hands of by the Greek generals, whom she sees
Claudius. He devises the court-play as for the first time; as Ulysses says,
a trap in which to catch his uncle's « There's language in her eye, her cheek.
conscience; breaks his engagement with her lip. She has just vowed eternil
women.


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((
»
loyalty to Troilus too. But she is any- terpieces of tragedy. The bare outline
body's Cressid; and with anguish un- of the story came to him from Cinthio's
speakable, Troilus later overhears her (Il Moro di Venezia. It is the story of
making an appointment with Diomed, one who loved not wisely, but too well;
and sees her give him his own remem-
of one
not easily jealous, but being
brance pledge. By gross flattery of the wrought, perplexed in the extreme. »
beef-witted Ajax, the wily Greek leaders Othello has a rich exotic nature, a heroic
get him to fight Hector. But Hector tenderness, quick sense of honor, child-
and he are related by blood, and after like trust yet fiercest passion when
some sparring and hewing they shake wronged in his soul. In lago we have a
hands. Hector is then feasted in the werewolf's face behind a mask of stout-
Grecian tents. The big conceited bully est honesty; he is one to whom goodness
Achilles, “having his ear full of his airy is sheer silliness and cruel craft a fine
fame, has grown dainty of his worth; prudence. The Moor has wedded Des-
and finding his reputation «shrewdly | demona, and from Venice sailed to
gored” by his long inactivity, and by Cyprus, followed by Roderigo, who is
the praise Ajax is getting, and espe- in love with her and is a tool of lago.
cially spurred on by the death of Patro- Iago hates Othello for appointing Cassio
clus, at length comes into the field, but his lieutenant, leaving him to be his
plays the contemptible coward's part by humble standard-bearer. He also suspects
surprising Hector with his armor
off
him of having cuckolded him, and for
and having his Myrmidons butcher him. mere suspicion in that kind will diet his
Thersites is a scurvy, foul-mouthed fel- revenge by trying to pay him off wife
low, who does nothing but rail, exhaust- for wife, or failing that, to poison his
ing the language of vile epithets, and happiness forever by jealousy. And he
hitting off very shrewdly the weak points wants Cassio's place. He persuades Rod-
of his betters, who give him frequent erigo that Cassio and Desdemona are in
fist-beatings for his pains. The great love, and that if he is to prosper, Cassio
speeches of Ulysses, Agamemnon, and must be degraded from office or killed.
Nestor all breathe the selfsame tone of The loyal Cassio has a poor brain for
profound sagacity and insight into human drink, Iago gets him tipsy and involved
nature. They have the mint-stamp of in a fray, and then has the garrison
but one soul, and that Shakespeare's. alarmed by the bell. Othello dismisses
Homer's sketches of the Greek leaders Cassio from office.
man,
are the merest Flaxman outlines; but smitten with deep shame and despair, is
Shakespeare throws the Röntgen rays advised by <honest » Iago to seek the
of his powerful analysis quite through mediation of the divine Desdemona, and
their souls, endowing them with the out of this he will work his ruin; for he
subtlest thoughts, and through their craftily instills into the mind of Othello
masks utters such sentences as these:- that his wife intercedes for Cassio as for
« The ample proposition that hope makes
a paramour, and brings him where he
In all designs begun on earth below,
sees Cassio making his suit to her, but
Fails in the promised largeness. ”
retiring when he perceives Othello in
« One touch of nature makes the whole world
the distance. “Ha! I like not that,
kin, -
says Iago. And then, forced to disclose
That all with one consent praise new-born his thought, he reminds the Moor that
gauds. "
Desdemona deceived her father by her
« Keep then the path;
secret marriage, and may deceive him;
For emulation hath a thousand sons
That one by one pursue : if you give way,
also tells a diabolically false tale of his
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, sleeping with Cassio, and how he talked
Like to an entered tide they all rush by
in his sleep about his amour with Desde-
And leave you hindmost. ”
mona. Othello had given his wife a talis-
There are no other scenes in Shakes- manic embroidered handkerchief, sewed
peare so packed with sound and sea- by a sibyl in her prophetic fury. Iago
soned wisdom as the third of Act i. and had often urged his wife Emilia to steal
the third of Act iii. in (Troilus and this «napkin, and when he gets it he
Cressida. )
drops it in Cassio's chamber. The Moor
OTHELLO, THE Moor OF VENICE, ranks sees it in his lieutenant's hands, and
with Hamlet,) Lear,' and Macbeth, further sees him laughing and gesturing
as one of Shakespeare's four great mas- about Bianca, a common strumpet, and
The poor


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>>
is told by Iago that Desdemona and his her brother to her as the price of her
adventures with her were Cassio's theme. chastity. Isabella has plenty of hot
When, finally, the honest,” “trusty blood and moral indignation. She re-
lago tells him that Cassio had confessed fuses with noble scorn; and when her
all to him, the tortured man throws his brother begs his life at her hands, bids
last doubt to the winds, and resolves him die rather than see her dishonored.
on the death of Cassio and Desdemona The duke, disguised as a friar, has over-
both. Cassio is only wounded; but the heard in the prison her splendid defense
gentle Desdemona, who, all heart-broken of virtue, and proposes a plan for sav-
and foreboding, has retired, is awaked ing her virtue and her brother's life
by Othello's last kisses (for his love is too. It is this: There dwells alone, in
not wholly quenched), and after a terri- a certain moated grange, forgotten and
ble talk, is smothered by him where she forlorn now these five years, Mariana,
lies, – reviving for a moment, after the legally affianced to Lord Angelo, and
entrance of Emilia, to assert that Othello who loves him still, although owing to
is innocent and that she killed herself. the loss of her dowry he has cast her
The Moor avows the deed, however, off. The friar-duke proposes that Isa-
both to Emilia and to two Venetian offi- bella shall feign compliance, make an
cials, who have just arrived on State appointment, and then send Mariana in
business. In the conversation lago's vil- her place. Isabella agrees to risk her
lainy comes to light through Emilia's reputation, and the dejected grass-widow
telling the truth about the handkerchief; is easily won over to meet Angelo by
she is stabbed to death by lago, while night in his brick-walled garden. The
Othello in bitter remorse stabs himself, base deputy, fearing Claudio's revenge
and as he dies imprints a convulsive kiss if he frees him, breaks his promise and
on the cold lips of Desdemona. Iago is
sends word to have him executed. The
led away to torture and death.
duke and the provost of the prison send
MEASURE FOR MEASURE is one of Shakes- Angelo the head of a prisoner (much
peare's later tragi-comedies, the outline like Claudio) who has died overnight:
of the plot taken from the Italian novel- Isabella supposes her brother to be dead.
ist Cinthio and from Whetstone's tra- The duke, entering the city gates in state,
gedy of Promos and Cassandra. ' License in propria persona, hears her petition for
has now for a long while in Vienna run justice. Angelo confesses; and after (by
by the hideous law, as mice by lions; the duke's order) marrying Mariana, is
and the sagacious but eccentric duke pardoned. Indeed, there is a general
attempts to enforce it, especially against amnesty; and the duke takes to wife
sins of lust. The scenes that follow are Isabella, who thus enters upon a wider
gloomy and painful, and search deep sphere of usefulness than that of a
into the conscience; yet all ends happily cloister.
after all. The motif is mercy; a meting Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's great
unto others, measure for measure, as we tragedies of passion, which owes its
would wish them to mete unto us. The great power of fascination to the super-
duke feigns a desire to travel, and ap- natural element, was written about 1605.
points as deputies Angelo and Escalus. The prose story used was found in Hol-
They begin at once to deal with sexual inshed's (Chronicles. The sombre pas-
immorality: Escalus none too severely sions of the soul are painted with a
with a loathsome set of disreputable brush dipped in blood and darkness. In
folk; but Angelo most mercilessly with every scene there is the horror and red-
young Claudio, who, in order to secure ness of blood. The faces of the mur-
dower for his betrothed, had put off dered King Duncan's guards are smeared
legal avowal of their irregular relation with it, it stains the spectral robes of
until her condition had brought the Banquo, flows from the wounds of the
truth to light. Angelo condemns Claudio pretty children of Macduff, and will not
to death. His sister Isabella, about to off from the little hand of the sleep-
enter a nunnery of the votarists of Saint walking Lady Macbeth.
Banquo and
Clare, is induced to plead for his life. Macbeth have just returned from a suc-
As pure as snow, yet, as her (cheek- cessful campaign in the north. On the
roses » show, not cold-blooded, her beauty road they meet three weird sisters, who
ensnares the outward-sainted deputy and predicted for Macbeth kingship, and for
seemer, ) who proposes the release of Banquo that his issue should be kings.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
'Tis very late; the owl has shrieked With the fortunes of the King are in-
good-night; only the lord and lady of terwoven those of Gloster. Lear has
the castle are awake. He, alone and she-devils for daughters (Goneril and
waiting her signal, sees a vision of a Regan), and
one ministering angel,
phantasmal dagger in the air before Cordelia; Gloster has a he-devil for son
him. He enters the chamber. «Hark! (Edmund), and one faithful son, Edgar.
it was but the owl. » – «Who's there? The lustre of goodness in Cordelia,
what ho! »-«I have done the deed: Edgar, Albanyloyal Kent, and the
didst thou not hear a noise ? » In the faithful Fool, redeems human nature, re-
dead silence, as day dawns, comes now dresses the balance. At the time the
a loud knocking at the south entry, and play opens, Lear is magnanimously
the coarse grumbling of the half-awak- dividing his kingdom between his sons-
ened porter brings back the common- in-law Cornwall and Albany. But he
place realities of the day. Macbeth is has already a predisposition to madness,
crowned at Scone. But his fears stick shown by his furious wrath over trifles,
deep in Banquo, and at a state banquet his childish bids for affection, and his
one of his hired murderers whispers him dowering of his favorite daughter Cor-
that Banquo lies dead in a ditch outside. delia with poverty and a perpetual curse,
As he turns he sees the ghost of that simply for a little willful reserve in ex-
nobleman in his seat. « Prithee, see pressing her really profound love for
there! behold! look! » — (Avaunt! and him. Blind impulse alone sways him;
quit my sight! Thy bones are marrow- his passions are like inflammable gas;
less, thy blood is cold; thou hast no for a mere whim he banishes his best
speculation in those eyes which thou friend, Kent. Coming into the palace
dost glare with. ” — «Gentlemen, rise, his of Goneril, after a day's hunt with his
Highness is not well. ” Macbeth, deep in retinue of hundred knights, his
crime, has no resource but to go deeper daughter (a fortnight after her father's
yet and becomes a bloody tyrant; but abdication) calls his men riotous and
ends his career at Dunsinane Castle, asks him to dismiss half of them. Ex-
where the slain king's sons, Malcolm asperated to the point of fury, he rushes
and Macduff, and ten thousand stout out tired and supperless into a wild
English soldiers, meet their friends the night storm; he is cut to the heart by
Scottish patriot forces. The tyrant is her ingratitude. And there before the
fortified in the castle. The witches have hovel, in the presence of Kent, the dis-
told him he shall not perish till Birnam guised Edgar, and the Fool, insanity
wood shall come to Dunsinane, and that sets in and never leaves him until he
no one of woman born shall have mor- dies at Dover by the dead body of Cor-
tal power over him.
But the enemy,
delia. In a hurricane of fearful events
as they approach, cut branches from the action now rushes on: Gloster's eyes
Birnam wood to shadow the number of are plucked out, and he wanders away to
their host. This strikes terror to Mac- Dover, where Cordelia, now Queen of
beth's heart; but relying on the other France, has landed with an army to re-
assurance of the witches, he rushes forth store her father to his rights. Thither,
to battle. He meets the enraged Mac- too, the stricken Lear is borne at night.
duff, learns from him that he (Macduff) The joint queens, most delicate friends,
was ripped untimely from his mother's lust after Edmund. Regan, made
womb, and so is not strictly of woman widow by the death of Cornwall, is
born. With the energy of despair Mac- poisoned by Goneril. Cordelia and Lear
beth attacks him, but is overcome and taken prisoner, and Cordelia is
beheaded.
hanged by Edmund's order. Edmund
LEAR. Shakespeare's great drama, is slain in the trial by combat. Lear
(King Lear,' was written between 1603 dies; Gloster and Kent broken-
and 1606. The bare historical outline of hearted and dying; Regan has stabbed
the story of the King he got probably herself; Edgar and Albany alone sur-
from Holinshed or from an old play, the vive. The Fool in Lear) is a man of
(Chronicle History of Leir); the sad tender feeling, and clings to his old
story of Gloster was found in Sir Philip comrade, the King, as to a brother. His
Sidney's Arcadia. ' The motifs of the jests are like smiles seen through tears;
drama are the wronging of children by they relieve the terrible strain on our
parents and of parents by children. feelings. Edmund is a shade better
a
are
are


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OF
than lago; his bastardy, with its rank-
ling humiliations, is an assignable cause,
though hardly a palliation of his guilt.
TIMON OF ATHENS is by Shakespeare,
either in whole or in part. It is a bitter
satire on friendship and society, written
in the stern sarcastic vein of Juvenal.
The sources of the plot seem to have
been Paynter's Palace of Pleasure,'
Plutarch's (Life of Antony, and
Lucian's Dialogue on Timon. Shakes-
peare's (Timon' is unique both in his os-
tentations and indiscriminate prodigality
and in the bitterness of his misanthropy
after his wealth was gone. Yet he was
of the noblest heart. His sublime faith
that his friends were as generous as he,
and that they were all brothers, com-
manding one another's fortunes, was a
practical error, that was all.
Men were
selfish wolves; he thought them angels.
His bounty was measureless: if a friend
praised a horse 'twas his; if one wanted
a little loan of £5,000 or so, 'twas a
trifle; he portioned his servants and paid
his friends' debts; his vaults wept with
drunken spilth of wine, and every room
blazed with lights and brayed with
minstrelsy; at parting each guest re-
ceived some jewel as a keepsake. When
all was gone, full of cheerful faith he
sent out to his friends to borrow, and
they all with one accord began to make
Not a penny could he get.
Feast won, fast lost.
The smiling,
smooth, detested parasites left him to his
clamorous creditors and to ruin. The
crushing blow to his ideals maddened
him; his blood turned to gall and
vinegar. Yet he determined on one last
banquet. The surprised sycophants
thought he was on his feet again, and
with profuse apologies assembled at his
house. The covered dishes are brought
in. «Uncover dogs, and lap! ) cries the
enraged Timon. The dishes are found
to be full of warm water, which he
throws in their faces, then pelts them
with stones and drives them forth with
execrations, and rushes away to the
woods to henceforth live in a cave and
subsist on roots and berries and curse
mankind. In digging he finds gold.
His old acquaintances visit him in turn,
-Alcibiades, the cynical dog Apemantus,
his faithful steward Flavius, a poet,
a painter, senators of Athens. He curses
them all, flings gold at them, telling
them he gives it that they may use it
for the bale of man, pronounces his
weeping steward the only honest man in
the world, builds his everlasting man-
sion on the beached verge of the salt
food, where «vast Neptune may weep
for aye on his low grave, on faults for-
given, writes his epitaph, and lies down
in the tomb and dies.
PERICLES, PRINCE TYRE, a play
written in part by Shakespeare. His
part in it begins with the magnificent
storm scene in Act iii. ,—«Thou god of
this great vast, rebuke these surges, ” —
« The seaman's whistle is as a whisper
in the ears of death, unheard, etc. The
play was very popular with the masses
for a hundred years. Indeed the roman-
tic plot is enough to make it perennially
interesting and pathetic; the deepest
springs of emotion and of tears are
touched by the scenes in which Pericles
recovers his lost wife and his daughter.
– After certain strange adventures Peri-
cles, Prince of Tyre, arrives with ships
loaded with grain at Tarsus, and feeds
the starving subjects of King Cleon and
Queen Dionyza. Afterwards shipwrecked
by Pentapolis, he recovers from the
waves his suit of armor, and buying a
horse with a jewel, goes to King Simon-
ides's court and jousts for his daughter
Thaisa's love. He marries her, and in
returning to Tyre his wife gives birth,
in the midst of a terrible storm, to a
daughter whom he names Marina. The
mother, supposed dead, is laid by Peri-
cles in a water-tight bitumened chest,
with jewels and spices, etc. , and is thrown
overboard by the sailors, but cast ashore
at Ephesus and restored to life by the
wise and good physician Cerimon. Peri-
cles lands with his infant daughter at
Tarsus, where he leaves her with his old
friends Cleon and Dionyza. The pretty
Marina grows up, and so excites the
hatred of the queen by outshining her
own daughter, that she tries to kill her;
but the girl is rescued by pirates, who
carry her to Mitylene, where she is
bought by the owner of a disreputable ,
house, but escapes to take service as a
kind of companion in an honest family.
The fame of her beauty and accomplish-
ments spreads through the city. One
festal day comes Pericles, sad and ill, in
his ship to Mitylene, and meeting with
Marina, learns from her her story. His
joy is so great that he fears death. By
Diana's command, revealed to him in a
vision, he goes to Ephesus to co ss
before the people and before her
excuse.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
priestess the story of his life. The of-
ficiating priestess turns out to be his
wife Thaisa, who went from the physi-
cian's house to become a ministrant in
the temple of the goddess of chastity.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, written about
1607, is the second of Shakespeare's Ro-
man plays. Julius Cæsar) being the
first. For breadth of treatment and
richness of canvas it excels the latter.
There is a splendid audacity and self-
conscious strength, almost diablerie, in
it all. In Cleopatra, the gipsy sorceress
queen, the gorgeous Oriental voluptuous-
ness is embodied; in the strong-thewed
Antony, the stern soldier-power of Rome
weakened by indulgence in lust. There
is no
more affecting scene in Shakes-
peare than the death, from remorse, of
Enobarbus. In the whole play the poet
follows North's (Plutarch for his facts.
The three rulers of the Roman world
are Mark Antony, Octavius Cæsar, and
their weak tool, Lepidus. While Antony
is idling away the days in Alexandria
with Cleopatra, and giving audience to
Eastern kings, in Italy things are all
askew. His
wife Fulvia has died.
Pompey is in revolt with a strong force
on the high seas. At last Antony is
shamed home to Rome. Lepidus and
other friends patch up a truce between
him and Cæsar, and it is cemented by
Antony marrying Cæsar's sister Octavia,
to the boundless vexation of Cleopatra.
What a contrast between the imperial
Circe, self-willed, wanton, spell-weaving,
and the sweet, gentle Octavia, wifely and
loyal! From the time when Antony first
met his “serpent of old Nile, in that
rich Venetian barge of beaten gold,
wafted by purple sails along the banks of
the Cydnus, up to the fatal day of Ac-
tium, when in her great trireme she fed
from Cæsar's ships, and he shamefully
fied after her, he was infatuated over
her, and she led him to his death. After
the great defeat at Actium, Enobarbus
and other intimate followers deserted the
waning fortunes of Antony. Yet once
more he tried the fortune of battle, and
on the first day was victorious, but on
the second was defeated by sea and
land. Being falsely told that Cleopatra
is dead, Antony falls on his sword.
Cleopatra has taken refuge in her monu-
ment, and she and her women draw up
the dying lover to its top. But the
monument is forced by Cæsar's men,
and the queen put under a guard. She
has poisonous asps smuggled in a basket
of figs, and applies one to her breast
and another to her arm, and so dies,
looking in death like sleep,” and
"As she would catch another Antony
In her strong toil of grace. ”
CORIOLANUS, a powerful drama of
Shakespeare's later years (written about
1609), retells from North's (Plutarch, in
terse sinewy English, the fate that over-
took the too haughty pride of a Roman
patrician,-generous, brave, filial, but a
mere boy in discretion, his soul a dyna-
mo always overcharged with a voltage
current of scorn and rage, and playing
out its live lightnings on the least prov-
ocation. See his fierce temper reflected
in his little boy, grinding his teeth as
he tears a butterfly to pieces: «Oh, I war-
rant how he mammocked it! ) Mark his
strength: Death, that dark spirit, in's
nervy arm doth lie. ” “What an arm he
has! he turned me about with his finger
and thumb as one would set up a top. ”
In battle he was a thing of blood,
whose every motion was timed with
dying cries. ” In the Volscian war, at
the gates of Corioli, this Caius Marcius
performed such deeds of derring-do that
he was nigh worshiped; and there he got
his addition of Coriolanus. ) His scorn
of the rabble, their cowardice, vacillation,
dirty faces, and uncleaned teeth, was
boundless, The patricians were
with
him: if the plebeians rose in riot, accus-
ing the senatorial party of «still cup-
boarding the viand, but never bearing
labor like the rest, Menenius could put
them down with the apologue of the
belly and the members,— the belly, like
the Senate, indeed receiving all, but only
to distribute it to the rest. Coriolanus
goes further, and angers the tribunes by
roundly denying the right of the cowardly
plebs to a distribution of grain in time
of scarcity: The tribunes stir up the
people against him; and when he returns
from the war, wearing the oaken gar-
land and covered with wounds, and seeks
the consulship, they successfully tempt
his temper by taunts, accuse him of
treason, and get him banished by de-
In a towering rage he cries, “You
common cry of curs, I banish you!
” and
taking an affecting farewell of his wife,
and of Volumnia his mother (type of the
stern and proud Roman matron), he
goes disguised to Antium and offers his
services against Rome to his hitherto
cree.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
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mortal foe and rival, Tullus Sufidius. with Pisanio, who discloses all, gets her
The scene with the servants forms the to disguise herself in men's clothes and
sole piece of humor in the play. But seek to enter the service of Lucius, the
his destiny pursues him still: his worser Roman ambassador. She loses her way,
genius, like the Little Master in (Sin- and arrives at the mountain cave in
tram,' whispers him to his ruin; his old Wales where dwell, unknown to her, her
stiff-necked arrogance of manner again two brothers, Guiderius and Arviragus,
appears. The eyes of all the admirant stolen in infancy. Imogen is hospitably
Volscians are
on him.
Sufidius, now received by them under the name of Fi-
bitterly jealous, regrets his sharing of dele. While they are at the chase she
the command; and when, softened by the partakes of a box of drugged medicine
entreaties of weeping wife and mother, which the wicked queen had prepared,
Coriolanus spares Rome and returns with and sinks into a trance resembling
the Volscians to Antium, his rival and death. Her brothers sing her requiem.
a band of conspirators (stain all their In the end Cloten is killed, the paternity
edges” in his blood, and he falls, like of the youths revealed, Iachimo confesses
the great Julius, the victim of his own his crime, and Imogen recovers both her
willful spirit.
husband and her brothers.
CYMBELINE was written by Shakes- A WINTER's TALE, probably the last
peare late in his life, probably about dramatic piece from Shakespeare's pen,
1609. A few facts about Cymbeline and has the serene and cheerful wisdom of
his sons he took from Holinshed; but Cymbeline) and The Tempest. It is
the story of Imogen forms the ninth based on Greene's Pandosto) (1568). In
novel of the second day of Boccaccio's this story, as in Shakespeare, Bohemia
(Decameron. ) These two stories Shakes- is made a maritime country and Del-
peare has interwoven; and the atmo- phos an island. The name "Winter's
sphere of the two is not dissimilar: there Tale) derives partly from the fact that
is a tonic moral quality in Imogen's un- the play opens in winter, and partly
assailable virtue like the bracing mount- from the resemblance of the story to a
ain air in which the royal youths have marvelous tale told by a winter's fire.
been brought up. The beautiful song Like (Othello,' it depicts the tragic re-
(Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun) sults of jealousy, in this case long
a great favorite with Tennyson. years of suffering for both husband and
Cymbeline wanted his daughter Imogen wife, and the purification of the soul of
to marry his stepson Cloten, a boorish the former through remorse, and his
lout and cruel villain, but she has se- final reconciliation with his wronged
cretly married a brave and loyal private queen. Leontes, king of Sicily, unlike
gentleman, Posthumus Leonatus, and he Othello, has a natural bent toward jeal-
is banished for it. In Italy one lachimo ousy; he suspects without good cause,
wagers him ten thousand ducats to his and is grossly tyrannical in his persecu-
diamond ring that he can seduce the tions of the innocent. Hermione, in her
honor of Imogen. He miserably fails, sweet patience and sorrow, is the most
even by the aid of lies as to the disloy- divinely compassionate matron Shakes-
alty of Posthumus, and then pretends he peare has delineated. Polixenes, king
was but testing her virtue for her hus- of Bohemia, has been nine months a
band's sake. She pardons him, and re- guest of his boyhood's friend Leontes,
ceives into her chamber, for safe-keeping, and is warmly urged by both king and
a trunk, supposed to contain costly plate queen
to stay longer. Hermione's
and jewels, but which really contains warm hospitality and her lingering hand
lachimo himself, who emerges from it in pressures are construed by the king as
the dead of night; slips the bracelet proof of criminality: he sees himself
from her arm; observes the mole, cinque- laughed at for a cuckold; a deep fire of
spotted with crimson, on her breast; and rage burns in his heart; he wants Ca-
notes down in his book the furniture millo to poison Polisenes; but this good
and ornaments of the room. He returns man flies with him to Bohemia. Leon-
to Italy. Posthumus despairingly yields tes puts his wife in prison, where she is
himself beaten, and writes to his serv- delivered of a daughter. He compels
ant Pisanio to kill Imogen; to facilitate Antigonus to swear to expose it in a
the deed, he sends her word to meet desert place, and then proceeds with the
him at Milford Haven. Thither she flies formal trial of his wife. His messen-
was


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400
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
was
gers to Delphi report her guiltless. She THE TEMPEST, one of Shakespeare's
swoons away, and Paulina gives out very latest plays (1611), written in the
that she is dead. But she is secretly mellow maturity of his genius, is prob-
conveyed away, after the funeral, and ably based on a lost Italian novella or
revived. Her little son dies from grief. play, though certain incidents are bor-
Sixteen years now elapse, and we are rowed from three pamphlets on the Ber-
across seas in Bohemia, near the palace mudas and Virginia and from Florio's
of Polixenes, and near where Hermi- Montaigne. The scene is said to be
one's infant daughter was exposed, but laid in the haunted island of Lampe-
rescued (with a bundle containing rich dusa in the Mediterranean. In the
bearing cloth, gold, jewels, etc. ) by an opening lines we see a ship laboring in
old shepherd. Antigonus and his ship's heavy seas near the shore of an island,
crew were all lost, so no trace of the in- whose sole inhabitants, besides the
fant could be found. But here she is, spirits of earth and air typified in the
the sweetest girl in Bohemia and named dainty ye powerful sprite Ariel, are
Perdita (“the lost one”). A sheep- Prospero and his lovely daughter Mi-
shearing feast at the old shepherd's cot- randa, and their slave, the deformed
tage is in progress. His son has gone boor Caliban, an aborigine of the is-
for sugar and spices and rice, and had land.
The grave and good Prospero is
his pocket picked by that rogue of
luckier castaway than Robinson
rogues, that snapper-up of unconsidered Crusoe, in that his old friend Gonzalo
trifles, Autolycus. The dainty Perdita put into the boat with him not only his
moves about under the green trees as infant daughter, but clothes, and some
the hostess of the occasion, giving to books of magic, by the aid of which
each guest a bunch of sweet flowers and both men and spirits, and the very ele-
a welcome. Polixenes and Camillo are ments, are subject to the beck of his
here in disguise, to look after Polix- wand. He was the rightful Duke of
enes's son Florizel. After dancing, and Milan, but
supplanted by his
some songs from peddler Autolycus, brother Antonio, who with his confeder-
Florizel and Perdita are about to be be- ate, the king of Naples, and the lat-
trothed when Polixenes discovers him- ter's son Ferdinand and others, is cast
self and threatens direst punishment to ashore on the island. The shipwreck
the rustics. The lovers fly to Sicily, occurs full in the sight of the weeping
with a feigned story for the ear of Miranda; but all hands are saved, and
Leontes; and the old shepherd and his the ship too. The humorous characters
son get aboard Florizel's ship to show are the butler Stephano, and the court
the bundle and fairy gold” found with jester Trinculo, both semi-drunk, their
Perdita, expecting thus to save their speech and songs caught from the sail-
lives by proving that they are not re- ors, and savoring of salt and tar.
sponsible for
her doings. Polixenes Throughout the play the three groups of
and Camillo follow the fugitives, and at personages, — the royal retinue with the
Leontes's court is great rejoicing at the irrepressible and malapropos old Gon-
discovery of the king's daughter; which zalo, the drunken fellows and Caliban,
joy is increased tenfold by Paulina, who and Prospero with his daughter and
restores Hermione to her repentant hus- Ferdinand, - move leisurely to and fro,
band's arms. Her device for gradually the whole action taking up only three
and gently possessing him of the idea of hours. The three boors, fuddled with
Hermione's being alive, is curious and their fine liquor and bearing the bark
shrewd. She gives out that she has in bottle, rove about the enchanted island,
her gallery a marvelous statue of Her- fall into the filthy-mantled pool, and are
mione by Julio Romano, so recently stoutly pinched by Prospero's goblins for
finished that the red paint on the lips is theft. The murderous plot of Antonio
yet wet.
When the curtain is drawn by and the courtier Sebastian is exposed at
Paulina, husband and daughter gaze the phantom banquet of the harpies.
greedily on the statue, and to their Spellbound in the linden grove, all the
amazement it is made to step down guilty parties come forward into
from its pedestal and speak. They per- charmed circle and take a lecture from
ceive it to be warm with life, and to be Prospero. General reconciliation. Then
indeed Hermione herself, - let us hope, to finally, Miranda and Ferdinand are dis-
have less strain on her charity thereafter. covered playing chess before Prospero's
a


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
401
on
a
or
cell, and learn that to-morrow they set
sail for Naples to be married.
Two NOBLE KINSMEN. – A most no-
ble and pathetic drama, founded
Chaucer's (Knighte's Tale, and first
printed in 1634, with the names of
Shakespeare and Fletcher on the title-
page as authors. The grand passages
show the very style of Coriolanus)
and of The Tempest,' and are wholly
beyond Fletcher's powers: e. g. , the
magnificent description of Arcite's horse,
worthy of the Panathenaic frieze; the
Meissonier portraits of the champion
Knights' assistants,— the stern, brown-
faced prince with long, black, shining
hair and lion mien, the massive-thewed
blond, and the rest; the portrait of
Arcite himself, his eye like a sharp
weapon on soft sheath, of most
fiery sparkle and soft sweetness);
of Palamon's brown manly face and
thought-lined brow. And how Shakes-
pearean that phrase applied to old men
nearing death,—the gray approachers !
And who but Shakespeare would have
written the lines (so admired by Ten-
nyson) on Mars,-
« Who dost pluck
with hand omnipotent from forth blue clouds
The mason'd turrets"?
The under-plot about the jailer's
daughter, who goes mad for Palamon's
love, is a weak and repulsive imitation
of the Ophelia scenes in (Hamlet. )
The play is about the tribulations of
two noble youths who both love the
sweet girl, «fresher than
the
May, - Emilia, sister of Hippolyta,
wife of Theseus. Their love separates
them; they were a miracle of friend-
ship, they become bitterest foes. By
Theseus's command they select each
three friends, and in a trial by combat
of the eight champions, Arcite wins
Emilia, but is at once killed by his
horse falling on him, and Palamon
secures the prize after all.
Henry VIII. , a historical drama by
Shakespeare, based on Edward Hall's
(Union of the Families of Lancaster
and York,' Holinshed's Chronicles,' and
Fox's 'Acts and Monuments of the
Church. ) The key-idea is the muta-
bility of earthly grandeur, and by one
or another turn of Fortune's wheel, the
overthrow of the mighty - i. e. , of the
Duke of Buckingham, of Cardinal Wol-
sey, and
of Queen arine. The
action covers a period of sixteen years,
XXX-2Ć
from the field of the Cloth of Gold, in
1520, described in the opening pages,
to the death of Queen Katharine in
1536. It is the trial and divorce of this
patient, queenly, and unfortunate woman,
that forms the main subject of the
drama. She was the daughter of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella of Castile, and born
in 1485. She had been married when
seventeen to Arthur, eldest son of Henry
VII. Arthur lived only five months after
his marriage, and when at seventeen
years Henry VIII. came to the throne
(that most hateful ruffian and tyrant),
he married Katharine, then twenty-four.
She bore him children, and he never
lost his respect for her and her unblem-
ished life. But twenty years after his
marriage he met Anne Bullen at a merry
ball at Cardinal Wolsey's palace, and
fell in love with her, and immediately
conceived conscientious scruples against
the legality of his marriage. Queen
Katharine is brought to trial before a
solemn council of nobles and churchmen.
With fine dignity she appeals to the
Pope and leaves the council, refusing
then and ever after to attend any of
their courts. The speeches are master-
pieces of pathetic and noble defense.
In all his facts the poet follows history
very faithfully. The Pope goes against
her, and she is divorced and sequestered
at Kimbolton, where presently she dies
heart-broken, sending a dying message
of love to Henry. Intertwined with the
sad fortunes of the queen the
equally crushing calamities that overtake
Cardinal Wolsey. His high-blown pride,
his oppressive exactions in amassing
wealth greater than the king's, his ego
et rex meus, his double dealing with
Henry in securing the Pope's sanction
to the divorce,- these and other things
are the means whereby his many ene-
mies work his ruin. He is stripped of
all his dignities and offices, and wanders
away, an old man broken with the storms
of State, to lay his bones in Leicester
Abbey. The episode of the trial of
Archbishop Cranmer is so pathetically
handled as to excite tears. He is brought
to trial for heresy by bis enemy Gardi-
ner, bishop of Winchester, but has pre-
viously been moved to tears of gratitude
by Henry's secretly bidding him be of
good cheer, and giving him his signet
ring as a talisman to conjure with if too
hard pressed by his enemies. Henry is
so placed as to oversee (himself unseen)
are
same


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402
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Cranmer's trial and the arrogant perse-
cution of Gardiner. Cranmer produces
the ring just as they are commanding
him to be led away to the Tower; and
Henry steps forth to first rebuke his
enemies and then command them to be
at peace. He does Cranmer the high
honor of asking him to become a god-
father to the daughter (Elizabeth) of
Anne Bullen; and after Cranmer's elo-
quent prophecy at the christening, the
curtain falls. The setting of this play
is full of rich and magnificent scenery
and spectacular pomp.
not work, japers, and mynstralles »
that sell "glee. ” They are, or nearly so,
the same beings Chaucer assembled at
the « Tabard » inn, on the eve of his pil-
grimage to Canterbury. This crowd has
likewise a pilgrimage to make.
« They journey through abstract coun-
tries, they follow mystic roads
in search of Truth and of Supreme
Good. »
This search is the subject of an elab-
orate allegory, in the course of which
the current abuses in Church and State
are vigorously attacked. The poet in-
veighs especially against the greed and
insincerity of his age, personifying these
qualities in Lady Meed, who leads men
astray, and tricks them into sin. The
poem throws much light upon social and
religious institutions of the day. These
revelations must, however, be sought for
among the strange mist-shapes of alle-
gory.
The poet's vocabulary is similar to
that of Chaucer. Several dialects are
combined in it, the Midland dia
dominating The metre is alliterative,
long lines, divided into half-lines by a
pause. Each line contains strong, or ac-
cented, syllables in fixed number, and
weak or unaccented syllables in varying
number.
About Piers Plowman) there has
grown up a considerable body of editor-
ial commentary. The work of Thomas
Wright and of Skeat in this field is
noteworthy.
The Vision
of Piers Plowman, an
English poem of the fourteenth cen-
tury, is ascribed, chiefly on the ground
of internal evidence, to William Lang-
land or Longland, a monk of Malvern,
in spirit a Thomas Carlyle of the Middle
Ages, crying out against abuses, insist-
ing upon sincerity as the first of virtues.
This poem belongs to the class of the
dream-poem, a characteristic product of
his century. Dante had seen all heaven
and hell in vision. Gower and the au-
thor of Pearl had dreamed dreams.
(The Vision of Piers Plowman) is a cu-
rious amalgamation of fantastic allegory
and clear-cut fact, of nebulous dreams
and vivid pictures of the England of the
day. The author is at once as realistic
as Chaucer and as mystical as Guil-
laume de Lorris, the observant man of
the world and the brooding anchorite;
his poem reflects both the England of
the fourteenth century and the visionary,
child-like mediæval mind.
Internal evidence fixes its date about
1362. Forty manuscript copies of it, be-
longing for the most part to the latter
end of the fourteenth century, attest its
popularity. Three distinct versions are
extant, known as Texts A, B, and C.
The probable date of Text A is 1362-63;
of Text B, 1376–77; of Text C, 1398–99.
The variations in these texts are consid-
erable. An imitation of the poem called
(Piers Plowman's Crede) appeared about
1393. The author of Piers Plowman)
represents himself as falling asleep on
Malvern Hills, on a beautiful May morn-
ing: In his dreams he beholds a vast
plain, «a feir feld ful of folk,” repre-
senting indeed the whole of humanity:
knights, monks, parsons, workmen sing-
ing French songs, cooks crying hot pies !
Hote pyes, hote! ” pardoners, pilgrims,
preachers, beggars, jongleurs who will
1
on
Sartor Resartus, by Thomas Carlyle,
first appeared in Fraser's Magazine,
in 1833-34, and later in book form. It
is divided into three parts, - introduc-
tory, biographical, and philosophical.
The first part describes an imaginary
book (Clothes: Their Origin and
Influence) by Diogenes Teufelsdröckh,
Professor of Things in General at
Weissnichtwo in Germany. The book,
the editor complains, is uneven in style
and matter, and extraordinarily difficult
to comprehend, but of such vigor in
places that he is impelled to translate
parts of it. The book begins with a
history of clothes: they are co-existent
with civilization, and are the source of
all social
and
political distinction.
Aprons, for example, are of all sorts,
from the smith's iron sheet to the
bishop's useless drapery. The re
church is shown in the paper aprons


## p. 403 (#439) ############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
403
men.
as
a
of the Paris cooks; future historians man and of the freedom of thought.
will talk, not of church, but of jour-Religion is the basis of society: every
nalism, and of editors instead of states- society may be described as a church
Man is apt to forget that he is which is audibly preaching or prophesy-
not a mere clothed animal, - that to ing, or which is not yet articulate, or
the eye of pure reason he is a soul. which is dumb with old age. Religion
Still Teufelsdröckh does not counsel a has entirely abandoned the clothes pro-
return to the natural state, for he rec- vided for her by modern society, and
ognizes the utility of clothes the sits apart making herself new ones. All
foundation of society. Wonder, at him- symbols are valuable as keeping some-
self or at nature, every man must feel thing silent, and, at the same time, as
in order to worship. Everything ma- revealing something of the Infinite.
terial is but an emblem of something Society now has no proper symbols,
spiritual; clothes are such emblems, and owing to over-utilitarianism and over-
are thus worthy of examination.
independence. Still a new society is form-
The autobiographic details sent to the ing itself to rise, Phænix-like, from the
editor which fill Book ii. came to him on ashes of the old. Mankind, like nature,
loose scraps of paper in sealed paper is one, not an aggregate of units. The
bags, with no attempt at arrangement future church for the worship of these
anywhere. A mysterious stranger left mysteries will be literature, as already
Teufelsdröckh, when he was a helpless suggested by the prophet Goethe. Cus-
infant, at the house of Andreas Futteral, tom makes nature, time, and space, which
a veteran and farmer. Andreas and his are really miracles, seem natural, but
wife Gretchen brought the boy up hon- we must feel wonder and reverence at
estly and carefully. As child he them. Our life is through mystery to
roamed out-doors, listened to the talk of mystery, from God to God. The chief
old men, and watched the sunset light points, in concluding, to be remembered
play over
the valley. At school he are: All life is based on wonder; all
learned little, and at the gymnasiums clothes, or symbols, are forms or mani-
less. At the university he received no festations of the spiritual or infinite;
instruction, but happened to prefer read- cant and hypocrisy everywhere should
ing to rioting, and so gained a great deal be replaced by clear truth.
of information. Then he was thrust into
the world to find out what his capability
was by himself. He withdrew from the riet Waters Preston, is an account
law, in which he had begun, and tried of the poetry of Provence, old and new.
to start out for himself.
The woman The earlier essays describe the work
whom he loved married another, and he of the two best-known of the <Fé-
was plunged into the depths of despair. libres, as the school of modern poets
Doubt, which he had felt in the univer- of the South of France is called: men
sity, became unbelief in God and even who write in the old (langue d'oc,”
the Devil, — in everything but duty, could or Provençal dialect, in opposition to
he have known what duty was.
He was
the langue d'oil,” or French tongue,
a victim to a curious fear, until one day which they do not acknowledge as their
his whole spirit rose, and uttering the language. Miss Preston makes many
protest of the everlasting no, asserted translations of their verse, which give
its own freedom. After that he wan- a vivid presentment of the fire and
dered in a «Centre of Indifference, color and naïve simplicity of the ori-
not caring much, but interested in cities, ginals. Another poet of the South of
fields, and books. Life came to mean France, neither Provençal nor French,
freedom to him; he felt impelled to was Jacques Jasmin, who wrote in the
look through the shows of things to the peculiar Gascon dialect, with all the
things themselves,» — to find the Ideal wit and gayety of his race. The fore-
in the midst of the Actual.
runners of all these men were the old
The third book, which deals with the troubadours, who fourished from the
philosophy itself, is much less continuous driving out of the Saracens to the end
and clear. In the first chapter, he of the crusades, during the age of
praises George Fox's suit of leather as chivalry,” and who spent their lives
the most remarkable suit of its century, making love songs for the ladies of their
since it was a symbol of the equality of preference. Their chansons, or songs, so
Troubadours and Trouveres, by Har-
>>


## p. 404 (#440) ############################################

404
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
sec
simple and so perfect, were invariably on
the one theme of love; occasionally they
wrote longer pieces, called “sirventes,
which were narrative or satiric. Many
charming translations illustrate their
manner. The book closes with a chap-
ter on the Arthurian legends, showing
what these owe to Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, to unknown French romances,
to Sir Thomas Malory, and finally
to Tennyson. Miss Preston's excellent
scholarship and rare literary gift com-
bine to make a most entertaining book.
own
ambitions. Leaving the actors, he be-
comes acquainted with some landed pro-
prietors belonging to the lesser nobility
of the country. And here the
ond period of his apprenticeship begins.
Meeting people of culture and position
in society, he comes into closer touch
with real life, and is initiated into the
ways of the world. His development is
further hastened by finding his son Fe-
lix, whom he has never acknowledged.
What women and society are still unable
to teach him, he now learns from his
child. The awakening sense of
his parental responsibilities is the final
touchstone of his fully developed man-
hood. Having thus completed his ap-
prenticeship to life in a series of bitter
experiences, he now marries a lady of
rank, and turns landed proprietor. The
scheme of the novel gave Goethe oppor-
tunity to bring in the most varied phases
of society, especially the nobility of his
time, and the actors. He also discusses
different æsthetic principles, especially
the laws of dramatic art as exemplified
in (Hamlet. ) He also touches on ques-
tions of education, and religious contro-
versy, and satirizes somewhat the secret
societies, just then beginning to spring
up in Germany. (Wilhelm Meister,' in
short, gives a richly colored picture of
the life of Goethe's time.
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.
The first part of Wilhelm Meis-
ter) was finished in 1796, after having
occupied Goethe's attention for twenty
years.
The central idea of this great
novel is the development of the individ-
ual by means of the most varied expe-
riences of life. There is no plot proper,
but in a series of brilliant episodes the
different stages of the hero's spiritual
growth are brought before the reader.
Wilhelm Meister is a young man with
many admirable qualities of character,
but passionate and emotional, somewhat
unstable, lacking reflection and proper
knowledge of the world. The son of a
well-to-do business man in a small Ger-
man town is traveling for his father's
house when he falls in with a troupe of
strolling comedians. From earliest boy-
hood he has been devoted to the theatre,
a passion which has been nourished by
puppet-plays and much reading of dra-
matic literature and romances.