No More Learning

» Like the au-
worth, a dark, sullen man, the priest
thor's other works, (Crotchet Castle) is less
a novel than a cabinet of human curios
of the family, who has friendly rela-
tions with Cuthbert alone. James Nor-
which may be examined through the glass
ton, Denzel's groom, is on intimate
of Peacock's clear, cool intellect. It is the
terms with his master. He marries
collection of a dilettante with a taste for
Norah, the maid of Lady Ravenshoe.
the odd. Yet among these curios are one
Charles becomes a sunny, lovable man,
or two fesh-and-blood characters: Dr.
Cuthbert a reticent bookworm. They
Folliott, a delightful Church-of-England
clergyman of the old school, and Miss
have for playmates William and Ellen,
the children of Norah. Two women
Susannah Touchandgo, who is very much
play an important part in the life of
alive. They are all the guests of Mr.
the hero, Charles, – Adelaide,
very
Crotchet of Crotchet Castle. Their doings
beautiful in form and figure, with little
make only the ghost of a plot. Their say-
depth, and lovely Mary Corby, who,
ings are for the delight of Epicureans in
literature.
cast up by shipwreck, is adopted by
Norah. Charles becomes engaged to
Gryll Grange, by Thomas Love Pea- Adelaide. The plot deepens. Father
cock. The plot of this, as of all of Mackworth proves that Charles is the
Peacock's novels, is very simple. The true son of Norah and James Norton,
heroine is Morgana Gryll, niece and heir- the illegitimate brother of Denzel; and
ess of Squire Gryll, who has persistently William, the groom foster-brother, is
refused all offers of marriage, of which real heir of Ravenshoe. To add to the
she has had many. The hero, Algernon grief of Charles, Adelaide elopes with
Falconer, is a youth of fortune, who lives his cousin Lord Welter. Charles flees
in a lonely tower in New Forest, attended to London, tries grooming, and then
by seven foster sisters, and with every joins the Hussars. Finally he is found
intention of continuing his singular in London by a college friend, Mar-
mode of life. Morgana and Algernon are ston, with a raving fever upon him.
brought together by the familiar device After recovery, Charles returns to Ra-
of an accident to the lady which com- venshoe. Father Mackworth again pro-
pels her to spend several days at the duces evidence that not James Norton,
tower. A sub-plot of equal simplicity is but Denzel is the illegitimate son, and
given in the love-affairs of Lord Curry- Charles, after all, is true heir to Ra-
fin and Alice Niphet. The most inter- venshoe. The union of Charles and
esting character in the book is the Rev. Mary then takes place. The book is
Doctor Opimian, a lover of Greek and written in a flashy manner, and con-
madeira, who serves as a mouthpiece for tains many bits of piquant humor.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
377
The characters are all interesting, and
have a certain bright originality about
them.
fragments of poetic ideas which had been
handed down through centuries, was cal-
culated to excite national ardor and in-
terest. The subject of the epic is the
invasion of Ireland by Swaran, king of
Lochlin, Denmark, during the reign of
Cormac II. , and its deliverance by the
aid of the father of Ossian, King Fingal
of Morven, on the northwest coast of
Scotland. The poem opens with the over-
throw of Cuthullin, general of the Irish
forces, and concludes with the return of
Swaran to his own land. It is cast in
imitation of primitive manners, and is
written in a rugged yet artistic style,
which comports with its theme. While
manifesting sympathy with the gloomy
Scottish landscape, the author has pre-
sented a warmly colored variety of scenes,
at times almost Homeric in their vigorous
tones.
Fair Barbarian, A, by Frances Hodg-
son Burnett, appeared in 1881. Like
James's (Daisy Miller, it is a study of the
American girl in foreign surroundings.
Miss Octavia Bassett, of Nevada, aged
nineteen, arrives with six trunks full of
finery, to visit her aunt, Miss Belinda Bas-
sett, in the English village of Slowbridge.
The beautiful American soon sets tongues
wagging. All the village young ladies wear
gowns of one pattern obsolete elsewhere,
and chill propriety reigns. Octavia's
diamonds and Paris gowns, her self-pos-
session and frank independence, are
frowned upon by the horrified mammas,
especially when all the young men gather
eagerly about her. Octavia, serenely in-
different to the impression she creates at
the tea-drinkings and croquet parties, re-
fuses to be awed even by the autocrat of
the place, Lady Theobald. Her ladyship's
meek granddaughter is spurred by admi-
ration of the American to unprecedented
independence. She has been selected to
be Captain Barold's wife, but as he does
not care for her, she ventures to accept
Mr. Burmistone, upon whom her grand-
mother frowns. Barold meantime is en-
slaved by the charming Octavia. But he
disapproves of her unconventional ways,
and considering it a condescension on his
part to ally himself with so obscure a fam-
ily, he proposes with great reluctance, and
is astonished to meet a point-blank re-
fusal. In due time, Octavia's father and
her handsome Western lover join her; and
after a wedding the like of which had
never been witnessed at Slowbridge, she
says good-by to her English friends. The
story is slight, but the character-sketches
are amusing, the contrast of national traits
striking, and the whole book very enter-
taining.
Fingal, by James Macpherson, is an
(Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books,
which appeared in 1762. The poet being
a favorite, Fingal had an immense sale.
The sources of the poem are the Ossianic
materials founded upon the claim that in
the third or fourth century there existed,
among the remote mountains and islands
of Scotland, a people exhibiting all the
high and chivalrous feelings of refined
valor, generosity, magnanimity, and vir-
tue. That there should exist among them
Eugene Aram, by Sir Edward Bulwer,
1832, was founded on the career of
an English scholar, Eugene Aram, born
1704, executed for the murder of one
Clark in 1759. The character of the
murderer and the circumstances of his
life made the case one of the most in-
teresting from a psychological point of
view, in the criminal annals of England.
Aram was a scholar of unusual ability,
who, self-taught, had acquired a consid-
erable knowledge of languages, and was
even credited with certain original dis-
coveries in the domain of philology. Of
a mild and refined disposition, his act
of murder seemed a complete contra-
diction of all his habits and ideals of
life.
At the suggestion of Godwin, Bulwer
made this singular case the basis of his
novel Eugene Aram. He so idealized
the character as to make of the murderer
a romantic hero, whose accomplice in the
crime, Houseman, is the actual criminal.
He represents Aram as forced, by ex-
treme poverty, into consenting to the
deed, but not performing it. From that.
hour he suffers horrible mental torture.
He leaves the scene of the murder and
settles in Grassdale, a beautiful pastoral
village, where he meets and loves a
noble woman, Madeline Lester.
She
returns his love. Their marriage ap-
proaches, when the
reappearance of
Houseman shatters Aram's hopes for-
ever. By the treachery of this wretch,
he is imprisoned, tried, and condemned
to death.


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378
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(Eugene Aram) is an unusually suc- noble soldier Crillon. The story opens
cessful study in fiction of a complex on the morning of October 26th, 1585, with
psychological case. At the time of its a description of a vast assembly of peo-
publication, it caused
a great stir in ple before the closed gates of Paris,
England, many attacks being made upon clamoring for admission, to witness the
it on the ground of its false morality. execution of Salcède, a convict murderer.
To the present generation its romance is This miscreant is no vulgar assassin, but
of more interest perhaps than its psy- a captain of good birth, even distantly
chology
related to the queen. King Henri III. ,
his queen, Anne, and the queen mother,
Al Ikahest, or The House of Claës, The
Catherine de' Medici, have come to wit-
('La Recherche de l'Absolu)- The
Search for the Absolute), is a striking
ness the execution of the sentence, which
novel by Honoré de Balzac. The scene
is drawing and quartering. Word reaches
the King that Salcède, on promise of
is laid in the Flemish town of Douai
early in the present century; and the
pardon, will reveal important State secrets.
tale gives, with all the author's care
Henri agrees to the condition, and re-
and richness of detail, a charming repre-
ceives a document which, to his disap-
sentation of Flemish family life. The
pointment, exonerates the Guises from
central character, Balthazar Claës, is a
the charge of conspiracy. The perfidious
wealthy chemist, whose ancestral name
King orders the execution to take place,
and a horrible spectacle ensues. After
is the most respected and important in
this dramatic opening incidents and events
the place. His aim, the dream of his life,
crowd thick and fast; and the two vol-
is to solve the mystery of matter. He
would by chemical analysis discover the
umes are taken up with the unraveling
of the political plots suggested in the
secret of the absolute. Hence he toils
first chapter. Th story is one of the
early and late in his private laboratory:
most famous of historical romances.
everything is given up to the god of
science, Gradually the quest becomes Camille (La Dame Aux Camélias),
a fixed idea, for which money, family, a novel by Alexandre Dumas the
health, sanity, are sacrificed. Claës dies younger, was published in 1848, the cele-
heart-broken and defeated;- ;-a tragic fig- brated play founded upon it appearing in
ure, touching in its pathos, having dignity 1852 at the Vaudeville Theatre in Paris.
even in its downfall. As foils to him The popularity of both the novel and the
stand his devoted wife and his eldest play is owing, perhaps, to the fact that
daughter Marguerite, noble women, the
the incidents of the story admit of many
latter one of the finest creations of Balzac's | interpretations of the character of the
genius. They sympathize sorrowfully yet heroine. Like other women of her class,
tenderly with his ideal, and bear with she is linked to, is indeed a represent.
true heroism the misery to which his mad ative of, the most inexplicable yet most
course subjects them. Simple in its plot, powerful force in human nature. Camille
the story displays some of the deepest is the portrait of a woman who actually
human passions, and is a powerful ro- lived in Paris. Dumas had seen her, and
It belongs to that series of the relates a love story of which she was the
Human Comedy known as Philosophical central figure. Like Aspasia, she has a
Studies,' and appeared in 1834.
strange immortality. Each reader of the
book, like each spectator of the play,
Forty-five Guardsmen, The, by Alex-
gains an impression of Camille that is
andre Dumas, the most celebrated of
largely subjective. The elusiveness of
French romance writers, is in two vol-
the personality, the young ardor that
umes, and is the third of a series known
forced Dumas to tell the story straight
as (The Valois Romances. ) The scenes
from the heart, straight to the heart,
are laid in and about Paris during the
autumn and winter of 1585-86, when
gives to (Camille ) its fascination.
political events made all France excited Literary, Movement in France dur-
and
III. and the ambitions of the queen Georges Pellissier. (1889. Authorized
mother, Catherine de' Medici, are vividly English Version, by Anne Garrison Brin-
set before the reader, so as to hold his ton, 1897. ) A work which Brunetière
unt gging attention. (TI Forty-five » pronounced upon its appearance not less
are guardsmen led by the brave and the picture than the history, and at the
mance.
(


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
379
ex-
swers
em-
ures,
poetry and
same time the philosophy, of contem-
porary French literature. It is without
doubt the best history of French achieve-
ment in letters during the last hundred
years. The list of authors, sixty in
number, whose works are used as
amples of the literary movement, begins
with Rousseau and Diderot, and
braces all the names that are of greatest
interest for their relation to develop-
ments subsequent to the Revolution.
The chief conceptions which have held
sway in France, creating schools of lit-
erature, are carefully studied; and the
examples in writers of various types are
pictured with felicitous insight. After
the classic period had lasted from the
middle of the sixteenth century nearly
two hundred and fifty years, Rousseau
and Diderot became the precursors of
the nineteenth century, its initiators in
fact. Then Madame de Staël and Châ-
teaubriand preside at its opening. The
founders of Romanticism, modern French
literature begins with them. There still
lingered a school of pseudo-classicists,
and then Victor Hugo brings in the full
power of Romanticism. There is a ren-
ovation of language and of versification,
and a wide development of lyric poetry.
The culmination of Romanticism is in
the new drama, and again it renews
history and criticism, and creates the
novel. But half a century brought the
decadence of Romanticism; and Realism,
essentially prosaic, a fruit of the scien-
tific spirit, succeeded. Its evolution, its
effect on poetry and criticism, and its
illustration in the novel and the theatre,
are carefully traced. M. Pellissier thinks
the inevitable return of Idealism already
evident, but no sign that this will arrive
before the end of the century.
sighs painfully. Virgil, who recounted
the same episode in his Æneid, makes
the priest cry out in his agony. Lessing
asks why this divergence in treatment
between the artist and poet ? and an-
- because they worked with differ-
ent materials. The poet could present
his hero as screaming, because the he-
roes of classical antiquity were not above
such shows of human weakness. But
the artist, in presenting human suffer-
ing, was limited by the laws of his art,
the highest object of which is beauty;
hence he must avoid all those extremes
of passion, that, being in their nature
transitory, mar the beauty of the feat.
He can reproduce only one mo-
ment, whereas the poet has the whole
gamut of expression at command. This
constitutes the radical difference between
the plastic arts, related
though they be in many ways.
The
plastic arts deal with space, and have
for their proper objects bodies with their
visible attributes; they may, however,
suggest these bodies as being in action.
Poetry deals with time, and has for its
proper objects a succession of events or
actions; at the same time it may suggest
the description of bodies. Homer al-
ready knew this principle, for in describ-
ing the shield of Achilles he invites us
to be present at its making. In like
manner we know what Agamemnon wore
by watching him dress. All descriptive
poetry and allegorical painting is hereby
ruled out of court. There is yet another
difference. The plastic arts in their
highest development treat only of beauty.
Poetry, not being confined to the pass-
ing moment, has at its disposal the
whole of nature. It treats not only of
what is beautiful or agreeable, but also
of what is ugly and terrible.
These principles, developed by Lessing
in his small treatise, came like a revela-
tion to the German mind. Goethe thus
described the effect: “We heartily wel-
comed the light which that fine thinker,
brought down to us out of dark clouds.
Illumined as by lightning we saw all the
consequences of that glorious thought
which made clear the difference be-
tween the plastic and the poetic arts.
All the current criticism was thrown
aside as a worn-out coat. )
Laokoon. Lessing's Laokoon,' written
in 1766, marked an epoch in German
art-criticism. It derives its title from
the celebrated piece of sculpture by the
Greek artists Polydor, Agesander, and
Athenodor, which is taken as the start-
ing-point for a discussion on the differ-
ence between poetry and the plastic arts.
The group represents the well-known
episode during the siege of Troy, when
the Trojan priest, Laokoon, and his two
sons, are devoured by snakes as a pun-
ishment for having advised against ad-
mitting the decoy horse of the Greeks
into the town. In this group Laokoon
apparently does not scream, but only
Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann
Wolfgang Goethe, is German
idyllic pastoral of about 2,000 hexameter
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380
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
1
now
seem
an
man.
lines. The scene is the broad Rhine- sophical digressions, which
plain, and the time the poet's own. This tedious and foreign to the action, were
poem, considered the finest specimen of then greatly admired. Ben Jonson, in
Goethe's narrative verse, was published his poem prefixed to Mabbe's transla-
in 1797, during the period of the author's tion, describes the hero as “The Spanish
inspiring friendship with Schiller. The Proteus
formed with the world's
sweet bucolic narrative describes how wit. Though inferior to Mendoza's (La-
the host of the Golden Lion and his zarillo) in grace and vivacity, this ro-
(sensible wife » have sent their stalwart mance enables us to get a clear idea of
and dutiful son, Hermann, to minister certain aspects of society in the Spain
to the wants of a band of exiles, who and Italy of the sixteenth century, not-
are journeying from their homes, burned withstanding the exaggeration and excess
by the ravages of war. Among the ex- of color in its descriptions. The French
iles Hermann meets, and immediately translation by Le Sage omits the di-
loves, Dorothea. How this buxom Teu- gressions and philosophical reflections of
tonic maiden of excellent good sense is the original, to which it is far superior.
wooed and won, taking a daughter's
place in the cheerful hostelry, is told Bible in Spain, The, by George Bor-
,
with charming simplicity. The poem is
row, was published in 1843. It is
account of the author's five-years'
instinct with the breath of mystic scenes,
residence in Spain as an agent of the
and the characters are as minutely drawn
English Bible Society. In the preface he
as in the great national epics.
thus explains his book:
“Many things, it is true, will be found
G uzman de Alfarache, by Mateo Ale-
in the following volumes, which have lit-
This romance, dealing with
tle connection with religion or religious
the lives and adventures of picaros or
enterprise; I offer, however, no apology
rogues, contains more varied and highly
for introducing them. I was, as I may
colored pictures of thieves, beggars, and
say, from first to last adrift in Spain, the
outlaws than any other work in this pe-
land of old renown, the land of wonder
culiar department of Spanish literature.
It is divided into two parts, of which
and mystery, with better opportunities
the first was published in 1599, the sec-
of becoming acquainted with its strange
ond in 1605. Guzman relates his own
secrets and peculiarities than perhaps
ever yet were afforded to any individual,
life from his birth up to the moment
certainly to foreigner; and if in many
when his crimes consign him to the gal-
instances I have introduced scenes and
leys. When a mere boy, he runs away
from his mother after his father's death;
characters perhaps unprecedented in a
work of this description, I have only to
goes to Madrid, where he is by turns
observe that during my sojourn in Spain
scullion, cook, and errand boy; escapes
to Toledo with some money intrusted to
so unavoidably mixed up with
such, that I could scarcely have given a
him, and sets up as a fine gentleman.
faithful narrative of what befell me had
After wasting all his money in profli-
I not brought them forward in the man-
gacy he enlists, is sent to Italy, and
ner I have done. »
quickly becomes the associate of cut-
purses and vagabonds of every descripcinating story of adventure and pictur-
(The Bible in Spain) is therefore a fas-
tion. He is a versatile rascal, and feels
esque life in a land where, to the writer
equally at home among beggars and in
at least, the unusual predominates. As a
the palace of a Roman cardinal, who
reviewer wrote of the book at the time
takes an interest in him and makes him
of its publication, We are frequently
his page. But his natural depravity does
not allow him to hold this position long;
reminded of Gil Blas in the narratives
of this pious, single-hearted man. ) Bor-
and he returns to Spain, where he event-
row's work is unique in the annals of mis-
ually becomes a lackey in the French am-
bassador's household. The adventures
sionary literature.
he meets with there form the closing Shakespeare's Plays.
Love's LA-
chapters of the story.
Bour's Lost is Shakespeare's first
immensely popular, ran through several dramatic production, written about 1588
editions, and was translated into French or '89, and has all the marks of imma-
and English immediately after its ap- ture style; yet its repartees and witti-
pearance. The episodes and long philo- cisms give it a sprightly cast, and its
I was


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
381
>
constant good-humor and good-nature
make it readable. The plot, as far as is
known, is Shakespeare's own. There is
an air of unreality about it, as if all the
characters had eaten of the insane root,
or were at least light-headed with cham-
pagne. Incessant are their quick venues
of wit, - (snip, snap, quick, and home. ”
In a nutshell, the play is a satire of
utopias, of all thwarting of natural in-
stincts. Ferdinand, King of Navarre,
and his three associate lords, Biron, Du-
main, and Longaville, have taken oath
to form themselves into a kind of mo-
nastic academy for study. They swear
to fast, to eat but one meal a day, and
for three years not to look on the face
of woman; all of which «is flat treason
against the kingly state of youth. But,
alas! the King had forgotten that he
was about to see the Princess of France
and three of her ladies, come on a mat-
ter of State business. However, he will
not admit them into his palace, but has
pavilions pitched in the park. At the
first glance all four men fall violently in
love, each with one of the ladies, - the
king with the princess, Biron with Rosa-
line, etc. : Cupid has thumped them all
(with his bird-bolt under the left pap. ”
They write sentimental verses,
and
while reading them aloud in the park,
all find each other out, each assuming a
stern severity with the perjured ones
until he himself is detected. One of the
humorous characters is Don Adriano de
Armado, “who draweth out the thread
of his verbosity finer than the staple of
his argument. " In him, and in the pre-
posterous pedant Holofernes, and the
curate Sir Nathaniel, the poet satirizes
the euphuistic affectations of the time, –
the taffeta phrases, three-piled hyper-
boles, and foreign language scraps, ever
on the tongues of these fashionable
dudes. The “pathetical nit, Moth, is
Armado's page, a keen-witted rogueling.
Dull is a constable of twice-sodden
simplicity, and Costard
the
witty
clown. Rosaline is the Beatrice of the
comedy, brilliant and caustic in her wit.
Bovet is an old courtier who serves as a
kind of usher or male lady's-maid to the
princess and her retinue. The loves of
the noblesse are parodied in those of
Costard and of the country wench
Jaquenetta. The gentlemen devise, to
entertain the ladies, Muscovite
masque and a play by the clown and
pedants.
The ladies get wind of the
masque, and, being masked themselves,
guy the Muscovites who go off «all dry-
beaten with pure scoff”; Rosaline sug-
gests that maybe they are sea-sick with
coming from Muscovy. The burlesque
play tallies that in Midsummer Night's
Dream,' the great folk making satirical
remarks on the clown's performances.
Costard is cast for Pompey the Huge,
and it transpires that the Don has no
shirt on when he challenges Costard to
a duel.
While the fun is at its height
comes word that sobers all: the prin-
cess's father is dead. As a test of their
love the princess and Rosaline impose a
year's severe penance on their lovers,
and if their love proves true, promise to
have them; and so do the other ladies
promise to their wooers. Thus love's
labor is, for the present, lost. The
comedy ends with two fine lyrics, – the
cuckoo song (“Spring'), and the (Tu-
whit, tu-whoo) song of the owl (“Win-
ter').
Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, one of
Shakespeare's earliest and least attract-
ive comedies, for the plot of which he
was slightly indebted to Bandello, to
Sidney's Arcadia,' and to Montemayor's
Diana Enamorada. ' The scene is laid
alternately in Verona and in Milan. The
noble Valentine of Verona remarks to
his friend Proteus that «home-keeping
youths have ever homely wits”; hence
he will travel to Milan, with his servant
Speed. Proteus, a mean-souled, treach-
erous, fickle young sprig, is in love with
Julia, or thinks he is. His servant's
name is Launce, a droll fellow who is as
rich in humor as Launcelot Gobbo of the
Merchant of Venice. Julia is the hero-
ine of the piece; a pretty, faithful girl.
Proteus soon posts after Valentine to
Milan, and at once forgets Julia and
falls (over boots in love with Silvia.
Julia also goes to Milan, disguised as a
boy, and
takes service with Proteus.
The latter treacherously betrayed Val-
entine's plan of elopement with Silvia to
the duke her father, who met Valentine,
pulled the rope ladder from under his
cloak, and then banished him. As in
the play of (As You Like It,' all the par-
ties finally meet in the forest, where
Valentine has been chosen leader by a
band of respectable outlaws. Julia con-
fesses her identity; Valentine, with a
maudlin, milk-sop charity, not only for-
gives Proteus (whom he has just over-
heard avowing to Silvia that he will
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382
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
outrage her if he cannot get her love), sends his Dromio to the inn with a bag
but, on Proteus repenting, actually offers of gold, and presently meets Dromio of
to give up Silvia to him. But Julia Ephesus, who mistaking him, urges him
swoons, and Proteus's love for her re- to come at once to dinner: his wife and
turns. A double marriage ends this sister are waiting. In no mood for jok-
huddled-up finale. Launce affines with ing, he beats his supposed servant. The
Touchstone, Grumio, Autolycus, and the other Dromio also gets a beating for
Dromios. He is irresistibly funny in the denying that he had just talked about
enumeration of his milkmaid's points," dinner and wife. In the mean time,
and in the scenes with his dog Crab. Adriana and her sister meet the Syra-
This cruel-hearted cur, when all at home cusans on the street, and amaze them
were weeping over Launce's departure, by their reproaches. As in a dream the
and the very cat was wringing her men follow them home, and Dromio of
hands, shed not a tear; and when, in Syracuse is bid keep the door. Now
Madam Silvia's dining-room, he stole a comes home the rightful owner with
chicken-leg from the trencher and mis- guests, and knocks in vain for admit-
behaved in an unmentionable manner, tance. So he goes off in a rage to an
Launce manfully took a whipping for inn to dine. At his home the coil
him. Nay, he stood on the pillory for thickens. There Antipholus of Syracuse
geese he had killed, and stood in the makes love to Luciana, and down-stairs
stocks for puddings he had stolen. Crab the amazed Dromio of Syracuse flies
enjoys the honor of being the only dog from the greasy kitchen wench who
that sat to Shakespeare for his portrait,
claims him as her own. Master and
although others are mentioned in his man finally resolve to set sail at once
works.
from this place of enchantment. After
THE COMEDY OF Errors, by its irre- a great many more laughable puzzles
sistibly laughable plot (and it is all and contretemps, comes Adriana, with
plot), is perennially popular. It is the a conjurer — Doctor Pinch-and others,
shortest of the plays, and one of the who bind her husband and servant as
very earliest written. The main story madmen and send them away. Pres-
is from the Menæchmi? of Plautus. ently enter the bewildered Syracusans
The Syracusans and the men of Ephe- with drawn swords, and away fies
sus have mutually decreed death to a Adriana, crying, “They are loose again! )
citizen of one city caught in the other, The Syracusans take refuge in the ab-
unless he
pay a heavy ransom. bey. Along comes the duke leading
Ægeon of Syracuse is doomed to death Ægeon to execution. Meantime the real
by the Duke of Ephesus. He tells husband and slave have really broken
the duke his story,-how at Epidam- loose, bound Doctor Pinch, singed off
many years ago his wife had his beard, and nicked his hair with
borne male twins, and at the same hour scissors. At last both pairs of twins
a meaner woman near by had also twin meet face to face, and Ægeon and
boys; how he had bought and brought Æmilia solve all puzzles.
up the latter; and how he and his wife ROMEO AND JULIET was first published
had become separated by shipwreck, she in 1597. The plot was taken from a poem
with one of each pair of twins and he by Arthur Brooke, and from the prose
with one of each; and how five years story in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure. )
ago his boy and servant had set out in The comical underplot of the servants of
search of their twin brothers, and he Capulet vs. those of Montagu; the fatal
himself was now searching them and his duels, the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt;
wife. Of these twins, one Antipholus the ball where Romeo, a Montagu, falls
and one Dromio live in Ephesus as mas- in love with Juliet; the impassioned love-
ter and servant respectively, the former scenes in the orchard; the encounter of
being married to Adriana, whose sister the Nurse and Peter with the mocking
Luciana dwells with her. By chance gallants; the meetings at Friar Lau-
the Syracusan Antipholus and
his rence's cell, and the marriage of Juliet
Dromio are at this time in Ephesus. there; Romeo's banishment; the attempt
The mother Æmilia is abbess of to force Juliet to marry the County
priory in the town. Through a laby- Paris; the Friar's device of the sleeping-
rinth of errors they all finally discover potion; the night scene at the tomb,
each other. Antipholus of Syracuse Romeo first unwillingly killing Paris and
can
num
a


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
383
of
>>
then taking poison; the waking of Juliet, grasped the crown from Richard II. , the
who stabs herself by her husband's body; rightful owner, and became the founder
the reconciliation of the rival families, of the house of Lancaster.
About 1455
such are the incidents in this old Italian began the Wars of the Roses. (The
story, which has touched the hearts of Lancastrians wore as a badge the white
men now for six hundred years. It is rose, the Yorkists the red; Shakespeare
the drama of youth, «the first bewil- gives the origin of the custom in Henry
dered stammering interview
the VI. , Part i. , Act ii. , Scene 4, adherents
heart, with the delicious passion, pure of each party chancing in the Temple
as dew, of first love, but love thwarted Garden, London, to pluck each a rose of
by fate and death. Sampson bites his this color or that as symbol of his
thumb at a Montagu; Tybalt and Mer- adherency. ) In 1485 the Lancastrian
cutio fall. Friar John is delayed; Romeo Henry VII. , the conqueror of Richard
and Juliet die. Such is the irony of III. , ended these disastrous wars, and
destiny. The medieval manners at once reconciled the rival houses by marriage
fierce and polished, - Benvenuto limns with Elizabeth of York. The three parts
them. We are in the warm south : the of Henry VI. ,' like (Richard II. ,' present
dense gray dew on leaf and grass at a picture of a king too weak-willed to
morn, the cicada's song, the nightingale, properly defend the dignity of the
the half-closed flower-cups, the drifting throne. They are reeking with blood
perfume of the orange blossom, stars and echoing with the clash of arms.
burning dilated in the blue vault. Then They are sensationally and bombasti-
the deep melancholy of the story. And cally written, and such parts of them as
yet there is a kind of triumph in the are by Shakespeare are known to be his
death of the lovers: for in four or five earliest work. In Part i. the scene lies
days they had lived an eternity; death chiefly in France, where the brave Tal-
made them immortal. On fire, both, bot and Exeter and the savage York
with impatience, in vain the Friar warns and Warwick are fighting the French.
them that violent delights have violent Joan of Arc is here represented by the
ends. Blinded by love, they only half poet (who only followed English chron-
note the prescience of their own souls. icle and tradition) as a charlatan, a
'Twas written in the stars that Romeo witch, and a strumpet. The picture is
to be unlucky: at the supper he an absurd caricature of the truth. In
makes a mortal enemy; his interference Part ii. , the leading character is Mar-
in a duel gets Mercutio killed; his over- garet, whom the Duke of Suffolk has
haste to poison himself leads to brought over from France and married
Juliet's death. As for the garrulous old to the weak and nerveless poltroon King
Nurse, foul-mouthed and tantalizing, she Henry VI. , but is himself her guilty
is too close to nature not to be a por- lover. He and Buckingham and Mar-
trait from life; her advice to marry garet conspire successfully against the
Paris ) reveals the full depth of her life of the Protector, Duke Humphrey,
banality. Old Capulet is Italian and Suffolk is killed during the rebellion
Squire Western, a chough of lands and of Jack Cade, - an uprising of the peo-
houses, who treats this exquisite daughter ple which the play merely burlesques.
just as the Squire treats Sophia. Mer- Part iii. is taken up with the horrible
cutio is everybody's favorite: the gallant murders done by fiendish Gloster (after-
loyal gentleman, of infinite teeming ward Richard III. ), the defeat and im-
fancy, in all his raillery not an unkind prisonment of Henry VI. and his
word, brave as a lion, tender-hearted as assassination in prison by Gloster, and
a girl, his quips and sparkles of wit the seating of Gloster's brother Edward
ceasing not even when his eyes are (IV. ) on the throne. The brothers, in-
glazing in death.
cluding Clarence, stab Queen Margaret's
HENRY VI. , Parts i. , ii. , iii. Of the and imprison her.
She appears
eight closely linked Shakespeare his- again as a subordinate character in
torical plays, these three are the last (Richard III. In 1476 she renounced her
but one. The eight cover nearly all of claim to the throne and returned to the
the fifteenth century in this order: Continent.
(Richard II. ”; (Henry IV. , Parts i. and RICHARD III. , the last of a closely
ii. ; Henry V. ? ; (Henry VI. (three linked group of historical tragedies.
parts); and (Richard III. ) – Henry IV. (See (Henry VI. ') Still a popular play
was
on
an
.
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384
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
ence
.
on the boards; Edwin Booth as Richard
will long be remembered. As the drama
opens, Clarence, the brother of Richard
(or Gloster as he is called) is being led
away to the Tower, where, through Glos-
ter's intrigues, he is soon murdered on
a royal warrant. The dream of Clar-
is a famous passage, - how he
thought Richard drowned him at sea;
and in hell the shade of Prince Edward,
whom he himself had helped to assas-
sinate at Tewkesbury, wandered by, its
bright hair dabbled in blood, and cry.
ing: -
« Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clar-
ence. ”
Gloster also imprisons the son of Clar-
ence, and meanly matches Clarence's
daughter. The Prince Edward mentioned
was son of the gentle Henry VI. , whom
Richard stabbed in the Tower. This
hunch-backed devil next had the effront-
ery to woo to wife Anne, widow of the
Edward he had slain. She had not a
moment's happiness with him, and de-
served none. He soon killed her, and
announced his intention of seeking the
hand of Elizabeth, his niece, after hav-
ing hired one Tyrrel to murder her
brothers, the tender young princes, sons
of Edward IV. , in the Tower. Tyrrel
employed two hardened villains to
smother these pretty boys; and even the
murderers wept as they told how they
lay asleep, “girdling one another within
their innocent alabaster arms,” a prayer-
book on their pillow, and their red lips
almost touching. The savage boar also
stained bimself with the blood of Lord
Hastings, of the brother and son of Ed-
ward IV. 's widow, and of Buckingham,
who, almost as remorseless as himself,
had helped him to the crown, but fell
from him when he asked him to murder
the young princes. At length at Bos-
worth Field the monster met his match
in the person of Richmond, afterward
Henry VII. On the night before the
battle, the poet represents each leader
as visited by dreams,- Richmond seeing
pass before him the ghosts of all whom
Richard has murdered, who encourage
him and bid him be conqueror on the
morrow; and Richard seeing the same
ghosts pass menacingly by him, bidding
him despair and promising to sit heavy
on his soul on the day of battle. He
awakes, cold drops of sweat standing on
his brow; the lights burn blue in his
tent: "Is there a murderer here? No.
Yes, I am: then fly. What, from my-
self ? ” Day breaks; the battle is joined;
Richard fights with fury, and his horse
is killed under him: "A horse! a horse!
my kingdom for a horse! » But soon
brave Richmond has him down, crying,
«The day is ours: the bloody dog is
dead. ”
The story of Richard III. reads more
like that of an Oriental or African des-
pot than that of an English monarch.
Titus ANDRONICUS. — A most repuls-
ive drama of bloodshed and unnatural
crimes, not written by Shakespeare, but
probably touched up for the stage by
him when a young man.
It is included
in the original Folio Edition of 1623.
No one who has once supped on its
horrors will care to read it again. Here
is a specimen of them: Titus Androni-
cus, a Roman noble, in revenge for the
ravishing of his daughter Lavinia and
the cutting off of her hands and tongue,
cuts the throats of the two ravishers,
while his daughter holds between the
stumps of her arms a basin to catch the
blood. The father then makes a paste
of the ground bones and blood of the
slain men, and in that paste bakes their
two heads, and serving them up at a
feast, causes their mother to eat of the
dish. Iago seems a gentleman beside
the hellish Moor, Aaron, of this blood-
soaked tragedy.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is a drama
of Shakespeare's middle period (1594).
The story of the bond and that of the
caskets are both found in the old Gesta
Romanorum, but the poet used espe-
cially Fiorentino's Il Pecorone) (Milan,
1558). An atmosphere of high breeding
and noble manners enwraps this most
popular of Shakespeare's plays. The
merchant Antonio is the ideal friend,
his magnificent generosity a foil against
which Shylock's avarice glows with a
more baleful lustre. Shylock has long
hated him, both for personal insults and
for lending money gratis. Now, some
twenty and odd miles away, at Belmont,
lives Portia, with her golden hair and
golden ducats; and Bassanio asks his
friend Antonio for a loan, that he may
go that way a-wooing. Antonio Seeks
the money of Shylock, who bethinks him
now of a possible revenge. He offers
three thousand ducats gratis for three
months, if Antonio will seal to a merry
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
385
as
day of payment, the Jew may cut from tion and the sorrows of this lady form
his breast, nearest the heart, a pound a central feature of the drama. Ar-
of flesh. Antonio expects ships home a thur's father Geoffrey has long been
month before the day, and signs. While dead, but his mother has enlisted in
Shylock is feeding at the Christian's ex- his behalf the kings of Austria and
pense, Lorenzo runs away with sweet of France. Their forces engage King
Jessica, his dark-eyed daughter, and John's army under the walls of Angiers.
sundry bags of ducats and jewels. Bas- While the day is still undecided, peace
sanio is off to Belmont. Portia is to be is made, and a match formed between
won by him who, out of three caskets, Lewis, dauphin of France, and John's
- of gold, silver, and lead, respectively, — niece Blanche. The young couple are
shall choose that containing her por- scarcely married when the pope's legate
trait. Bassanio makes the right choice. causes the league to be broken. The
But at once comes word that blanches armies again clash in arms, and John
his cheeks: all of Antonio's ships are is victorious, and carries off Prince
reported lost at sea; his day of payment Arthur to England, where he is con-
has passed, and Shylock clamors for his fined in a castle and confided to one
dreadful forfeit. Bassanio, and his fol- Hubert. John secretly gives a written
lower Gratiano, only tarry to be mar- warrant to Hubert to put him to death.
ried, the one to Portia, and the other to The scene in which the executioners
her maid Nerissa; and then, with money appear with red-hot irons to put out
furnished by Portia, they speed away the boy's eyes, and his innocent and
toward Venice. Portia follows, diguised affectionate prattle with Hubert, remind-
as a young doctor-at-law, and Nerissa as ing him how he had watched by him
her clerk. Arrived in Venice, they are when ill, is one of the most famous
ushered into court, where Shylock, fell and pathetic in all the Shakespearian
a famished tiger, is snapping out historical dramas. Hubert relents; but
fierce calls for justice and his pound of the frightened boy disguises himself as
flesh, Antonio pale and hopeless, and a sailor lad, and leaping down from
Bassanio in vain offering him thrice the the walls of the castle, is killed. Many
value of his bond. Portia, too, in vain of the powerful lords of England are
pleads with him for mercy.
Well, says
so infuriated by this pitiful event (vir-
Portia, the law must take its course. tually a murder, and really thought to
Then, “A Daniel come to judgment! » be such by them), that they join the
cries the Jew; «Come, prepare, prepare. ” Dauphin, who has landed to claim
Stop, says the young doctor, your bond England's crown in the name of his
gives you flesh, but no blood; if you wife. King John meets him on the
shed one drop of blood you die, and battle-field, but is taken ill, and forced
your lands and goods are confiscate to to retire to Swinstead Abbey. He has
the State. The Jew cringes, and offers been poisoned by a monk, and dies
to accept Bassanio's offer of thrice the in the orchard of the abbey in great
value of the bond in cash; but learns agony. His right-hand man in his wars
that for plotting against the life of a and in counsel has been a bastard son
citizen of Venice all his property is for- of Richard I. , by Lady Faulconbridge.
feited, half to Antonio and half to the The bastard figures conspicuously in
State. As the play closes, the little band the play as braggart and ranter; yet
of friends are grouped on Portia's lawn he is withal brave and patriotic to the
in the moonlight, under the vast blue last. Lewis, the dauphin, it should be
dome of stars. The poet, however, ex- said, makes peace and retires to France.
cites our pity for the baited Jew.
MIDSUMMER Night's DREAM was writ-
KING JOHN, a drama, the source of ten previous to 1598; the poet drawing
which is an older play published in for materials on Plutarch, Ovid, and
1591. The date of the action is 1200 Chaucer. The roguish sprite Puck, or
A.