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First in doubtfulness comes Titus Andronicus, of which I shall say, for my own part, I do not think he wrote any portion of it.1 It is also believed by many scholars that few entire scenes in Pericles are by Shakespeare, and that Timon of Athens was a sketch of a play from his hands filled out by other dramatists.

The Taming of the Shrew is certainly founded on an older play of the same title, which it follows in incident. As to the three parts of Henry VI., they are mostly all under dispute, some critics believing that Shakespeare did not write the first part, and that the second and third parts are alterations of two old plays which still exist in evidence ; while others claim that he wrote all three, and that the older plays are his own earlier version of the plays, which he afterwards finished and revised more carefully. There has been a great deal written on both sides on all these plays, and most of the disputed points must forever remain undecided, or only a matter of individual opinion, and many lines which lie within the covers of his plays will be read a little doubtfully.

With regard to the sources for the plots of the plays, our knowledge is clearer. We know whence most have been derived, and from this evidence it would seem that Shakespeare rarely invented his plots. He took them wherever he found them,—in old poems, stories, translations from French or Italian; in the old Roman or current English history, wherever he could find a dramatic incident. In Holinshed's Chronicle History may be found many

1 I have for a long time believed that Titus Andronicus was written by the same poet who wrote Lust's Dominion, a play sometimes ascribed to Marlowe. The hero of both plays is a Moor, and there is a general resemblance, while some lines are strikingly alike, as, for instance :

And do not now with quarrels shake the state,
Which is already too much ruinate.

Lust's Dominion.

Then afterwards to order well the state,
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

Titus Andronicus.

a hint. There he read of the troubled reign of Duncan of Scotland, his murder by Macbeth, the appearance of the three witches, and the fight between Macduff and Macbeth. In Plutarch's Lives he read of great Cæsar's assassination, the conspiracy and death of Brutus, as well as the loves of Antony and Cleopatra. In some charming novels by Greene and by Thomas Lodge he got the plots for Winter's Tale and As You Like It. Thus the eye of the dramatist was quick to see in all places whatever would serve his purpose. The inventive power of the novelist either he did not have, or did not care to use. I sometimes fancy that the lack of this power stimulated the power of the dramatist, that he could better work the men and women of his imagination, when, like the men and women of the real world, they were controlled by a destiny which he had not shaped for them.

While

From this slight glance I have given you of his methods, you will see that Shakespeare was a busy, hard-working man, absorbed and interested in affairs which filled his life for over twenty years. While so many of the other poets, like Greene, Peele, and Marlowe, lived and died in drunkenness and misery, Shakespeare was a prosperous shareholder in the theatre where he was also an actor. busy with his own work for the stage, he was interested in revising and criticising the works of other men; and all this time he was building up a good name and estate in his native town, which was very likely the main purpose of his life. The greatest poet of his age, he was also a practical man, with a breadth of intellect which could include the details of the petty affairs of life.

In studying Shakespeare, go first of all to his works, and not to critics. To know thoroughly Shakespeare's plays with appreciative knowledge would be of itself a liberal education. Even if you should read thoroughly only four such plays as Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Cæsar, and As You Like It, you would have in your mind a treasure which would be priceless.

XXIV.

EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS, "RICHARD II.; HAMLET ; "THE TEMPEST."

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N illustration of Shakespeare's poetry, I am going to give extracts from plays written at different periods. First, from Richard II., which was written in the earlier period of his career; then from Hamlet, which was probably produced in the middle of his life as author; and, finally, from The Tempest, which is one of the latest, if not the very latest, of his productions. The scene from Richard II. is that in which John of Gaunt, the uncle of the king, lying at point of death, calls for Richard, that he may warn him of his misgovernment, which is bringing so many troubles on the realm.

As the scene opens, Gaunt lies on a couch, his brother, the Duke of York, standing near: —

Gaunt. Will the king come, that I may breathe my last
In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?

York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;
For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

Gaunt. Oh, but they say the tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony:

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
He that no more must say is listened more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;
More are men's ends marked than their lives before :
The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance, more than things long past:
Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,
My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired,
And thus, expiring, do foretell of him:
His fierce, rash blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;

He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,

Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world, —
Is now leased out (I die pronouncing it)
Like to a tenement or pelting farm :
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

This, as I have said before, is from one of Shakespeare's earlier plays. You will notice, in studying his works, that when Shakespeare was younger he very often used rhymed couplets, as in this extract, instead of blank verse. As he grew older he used rhyme less and less. In Hamlet and As You Like It, which he wrote about the middle of his life, there are few rhymes, except occasionally a couplet at the close of a scene; in The Tempest and The Winter's Tale, which are among his latest plays, he almost altogether discarded rhymes.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's grandest plays,—probably no other is so much acted, read, and studied as this one. It is difficult to select from a play which is so perfect as a whole; but as an example of Shakespeare's wonderful humor, which could touch at the same time both tears and laughter, I have selected the scene in which two gravediggers are making a grave for Ophelia, who has gone mad, and in her

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madness was drowned. The two grave-diggers enter the churchyard, spades in hand; the first is a jolly old man who has been so long at his business that it is pure custom with him; the second is younger, but less active in wit than his companion. The old man begins thus:

Ist Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2d Clown. I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave straight : the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

1st Clown.

defence?

How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own

2d Clown. Why, 't is found so.

Ist Clown.

It must be se offendendo, it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

2d Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver — Ist Clown.

Give me leave.

Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

2d Clown. But is this law?

Ist Clown. Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's quest law.

2d Clown. Will you ha' the truth on 't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

Ist Clown. Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they hold up Adam's profession.

2d Clown.

Ist Clown.

Was he a gentleman ?

He was the first that ever bore arms.

2d Clown. Why, he had none.

Ist Clown.

What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself —

2d Clown.

Ist Clown.

Go to.

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

2d Clown. The gallows-maker, for that frame outlives a thousand

tenants.

1st Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows does well; but how does it well? It does well to those that do ill: now

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