to his friends so lavishly that he ruins himself. He finds none
grateful for his bounty. In his ruin all his friends desert him.
None of them will lend to him or help him. He falls into a loathing
of the world and retires to die alone. Alcibiades of Athens,
finding a like ingratitude in the State, openly makes war upon it,
reduces it to his own terms, and rules it. He finds Timon dead.
_Timon of Athens_ is a play of mixed authorship. Shakespeare's share in
it is large and unmistakable; but much of it was written by an unknown
poet of whom we can decipher this, that he was a man of genius, a
skilled writer for the stage, and of a marked personality. It cannot
now be known how the collaboration was arranged. Either the unknown
collaborated with Shakespeare, or the unknown wrote the play and
Shakespeare revised it.
Ingratitude is one of the commonest forms of treachery. It is the form
that leads most quickly to the putting back of the world, because it
destroys generosity of mind. It creates in man the bitter and
destructive quality of misanthropy, or a destroying passion of revenge.
In this play the two authors show the different ways in which the human
mind may be turned to those bitter passions.
Apemantus is currish, because others are not. He has wit without
charity. Alcibiades makes war on his city because others have not the
rough-and-ready large practical justice of men used to knocks. He has a
large good humour without idealism. Timon, the great-natured, truly
generous man, whose mind is as beneficial as the sun, cannot be currish,
nor stoop to the baseness of revenge. Finding men base, he removes
himself from them, and ministers with bitter contempt to the baseness
that infects them. The flaming out of his anger against whatever is
parasitic in life makes the action of the last two acts. The exhibition
of the baseness of parasites and of the wrath of a noble mind
embittered, is contrived, varied and heightened with intense dramatic
energy. The character of Flavius, Timon's steward, his only friend,
shows again, as in so many of the plays, Shakespeare's deep sense of the
noble generosity in faithful service.
Some think the play gloomy, others that it is autobiography.
Shakespeare's completed work is never gloomy. A great mind working with
such a glory of energy cannot be gloomy. This generation is gloomy and
unimaginative in its conception of art. Shakespeare, reading the story
of Timon, saw in him an image of tragic destiny that would flood the
heart of even an ingrate with pity. Great poets have something more
difficult and more noble to do than to pin their hearts on their
sleeves for daws to peck at. Shakespeare wrought the figure of Timon
with as grave justice as he wrought Alcibiades. He wrought both from
something feeling within himself, as he wrought Cleopatra, and Macbeth,
and Sir Toby Belch. They are as much autobiographical, and as little, as
the hundred other passionate moods that built up the system of his soul.
The poetry of the play is that of the great late manner--
"will these moss'd trees,
That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'st out?"
"Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood:
Who, once a day with his embossed froth
The turbulent surge shall cover."
The final speech, spoken by Alcibiades after he has read the epitaph,
with which Timon goes down to death, like some hurt thing shrinking even
from the thought of passers, is one of the most lovely examples of the
power and variety of blank verse as a form of dramatic speech.
_Alcib._ (reading) _Pass by and curse thy fill; but pass, and
stay not here thy gait._
These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,
Scorned'st our brain's flow and those our droplets which
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon: of whose memory
Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword,
Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each
Prescribe to other as each other's leech.
Let our drums strike.
_Pericles, Prince of Tyre._
_Written._ 1607-8 (?)
_Published._ 1608.
_Source of the Plot._ The plot is taken from an English prose
version of a Latin translation of a fifth century Greek romance.
This version was published by Lawrence Twine, in the year 1576,
under the name of _The Patterne of Paynfull Adventures_ (etc.,
etc.). It was reprinted in 1607. An adaptation from the Latin story
was made by John Gower for the eighth book of his _Confessio
Amantis_. This adaptation was known to the authors of the play.
_The Fable._ Act I. Pericles, Prince of Tyre, comes to Antioch to
guess a riddle propounded by the King. If he guess rightly, he will
be rewarded by the hand of the Princess in marriage. If he guess
wrongly, he will be put to death. The riddle teaches him that the
Princess is living incestuously with her father. He flies from
Antioch to Tyre, and there takes ship to avoid the King's
vengeance. Coming to Tarsus he relieves a famine by gifts of corn.
Act II. He is wrecked near Pentapolis, recovers his armour, goes
jousting at the King's court, wins the King's daughter Thaisa, and
marries her.
Act III. While bound for Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter,
dies, and is thrown overboard. The body drifts ashore at Ephesus,
and is restored to life by a physician. Thaisa, thinking Pericles
dead, becomes a votaress at Diana's temple. Pericles leaves Marina,
the newly born babe, in the care of the King and Queen of Tarsus.
He then returns to Tyre.
Act IV. The years pass. Marina grows up to such beauty and charm
that she passes the Queen of Tarsus' own daughter. The Queen,
deeply jealous for her own child, hires a murderer to kill Marina.
Pirates surprise him in the act and carry off Marina to a brothel
in Mitylene, from which she escapes. She becomes a singer and
musician.
Act V. Pericles, wandering, by sea, to Mitylene, in great
melancholy for the loss of wife and child, hears Marina sing. He
learns that she is his daughter. The goddess Diana bids him go to
her temple at Ephesus. He goes, and finds Thaisa. The play ends
happily with the reuniting of the family.
The acts are opened by rhyming prologues designed to be spoken by John
Gower. The prologues to each of the three first acts are followed by
Dumb Shows, an invention of the theatre to explain those things not
easily to be shown in action. The prologues, the invention of the dumb
shows, and the first two acts, are not by Shakespeare. They are like the
poetical work of George Wilkins, who published a prose romance of _The
Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre_ in the year 1608,
probably after the play had been produced.
The construction of the last three acts makes it likely that the play
(in its original state) was by the constructor of the first two acts. It
is not known how it came to pass that Shakespeare took the play in hand.
From the comparative feebleness of his work upon it, it may be judged
that it was not a labour of love. The impression given is that nothing
in the piece is wrought with more than the mechanical power of the great
mind, that Shakespeare was not deeply interested in the play, but that
he re-wrote the last three acts so that his company might play the piece
and make money by it. The play has often succeeded on the stage, and the
knowledge that it would succeed may have weighed with the manager of a
theatre on which many depended for bread.
There is little that is precious in the play. The scenes in the brothel
at Mitylene (in Act IV) have power. Many find their unpleasantness an
excuse for saying that Shakespeare never wrote them. They are certainly
by Shakespeare. Cant would always persuade itself that the power to see
clearly ought not to be turned upon evil. Those who can read--
_Bawd._ ... they are so pitifully sodden.
_Pandar._ ... The poor Transylvanian is dead, that lay with the
little baggage.
_Boult._ Ay ... she made him roast-meat for worms--
with disgust at Shakespeare's foulness, yet without horror of heart that
the evil still goes on among human beings, must be strangely made. These
scenes, the very vigorous sea scenes, including the account of the storm
at sea, put into the mouth of Marina--
"My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
But cried 'Good seamen!' to the sailors, galling
His kingly hands, haling ropes;
And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea
That almost burst the deck....
Never was waves nor wind more violent:
And from the ladder-tackle washes off
A canvas-climber. 'Ha,' says one, 'wilt out?'
And with a dropping industry they skip
From stem to stern; the boatswain whistles, and
The master calls and trebles their confusion"--
and the scene in which Cerimon, the man withdrawn from the world to
study the bettering of man, revives the body of Thaisa, are the most
lovely things in the play.
_Cymbeline._
_Written._ (?)
_Published_, in the folio, 1623.
_Source of the Plot._ Holinshed's _Chronicles_ tell of Cymbeline
and the Roman invasion. A story in Boccaccio's _Decameron_ (giorn.
2, nov. ix) retold in English in Kinde Kit's _Westward for Smelts_,
and popular in many forms and many literatures, tells of the woman
falsely accused of adultery.
_The Fable._ Cymbeline, King of Britain, has lost his two sons. His
only remaining child, a daughter named Imogen, is married to
Posthumus. His second wife, a cruel and scheming woman, plots to
destroy Posthumus so that her son, the boorish Cloten, may marry
Imogen.
Posthumus in Rome wagers with Iachimo that Imogen is of an
incomparable chastity. Iachimo comes to England, and by a trick
obtains evidence that convinces Posthumus that Imogen is unchaste.
Imogen, cast off by her husband, comes to the mountains where
Belarius rears Cymbeline's two lost sons. Cloten, pursuing her, is
killed by one of the sons.
The Romans land to exact tribute. The valour of Belarius and the
two boys obtains a British victory. The Romans are vanquished.
Cymbeline's queen kills herself. Posthumus is taught that Iachimo
deceived him. Imogen is restored to him. The lost sons are restored
to Cymbeline. Prophecy is fulfilled and pardon given. All ends
happily.
It seems possible that Cymbeline was begun as a tragedy during the great
mood of tragical creation, then laid aside unfinished, from some
failure in the vision, or change in the creative mood, and brought to an
end later in a new spirit, perhaps in another place, in the country,
away from the life which makes writing alive. It is the least perfect of
the later plays. The least soft of Shakespeare's critics calls it
"unresisting imbecility." It is perhaps the first composed of the
romantic plays with which Shakespeare ended his life's work.
Though the writing is so careless and the construction so loose that no
one can think of it as a finished play, it has dramatic scenes, one
faultless lyric, and many marks of beauty. It deals with the
Shakespearean subject of craft working upon a want of faith for personal
ends, and being defeated, when almost successful, by something simple
and instinctive in human nature. It is thus not unlike _Othello_; but in
_Othello_ the subject is simple, and the treatment purely tragic. In
_Cymbeline_ the subject is only partly extricated, and the treatment is
coloured with romance, with that strange, touching, very Shakespearean
romance, of the thing long lost beautifully recovered before the end,
so that the last years of the chief man in the play may be happy and
complete. The end of life would be as happy as the beginning if the dead
might be given back to us. Shakespeare had lost a child.
There can be no doubt that when the play was first conceived, the craft
of the queen, working upon the insufficient faith of Cymbeline, was
designed to be as important to the action as the craft of Iachimo
working upon the insufficient faith of Posthumus. This was never wrought
out. The play advances and halts. As in all unfinished works of art one
sees in it something fine trying to get free but failing.
The lyric "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" is the most lovely thing in
the play. The most powerful moment is that which exposes the poisoning
of a generous mind by false report. Posthumus believes Iachimo's lie and
breaks out railing against women.
"For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man but I affirm
It is the woman's part."
Noble instants are marked in the lines--
"Be not, as in our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers,"
and in the symbol of the eagle--
"the Roman eagle,
From south to west on wing soaring aloft,
Lessen'd herself and in the beams o' the sun
So vanished."
_The Winter's Tale._
_Written._ 1610-11.
_Published_, in the first folio, 1623.
_Source of the Plot._ The story appears in Robert Greene's romance
of _Pandosto_. Shakespeare greatly improves the fable by completing
it. Greene ends it. Greene makes the story an accident with an
unhappy end. Shakespeare makes it a vision of the working of fate
with the tools of human passion.
_The Fable._ Leontes, King of Sicilia, suspecting that his wife
Hermione is guilty of adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia,
tries her on that count. He causes her daughter to be carried to a
desert place and there exposed.
The oracle of Apollo declares to him that Hermione is innocent,
that he himself is a jealous tyrant, and that he will die without
an heir should he fail to recover the daughter lost. The truth of
the oracle is confirmed by the (apparent) death of Hermione and the
real death of Mamillius, his son. Repenting bitterly of his
obsession of jealousy he goes into mourning.
The little daughter is found by country people who nourish and
cherish her. She grows up to beautiful and gracious girlhood.
Florizel, the son of Polixenes, falls in love with her, and seeks
to marry her without his father's knowledge. Being discovered by
Polixenes, he flies with her to the sea. Taking ship, the couple
come to Leontes' court, where it is proved that the girl is the
lost princess. She is married to Florizel. Leontes is reconciled to
Polixenes. Hermione completes the general happiness by rejoining
the husband who has so long mourned her.
Dr. Simon Forman, the first critic of this play, made note to "remember"
two things in it, "how he sent to the orakell of Appollo," and "also the
rog that cam in all tottered like Coll Pipci." He drew from it this
moral lesson, that one should "Beware of trustinge feined beggars or
fawninge fellouse."
The moral lesson is still of value to the world, and it is most
certainly one which Shakespeare strove to impress. Shakespeare's mind
was always brooding on the working of fate. He was always watching the
results of some obsession upon an individual and the people connected
with him. He saw that a blindness falling upon a person suddenly, for no
apparent reason, except that something strikes the something not quite
sound in the nature, has the power to alter life violently. It was his
belief that life must not be altered violently. Life is a thing of
infinitely gradual growth, that would perfect itself if the blindness
could be kept away. Any deceiving thing, like a passion or a feigned
beggar, is a cause of the putting back of life, indefinitely.
In this play, he followed his usual practice, of showing the results of
a human blindness upon human destiny. The greater plays are studies of
treachery and self-betrayal. This play is a study of deceit and
self-deception. Leontes is deceived by his obsession, Polixenes by his
son, the country man by Autolycus, life, throughout, by art. In the last
great scene, life is mistaken for art. In the first great scene a true
friendship is mistaken for a false love.
It may be called the gentlest of Shakespeare's plays. It is done with a
tenderer hand than the other works. The name, _A Winter's Tale_, is
taken from a scene in the second act. Hermione sits down with her son,
by the winter fire, to listen to his story. It is the last time she ever
sees her son. He has hardly opened his lips when Leontes enters to
accuse her of adultery. She is hurried off to prison, and Mamillius dies
before the oracle's message comes to clear her. The sudden shocks and
interruptions of life, which play so big a part in the action of these
late romances, have full power here. The winter's tale is interrupted.
The rest of the play results from the interruption. Much of it is very
beautiful. To us, the wonderful thing is the strangeness of the
tenderness which makes some scenes in the fifth act so passionate with
grief for old injustice done to the dead. The cry of Leontes remembering
the wronged dead woman's eyes--
"Stars, stars,
And all eyes else dead coals,"
is haunting and heart-breaking. All his longing of remorse gives to the
last great scene, before the supposed statue, an intensity of beauty
hardly endurable.
The passion of remorse is a romantic, not a tragic passion. It is the
mood which follows the tragic mood. Shakespeare's creative life is like
a Shakespearean play. It ends with an easing of the strain and a making
of peace.
It is said that an old horse near to death turns towards the pastures
where he was foaled. It is true of human beings. Man wanders home to the
fields which bred him. A part of the romance of this poem is the turning
back of the poet's mind to the Cotswold country, of which he sang so
magically, in his first play, sixteen or eighteen years before. There
are fine scenes of shepherds at home, among the sheep bells and clean
wind. There is a very lovely talk of flowers--
"daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength."
To Shakespeare, the magically happy man, the going back to them must
have been a time for thanksgiving. But to the supremely happy man all
times are times of thanksgiving, deep, tranquil and abundant, for the
delight, the majesty and the beauty of the fulness of the rolling world.
_The Tempest._
_Written._ 1610-11.
_Published_, in the folio, 1623.
_Source of the Plot._ It is likely that many sources contributed to
the making of this plot. If Shakespeare took the fable from a
single source, that source is not now known. He may have taken
suggestions for it from the following books:--
1st. From a little collection of novels by Antonio de Eslava, a
Spanish writer, whose book, _Noches de Invierno_, was published in
Barcelona in 1609. Three tales in this collection seem to have
given hints for the play. The fourth chapter, about "The Art Magic
of King Dardano," helped him more than the others. Whether the
title of the book suggested the title of _A Winter's Tale_ is not
known.
2nd. From a German play, _Die schoene Sidea_, by a Nuremberg
dramatist, named Jacob Ayrer.
3rd. From the tracts relating to the discovery of the Bermuda
Islands in 1609. Of the known tracts, _A Discovery of the Bermuda
Islands_, by Sylvester Jourdain, gave Shakespeare the most hints.
Several other books may have suggested lines and passages.
_The Fable._ Prospero, Duke of Milan, having been driven from his
dukedom by Antonio his brother, flies to sea with his daughter
Miranda, lands on an island, and there lives, served by two
creatures, one an airy spirit, the other a loutish monster.
By art magic, he brings to the island his usurping brother and the
king and heir of Naples. Miranda falls in love with the heir of
Naples. Prospero dismisses his spirits, reconciles himself with his
brother, and plans to sail at once for Milan.
In this play, as in the two other original romantic plays, Shakespeare
follows the workings of a treacherous act from its performance to the
repentance of the sinner and the granting of the victim's forgiveness.
In the great plays the victim dies and the sinner does not repent.
Presently the wheel comes full circle, and a justice from outside life
smites him dead. In these plays the betrayed live to forgive the
traitors--
"Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,
Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further."
In this play, as in the other two and in _Pericles_, much is made of the
chances and accidents of life, and of the sudden changes of worldly
circumstance due to them. In this play, for the first and last time,
Shakespeare treats of the power of the resolved imagination to command
the brutish, the base, the noble and the spiritual for wise human ends.
It is easy to interpret the play as allegory. Youth in this country has
reason to regard allegory as a clumsy man's way of introducing Sunday on
a weekday. It is so seldom successful that it may be called the literary
method of creative minds below the first rank. Shakespeare's method was
never allegorical. The _Tempest_ is perhaps no more allegorical than
any other good romance. But the thought of it is so clear that the first
impression given is that it is thin. It is the study of a man of
intellect, who has been forced from power by a treacherous brother.
Living alone with his bright, unspoiled daughter, he attains, by
intellectual labour, to a power over destiny. Like the wise man of the
proverb, he learns to master his stars. He uses this power nobly to put
an end to ancient hatred and old injustice.
The minor vision of the play is a study, often very amusing, but deeply
earnest, of the coming of the fifth part civilised to the mostly brutal.
In Shakespeare's time, men like the quite thoughtless and callous
Stephano and Trinculo, the "sea-dogs" who manned our ships, and of whom
Raleigh wrote that it was an offence to God to minister oaths to the
generality of them, were "spreading civilisation" in various parts of
the world. Shakespeare, looking at them gravely, saw them to be,
perhaps, more dangerous to the needs of life, to wisdom, and to unlit
animal strength than the base Sebastian and the treacherous Antonio.
The exquisite lyrics, and the masque of the goddesses, show that the
taste of the audience of 1610-11 needed to be tickled. Times had changed
since the lion-like and ramping days, eighteen years before, when
"Jeronimy" was a new word, and Tamora a serious invention. The man who
had changed the times was thinking, like Prospero, that he had "got his
dukedom," and that now, having "pardoned the deceiver," he might go to
Stratford to enjoy it.
_King Henry VIII_, or _All is True_.
_Written._ 1611-13 (?)
_Produced._ (?)
_Published_, in the first folio, 1623.
_Source of the Plot._ Holinshed's _Chronicles_. Hall's
_Chronicles_. Foxe's _Book of Martyrs_.
_The Fable._ Act I. Two of the scenes in this act are by
Shakespeare. In the first, Cardinal Wolsey contrives the attainting
of his enemy, the Duke of Buckingham. In the other he procures to
bring Queen Katharine into disfavour.
Act II. In this act, Buckingham is beheaded, the King shows favour
to Anne Bullen, and Queen Katharine is brought to trial. It is hard
to believe that Shakespeare wrote any part of this act. He is often
credited with the third scene, apparently on the ground that though
it is bad it is still too good to be by Bacon.
Act III. In this act, the King shows Wolsey that he has discovered
his plottings. About half of the second scene (all the masculine
part of it) is by Shakespeare. The rest (very beautiful) is by
Fletcher.
Act IV. Anne Bullen is crowned. Wolsey dies. Queen Katharine dies.
None of this act is by Shakespeare.
Act V. Cranmer escapes from his enemies in time to be godfather at
the christening of Anne Bullen's daughter Elizabeth. If any of this
act be by Shakespeare it can only be the first scene.
Little of this play is by Shakespeare. The greater part of it is by John
Fletcher. Some scenes bear the marks of a third hand, like that of
Philip Massinger. The play reads as though the two lesser poets had
worked from a scenario of Shakespeare's less complete than the draft of
_Troilus and Cressida_. It is certain that they received no hint of the
lines on which Shakespeare meant to proceed after the end of Act III.
Not knowing what to do, they patched up a piece without any central
tragical idea, and hid their want of thought with much effective
theatrical invention, pageants, a trial, a coronation, a christening,
etc., and with bright, facile, vinous dialogue, of the kind that will
hold an uncritical audience. The play, when done, was mounted with
extreme splendour at the Globe Theatre. Wadding from the cannons
discharged in the first act set fire to the theatre, and burned it to
the ground, June 29, 1613.
Shakespeare's dramatic intention is indicated in the scenes written by
him. Knowing his practice, and having before us Holinshed, his
authority, it is easy to sketch out the kind of play that he would have
written by himself. Wolsey, eaten up by his obsession for worldly power,
betraying Buckingham to his fall, breaking the power of the Queen, and
ruling England, would have filled the first two acts. The third act
would have told (much more subtly than Fletcher has told) of his
downfall. Fletcher attributes the downfall to the chance discovery of
his attempt to thwart the king's marriage with Anne Bullen. That
discovery would have been put to full dramatic use by Shakespeare; but
it would have been represented as something working from beyond the
grave, the result of many unjust acts that have cried to God for justice
till God hears. The last acts would have exposed other sides of Wolsey's
character. The play would have been a fuller, nobler work than _Richard
II_, and of an ampler canvas than _Timon_. Shakespeare's share in the
play as we have it is all noble work. Wolsey, Katharine and the King are
drawn with the great, sharp, ample line of a master. The difference
between genius and supreme genius is shown very clearly in the first
act, where a great work, greatly begun, with the masterly power of
exposition that makes Shakespeare's first acts like daybreaks, is ended
by another spirit, without vision, but with a tremendous sense of Vanity
Fair.
WORK ATTRIBUTED TO SHAKESPEARE
A play called _Cardenno_, or _Cardenna_, was acted at Court by
Shakespeare's company in 1613. It is thought that this play was the
_History of Cardenio_, described as "by Fletcher and Shakespeare," which
was licensed for publication in 1653 but never published. The play is
now lost. It was attributed to Fletcher and Shakespeare on very poor
authority.
_Arden of Feversham_ is a domestic tragedy founded on a story told by
Holinshed. It was published anonymously in 1592. It is held by some to
be an early work of Shakespeare's, on the ground that no other known
poet, then living, could have written it. It is a strong play, but it is
the work of a joyless mind. It bears no single trace of Shakespeare's
mind. It could not have been written by him at any stage in his career.
_Edward III_ is an historical chronicle play by at least two unknown
hands. It was published anonymously in 1596. Some think that part of Act
I and the whole of Act II (dealing with the King's obsession of passion
for the Countess of Salisbury) were by Shakespeare, on the grounds that
the writing is too good to be by anybody else then living, and that the
unknown author makes use of a line and a phrase which occur in the
genuine sonnets of Shakespeare. The scenes attributed to Shakespeare
contain several beautiful lines in something of the Shakespearean
manner. The construction of the scenes, and their relation to the rest
of the play is un-Shakespearean. It is unlikely that Shakespeare wrote
them.
_The Spanish Tragedy_, a play by Thomas Kyd, published in 1592 and
reprinted with many additions ten years later, contains in the additions
several magnificent scenes of the passion of grief raised to madness.
Some think that Ben Jonson wrote these scenes; others, that they are too
good to be by any one but Shakespeare. They are not like Shakespeare's
work.
_The Two Noble Kinsmen_, a romantic tragedy on the subject of Chaucer's
_Knight's Tale_, was first published in 1634. It was described on the
title-page as the joint work of Fletcher and Shakespeare. Shakespeare's
hand is plainly marked upon the play; but it seems likely that most of
the scenes usually credited to him are by Massinger. Few can have ears
dull enough to credit Shakespeare with all the scenes that are plainly
not by Fletcher.
About a dozen other plays and parts of plays have been attributed to
Shakespeare, either by lying publishers, anxious to make money, or by
foolish critics eager to make a noise. "Evil men understand not
judgment: and he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."
There is not a glimmer of evidence in any line or scene to show that
Shakespeare had a hand in any of them.
THE POEMS
_Venus and Adonis._--This poem was published in 1593 with a dedication
to the Earl of Southampton, then a youth. In the dedication Shakespeare
speaks of the poem as "the first heire of my invention," from which
some conclude that it was the first poem ever made public by him.
Though it may be his earliest poem, the thought expressed by it is the
thought expressed in the greatest of the plays, that evil comes of
obsession.
Venus, a lustful woman, pursuing her opposite, a chaste youth, comes to
misery. Adonis, a chaste youth, fleeing from her, comes to death.
The poem is beautiful and wild blooded. It is fierce with the excelling
animal zest of something young and untainted.
"The sun ariseth in his majesty
Who doth the world so gloriously behold,
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold."
It is full of the images of delicate quick-blooded things going swiftly
and lustily from the boiling of the April in them.
* * * * *
_The Rape of Lucrece._--This poem was published in 1594, with a
dedication to the Earl of Southampton. Like so many of the works of
Shakespeare, it describes at length the prompting, acting, and results
of a treachery inspired by an obsession. Tarquin, hearing of Lucrece's
chastity, longs to attempt her. Coming stealthily to her home, in her
lord's absence, he foully ravishes her. She kills herself and he is
banished from Rome. The subject is not unlike that of _Venus and
Adonis_, with the sexes reversed. In both poems the subject is sexual
obsession and its results.
_Lucrece_ is a wiser and a finer poem than _Venus and Adonis_. It is
constructed with the art of a man familiar with the theatre. The
delaying of the great moments so as to heighten the expectation, is
contrived with rapturous energy. The poem is heaped and overflowing with
the abundance of imaginative power. The wealth of the young man's mind
is poured out like life in June.
It is strange that both Lucrece and Hamlet, in their moments of
distraction, turn to the image of Troy blazing with the punishment of
treachery.
_The Passionate Pilgrim._--This little collection of poems was published
in 1599, under Shakespeare's name, by William Jaggard, a dishonest
bookseller. It contains poems by Richard Barnfield, Bartholomew Griffin,
Christopher Marlowe, and one or more unknown hands. It also contains two
genuine Shakespearean sonnets, three more from the text of _Love's
Labour's Lost_, and three (less certainly his) on the subject of _Venus
and Adonis_, which have the ring of his freshest youthful manner.
Whether any others in the collection be by Shakespeare can only be a
matter of opinion. The nineteenth poem has a smack of his mind about it.
If it be by him it must be his earliest extant work.
* * * * *
_The Sonnets._--_Written_ between 1592 and 1609. _Published_
(piratically) 1609.
These personal poems have puzzled many readers. Many writers have tried
to interpret them. Although their first editor tells us that they are
"serene, cleare, and elegantlie plaine (with) no intricate and cloudie
stuffe to trouble and perplex the intellect," much good and bad brain
work has been spent on them. Some have held that they are poetical
exercises. Others find that they are confessions. Others wrest from dark
lines dark meanings, till they have laid bare a story from them. Others
interpret spiritually. Others find evidence in them that Shakespeare was
guilty of an abnormal form of passion. The facts about them may be
stated--
1. They are personal poems. Some of them are of great beauty;
others are unsuccessful.
2. They were written in many moods. Some were written in a mood of
the intensest tranquil ecstasy, others in a fit of earthly passion,
others in a trivial mood.
3. They were written to more than one person. Many were written to
an attractive, handsome, young, unmarried man, Shakespeare's dear
friend. Men with imagination enjoy sweeter and closer friendships
than the many know. The many, mulish as ever, therefore imagine
evil.
4. Some of the sonnets were written to a woman, of the kind
described in two or three of the plays, viz. a black-haired,
black-eyed, white-faced, witty wanton, false to her marriage vows
and the cause of similar falseness in Shakespeare himself, and in
his friend.
5. Many of them show that Shakespeare, loving this woman, against
his better nature, was wilfully betrayed by her to all the devils
of jealousy, craving and self-loathing, which follow the banner of
lechery. Among the objects of the jealousy another poet figured.
No one knows who the friend, the lady and the rival poet were. The
discovery of letters and manuscripts may some day remove the mystery.
"Against that time, if ever that time come," men of intellect would do
well to accept the sonnets as beautiful poems, and try to write as good
ones to their wives.
Beautiful as many of the sonnets are, they are less wonderful
achievements and less important to the soul of man than the plays. Few
people thought much of them until the degradation of the English theatre
had hidden from English minds the greater glory of the creative system.
That they are now widely read while the plays are seldom acted, is
another proof that this age cares more for what was perishing and
personal in Shakespeare than for that which went winging on, in the
great light, surveying the eternal in man.
What Shakespeare thought of his perishing self is expressed in the
noblest of the sonnets. Two syllables are missing from the second line.
"Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
( ) these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine with selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then."
The sonnets were piratically published in a quarto volume in 1609. At
the end of the volume a narrative poem was printed, under the name _A
Lover's Complaint_. It tells in the first person the story of a girl who
has been seduced by a plausible villain. It is a work of Shakespeare's
youth, fresh and felicitous as youth's work often is, and very nearly
as empty.
* * * * *
_The Phoenix and The Turtle._--This strange, very beautiful poem was
published in 1601 in an appendix to Robert Chester's _Love's Martyr, or
Rosalin's Complaint_, to which several famous poets contributed. In dark
and noble verse it describes a spiritual marriage, suddenly ended by
death. It is too strange to be the fruit of a human sorrow. It is the
work of a great mind trying to express in unusual symbols a thought too
subtle and too intense to be expressed in any other way. Spiritual
ecstasy is the only key to work of this kind. To the reader without that
key it can only be so many strange words set in a noble rhythm for no
apparent cause.
Poetry moves in many ways. It may glorify and make spiritual some action
of man, or it may give to thoughts such life as thoughts can have, an
intenser and stranger life than man knows, with forms that are not
human and a speech unintelligible to normal human moods. This poem gives
to a flock of thoughts about the passing of truth and beauty the mystery
and vitality of birds, who come from a far country, to fill the mind
with their crying.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Shakespeare's plays were printed carelessly, often from imperfect, torn,
ill-written or stolen copies. When printed, they were seldom corrected.
When reprinted, the original errors were often made much worse. Thus,
"he met the night-mare," or "a met the night-mare," in the original
manuscript, was printed "a nellthu night more," and reprinted "anelthu
night Moore." Those who lightly read the modern editions seldom know
that years of mental toil went to the preparation of the texts so easily
read to-day.
Many English minds have paid tribute to Shakespeare. Few of them deserve
more praise than the Cambridge Editors, whose six years of labour
cleared the text of countless errors and corruptions. The correction of
a corrupt text by collation and conjecture, is one of the most difficult
and least amusing tasks that a fine mind can have. The Cambridge
_Shakespeare_, the work of William George Clark and Dr. William Aldis
Wright, gives a text not likely to be improved until the poet's
corrected manuscripts are found.
The _Life of William Shakespeare_ has been ably written by Dr. Sidney
Lee, whose judgment equals his learning.
Some of the dramatic methods of Shakespeare have been nobly studied by
Dr. A. C. Bradley in his _Shakespearean Tragedy_.
To these books and to the Shakespearean Essays in Mr. W. B. Yeats's
_Ideas of Good and Evil_, I am deeply indebted, as all modern students
of Shakespeare must be.
Our knowledge of Shakespeare is imperfect. It can only be increased by
minute and patient study, by the rejection of surmise about him, and by
the constant public playing of his plays, in the Shakespearean manner,
by actors who will neither mutilate nor distort what the great mind
strove to make just.
INDEX OF CHARACTERS
Achilles, 169, 170
Adonis, 241, 242
Adriana, 46, 47
AEgeon, 44, 46, 49
Aguecheek, Sir Andrew, 139
Ajax, 169, 172
Albany, Duke of, 187, 190
Alcibiades, 214, 215, 217, 218
Angelo, 174, 175, 177, 196
Anne Bullen, 236, 237
Anne, Lady, 93, 100
Antipholus of Ephesus, 44, 46
Antipholus of Syracuse, 44
Antonio (_Merchant of Venice_), 103
Antonio (_Tempest_), 232, 235
Antonio (_Two Gentlemen of Verona_), 34
Apemantus, 215
Armado, 30, 31
Arthur, Prince, 75, 80, 83, 84
Audrey, 129
Austria, Lymoges, Duke of, 81
Autolycus, 228
Banquo, 195, 200
Bardolph, 122, 124, 125
Bassanio, 103
Beatrice, 133, 134, 136, 137
Beaufort, Cardinal, 51, 55, 57, 58, 59
Belarius, 223
Belch, Sir Toby, 82, 138, 139, 217
Benedick, 133, 134, 136
Bertram, 144, 145, 146
Bianca, 105, 108
Biondello, 107
Biron, 24, 25, 32, 36
Blanch of Spain, 75, 79
Borachio, 134, 135
Bottom, 63
Boyet, 30
Brutus, 149, 150, 154, 156
Buckingham, Duke of (_Richard III_), 94, 98, 99
Buckingham, Duke of (_Henry VIII_), 235, 237
Cade, Jack, 55, 57
Caius, Dr., 124, 125
Calchas, 169
Carlisle, Bishop of, 89, 92
Cassio, 180, 181, 183
Cassius, 149
Cawdor, 198
Celia, 128, 129
Cerimon, 222
Clarence, George, Duke of, 93, 94, 98, 100
Claudio (_Measure for Measure_), 174, 177, 178
Claudio (_Much Ado_), 133, 134, 135
Claudius (_Hamlet_), 157, 158, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166
Cleopatra, 202, 203, 207, 217
Cloten, 223
Cordelia, 187, 188, 190, 192
Coriolanus, 196, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212
Cornwall, Duke of, 190
Costard, 30, 31
Cranmer, 236
Cressida, 169
Cymbeline, 223, 225
Demetrius, 63
Desdemona, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185
Diana (_All's Well_), 144
Diana (_Pericles_), 219, 220
Don John, 133, 134, 135
Don Pedro, 133, 134, 136
Dorset, Marquess of, 98
Dromio of Ephesus, 44
Dromio of Syracuse, 44, 46
Dumaine, 24, 32
Duncan, King, 154, 195, 198, 201
Edgar, 187, 190
Edmund, 187, 188, 189, 190, 192, 204
Edward III, 239
Edward IV, 93, 94
Edward, Prince of Wales (_Henry VI_), 62
Edward, Prince of Wales (_Richard III_), 99
Eglamour, 41
Elinor, Queen, 78
Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV, 94
Elizabeth, Princess, 236
Emilia, 183, 184
Evans, Sir Hugh, 124, 125
Falstaff, Sir John, 112, 113, 116, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126
Flavius, 216
Florizel, 227
Fluellen, 123
Fool (_Lear_), 192
Ford, Mistress, 124, 125
Fortinbras, 161
Frederick, Duke, 128, 129, 132
Friar Laurence, 68, 71, 74
Gertrude, Queen, 157, 158, 161, 165
Ghost (_Hamlet_), 158
Gloucester, Earl of, 187, 188, 189, 190
Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, 51, 55, 57, 58, 59
Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, (_Henry VI_), 61
Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, (_Richard III_), 93, 115
Goneril, 187, 189, 193
Grey, Lord, 98, 99
Hamlet, 158, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 191, 196, 243
Hastings, Lord, 99
Hector, 169, 170
Helen, 171
Helena (_Midsummer Night's Dream_), 63
Helena (_All's Well_), 144, 145, 147
Henry IV, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 116
Henry V, 120, 121
Henry VI, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62
Henry VIII, 235, 236, 237, 238
Henry, Prince of Wales, 109, 111, 112, 114, 118
Henry Bolingbroke, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92
Hermia, 63
Hermione, 226, 227, 229
Hero, 133, 134, 135
Hippolyta, 63
Hotspur, Henry Percy, surnamed, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 116, 119
Hubert de Burgh, 80, 83
Iachimo, 223, 225
Iago, 181, 182, 181, 185, 204, 211
Imogen, 223
Isabella, 174, 175
Jaques, 129, 131, 132
Joan of Arc, 51, 54
John, King of England, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80
John of Gaunt, 86, 89, 91
John of Lancaster, 114, 118
Julia, 34, 35, 39, 40, 42
Juliet, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71
Julius Caesar, 149, 153, 154, 156, 196
Katharina, 106, 108
Katharine, 32
Katharine of France, 120
Katharine, Queen, 235, 236, 237, 238
Kent, 187, 190
Laertes, 158, 161
Launce, 42
Lear, King, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 194
Lennox, 202
Leonato, 135, 136
Leontes, King of Sicilia, 226, 227, 228, 229
Lewis the Dauphin, 75, 79
Longaville, 24, 32
Lucio, 177,178
Lucrece, 243
Lysander, 63
Macbeth, 191, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 217
Macbeth, Lady, 195, 199, 200
Macduff, 195, 202
Malcolm, 195
Malvolio, 138, 139, 140, 141
Mamillius, 227, 229
Marcius, 208
Margaret of Anjou, 52, 55, 62, 94
Maria, 139
Mariana, 174, 175
Marina, 219, 220, 222
Mark Antony, 149, 191, 196, 202, 204, 206
Mercutio, 68, 70
Milan, Duke of, 34, 35, 38, 39
Miranda, 232
Mortimer, 53
Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, 86, 119
Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl of, 114
Nurse to Juliet, 74
Nym, 123, 124
Oberon, 63
Octavia, 202
Octavius Caesar, 149, 202, 203, 205
Olivia, 138, 140, 141
Oliver, 128, 129
Ophelia, 157, 158, 166
Orlando, 128, 129, 131
Orsino, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142
Othello, 180, 181, 182, 183, 186, 191, 196
Page, Anne, 124
Page, Mistress, 124
Pandarus, 169
Pandulph, Cardinal, 75
Paris, 68
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 213, 219, 220
Petruchio, 105, 107
Phebe, 129, 132, 133
Philip the Bastard, 77, 78, 80, 82, 83
Philip of France, 75, 80
Pistol, 117, 122, 123, 124
Polixenes, King of Bohemia, 226, 227, 228
Polonius, 158, 161
Portia, 102, 103, 104, 132
Posthumus, 223, 225
Prospero, Duke of Milan, 232, 235
Proteus, 34, 35, 39, 40, 41
Puck, 63
Pyramus, 63
Queen (_Cymbeline_), 223, 225
Quickly, Mrs., 124
Regan, 187, 189
Richard II, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 115, 119
Richard III, 93, 94, 96, 98, 99, 102, 211
Richard, Duke of York, 99
Rivers, Earl, 98, 99
Roderigo, 183
Romeo, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71
Rosalind, 128, 129, 132
Rosaline, 25, 31, 32, 69, 133
Salisbury, Countess of, 239
Scroop, Lord, 122
Sebastian (_Tempest_), 235
Sebastian (_Twelfth Night_), 138
Shallow, Justice, 82, 124
Shylock, 103, 104
Silvia, 34, 35, 38, 39, 41
Simpcox, 65, 59
Slender, Master, 124
Sly, Christopher, 105, 107
Somerset, Earl of, 51
Stephano, 234
Suffolk, Earl of, 52, 55, 57
Talbot, 51, 54
Tamora, 49, 50
Tarquin, 196, 243
Thaisa, 219, 220, 222
Thersites, 172
Theseus, 63, 66
Thisbe, 63
Thurio, 34, 35, 37, 38
Timon of Athens, 196, 209, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218
Titania, 63
Titus Andronicus, 49, 50
Touchstone, 129
Trinculo, 234
Troilus, 169
Tybalt, 68, 70
Ulysses, 170
Ursula, 133
Valentine, 34, 35, 38, 39, 41
Venus, 241, 242
Vienna, Duke of, 174, 178
Viola, 138, 139, 141, 142
Warwick, Earl of, 59, 61
Wolsey, Cardinal, 196, 235, 236, 237, 238
York, Edmund of Langley, Duke of, 89, 92
York, Edward, Duke of, 61
York, Richard, Duke of, 51, 55, 57, 62
_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
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in thought, eclectic in substance, and critical in treatment.... No
better little book is available."--_School World._
32. _INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE_
By J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., Regius Professor of Natural History,
Aberdeen University. "For those who have not yet become possessed of the
Library, this would form an appropriate introduction. Professor
Thomson's delightful literary style is well known; and here he
discourses freshly and easily on the methods of science and its
relations with philosophy, art, religion, and practical
life."--_Aberdeen Journal._
36. _CLIMATE AND WEATHER_
By H. N. DICKSON, D.Sc. Oxon., M.A., F.R.S.E., President of the Royal
Meteorological Society; Professor of Geography in University College,
Reading. (With Diagrams.) "The author has succeeded in presenting in a
very lucid and agreeable manner the causes of the movement of the
atmosphere and of the more stable winds. The information throughout
appears to be reliable, and is certainly conveyed in an attractive
form."--_Manchester Guardian._
41. _ANTHROPOLOGY_
By R. R. MARETT, M.A., Reader in Social Anthropology in Oxford
University. "An absolutely perfect handbook, so clear that a child could
understand it, so fascinating and human that it beats fiction 'to a
frazzle.'"--_Morning Leader._
44. _THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY_
By Prof. J. G. MCKENDRICK, M.D.
46. _MATTER AND ENERGY_
By F. SODDY, M.A., F.R.S.
49. _PSYCHOLOGY, THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR_
By Prof. W. MCDOUGALL, F.R.S., M.B.
IN PREPARATION
_ELECTRICITY._ By Dr GISBERT KAPP.
_CHEMISTRY._ By Prof. R. MELDOLA, F.R.S.
_THE MAKING OF THE EARTH._ By Prof. T. W. GREGORY, F.R.S.
_THE MINERAL WORLD._ By Sir T. H. HOLLAND, K.C.I.E., D.Sc.
_THE HUMAN BODY._ By Dr A. KEITH, M.D., F.R.C.S.
_PLANT LIFE._ By Prof. J. B. FARMER, F.R.S.
_Philosophy and Religion_
15. _MOHAMMEDANISM_
By Prof. D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A., D.Litt. "This generous shilling's
worth of wisdom.... A delicate, humorous, and most responsible tractate
by an illuminative professor."--_Daily Mail._
40. _THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY_
By the Hon. BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. "A book that the 'man in the
street' will recognise at once to be a boon.... Consistently lucid and
non-technical throughout."--_Christian World._
47. _BUDDHISM_
By Mrs RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
50. _NONCONFORMITY: ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS_
By Principal W. B. SELBIE, M.A.
IN PREPARATION
_THE OLD TESTAMENT._ By Prof. GEORGE MOORE, D.D., LL.D.
_BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS._ By R. H. CHARLES, D.D.
_THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT._ By Prof. B. W. BACON, Litt.D., D.D.
_COMPARATIVE RELIGION._ By Prof. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, D.Litt.
_A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT._ By Prof. J. B. BURY, LL.D.
_ETHICS._ By G. E. MOORE.
_MISSIONS._ By Mrs CREIGHTON.
_Social Science_
1. _PARLIAMENT_
Its History, Constitution, and Practice. By Sir COURTENAY P. ILBERT,
K.C.B., K.C.S.I., Clerk of the House of Commons. "The best book on the
history and practice of the House of Commons since Bagehot's
'Constitution.'"--_Yorkshire Post._
5. _THE STOCK EXCHANGE_
By F. W. HIRST, Editor of "The Economist." "A little treatise which to
an unfinancial mind must be a revelation.... The book is as clear,
vigorous, and sane as Bagehot's 'Lombard Street,' than which there is no
higher compliment."--_Morning Leader._
6. _IRISH NATIONALITY_
By Mrs J. R. GREEN. "As glowing as it is learned. No book could
be more timely."--_Daily News._ "A powerful study.... A
magnificent demonstration of the deserved vitality of the Gaelic
spirit."--_Freeman's Journal._
10. _THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT_
By J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, M.P. "Admirably adapted for the purpose of
exposition."--_The Times._ "Mr MacDonald is a very lucid exponent....
The volume will be of great use in dispelling illusions about the
tendencies of Socialism in this country."--_The Nation._
11. _CONSERVATISM_
By Lord HUGH CECIL, M.A., M.P.
16. _THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH_
By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. "Mr J. A. Hobson holds an unique position among
living economists.... The text-book produced is altogether admirable.
Original, reasonable, and illuminating."--_The Nation._
21. _LIBERALISM_
By L. T. HOBHOUSE, M.A., Professor of Sociology in the University of
London. "A book of rare quality.... We have nothing but praise for the
rapid and masterly summaries of the arguments from first principles
which form a large part of this book."--_Westminster Gazette._
24. _THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY_
By D. H. MACGREGOR, M.A., Professor of Political Economy in the
University of Leeds. "A volume so dispassionate in terms may be
read with profit by all interested in the present state of
unrest."--_Aberdeen Journal._
26. _AGRICULTURE_
By Prof. W. SOMERVILLE, F.L.S.
30. _ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH LAW_
By W. M. GELDART, M.A., B.C.L., Vinerian Professor of English Law at
Oxford. "Contains a very clear account of the elementary principles
underlying the rules of English law; and we can recommend it to all who
wish to become acquainted with these elementary principles with a
minimum of trouble."--_Scots Law Times._
38. _THE SCHOOL_
_An Introduction to the Study of Education._
By J. J. FINDLAY, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Education in Manchester
University. "An amazingly comprehensive volume.... It is a remarkable
performance, distinguished in its crisp, striking phraseology as well as
its inclusiveness of subject-matter."--_Morning Post._
IN PREPARATION
_THE EVOLUTION OF CITIES._ By Prof. PATRICK GEDDES.
_ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY._ By Prof. S. J. CHAPMAN.
_COMMONSENSE IN LAW._ By Prof. P. VINOGRADOFF, D.C.L.
_THE CIVIL SERVICE._ By GRAHAM WALLAS, M.A.
_MISSIONS._ By Mrs CREIGHTON.
_PRACTICAL IDEALISM._ By MAURICE HEWLETT.
_NEWSPAPERS._ By G. B. DIBBLEE.
_ENGLISH VILLAGE LIFE._ By E. N. BENNETT, M.A.
London: WILLIAMS AND NORGATE
_And of all Bookshops and Bookstalls._
* * * * *
Transcriber's note
Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Obvious
printer errors have been corrected, and are listed below.
For the chapter heading, "The Second Part of King Henry IV", the Table
of Contents lists it as "King Henry IV, Part II"; this was not changed.
In addition other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's
spelling has been maintained.
Page 36: "obession is at the root" changed to "obsession is at the
root".
Page 94: "great historical play" changed to "great historical plays".
Page 253: "Aegon" changed to "AEgeon".
Page 256: Index entry for page 133 of "Rosaline" was moved to
"Rosalind".
Page 256: Index entry for page 92 of "York, Edmund of Langley, Duke" was
removed.
Page 262: "Py Prof. R. Medola" changed to "By Prof. R. Medola".