(1891.)
I. The Greatest Genius of our World--Not of Supernatural Origin or
of Royal Blood--Illiteracy of his Parents--Education--His Father--His
Mother a Great Woman--Stratford Unconscious of the Immortal
Child--Social Position of Shakespeare--Of his Personal
Peculiarities--Birth, Marriage, and Death--What we Know of Him--No Line
written by him to be Found--The Absurd Epitaph--II. Contemporaries
by whom he was Mentioned--III. No direct Mention of any of his
Contemporaries in the Plays--Events and Personages of his Time--IV.
Position of the Actor in Shakespeare's Time--Fortunately he was Not
Educated at Oxford--An Idealist--His Indifference to Stage-carpentry
and Plot--He belonged to All Lands--Knew the Brain and Heart of Man--An
Intellectual Spendthrift--V. The Baconian Theory--VI. Dramatists before
and during the Time of Shakespeare--Dramatic Incidents Illustrated in
Passages from "Macbeth" and "Julius Cæsar"--VII. His Use of the Work of
Others--The Pontic Sea--A Passage from "Lear"--VIII. Extravagance that
touches the Infinite--The Greatest Compliment--"Let me not live after
my flame lacks oil"--Where Pathos almost Touches the Grotesque--IX.
An Innovator and Iconoclast--Disregard of the "Unities"--Nature
Forgets--Violation of the Classic Model--X. Types--The Secret of
Shakespeare--Characters who Act from Reason and Motive--What they Say
not the Opinion of Shakespeare--XI. The Procession that issued from
Shakespeare's Brain--His Great Women--Lovable Clowns--His Men--Talent
and Genius--XII. The Greatest of all Philosophers--Master of the
Human Heart--Love--XIII. In the Realm of Comparison--XIV. Definitions:
Suicide, Drama, Death, Memory, the Body, Life, Echo, the
World, Rumor--The Confidant of Nature--XV. Humor and
Pathos--Illustrations--XVI. Not a Physician, Lawyer, or Botanist--He was
a Man of Imagination--He lived the Life of All--The Imagination had a
Stage in Shakespeare's Brain.