splendid patch-work, or remain quite distinct from it, like detached substances, painted and varnished over. A beautiful thought is sure to be lost in an endless commentary upon it. The speakers are like persons who have both leisure and inclination to make riddles on their own situation, and to twist and turn every object or incident into acrostics and anagrams. Everything is spun out into allegory; and a digression is always preferred to the main story. Sentiment is built up upon plays of words; the hero or heroine feels, not from the impulse of passion, but from the force of dialectics. There is besides a strange attempt to substitute the language of painting for that of poetry, to make us see their feelings in the faces of the persons; and again, consistently with this, in the description of the picture in Tarquin and Lucrece, those circumstances are chiefly insisted on, which it would be impossible to convey except by words. invocation to opportunity in the Tarquin and Lucrece is full of thoughts and images, but at the same time it is over-loaded by them. The concluding stanza expresses all our objections to this kind of poetry :— "Oh! idle words, servants to shallow fools; Since that my case is past all help of law." The The description of the horse in Venus and Adonis has been particularly admired, and not without reason: "Round hoof'd, short jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eyes, small head, and nostril wide, High crest, short ears, strait legs, and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide, Now this inventory of perfections shews great knowledge of the horse; and is good matter-of-fact poetry. Let the reader but compare it with a speech in the Midsummer Night's Dream where Theseus describes his hounds "And their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew,”— and he will perceive at once what we mean by the difference between Shakespear's own poetry, and that of his plays. We prefer the Passionate Pilgrim very much to the Lover's Complaint. It has been doubted whether the latter poem is Shakespear's. Of the Sonnets we do not well know what to say. The subject of them seems to be somewhat equivocal; but many of them are highly beautiful in themselves, and interesting as they relate to the state of the personal feelings of the author. The following are some of the most striking: CONSTANCY "Let those who are in favour with their stars, Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread, LOVE'S CONSOLATION "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, For thy sweet love remember'd, such wealth brings NOVELTY "My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming LIFE'S DECAY "That time of year thou may'st in me behold As after sun-set fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, In me thou seest the glowing of such fire, This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, In all these, as well as in many others, there is a mild tone of sentiment, deep, mellow, and sustained, very different from the crudeness of his earlier poems. INDEX Ague-cheek, Sir Andrew, 197 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, its Apemantus, his sordid licen- tiousness, 49; his pessimism ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM, 261 Arthur, Prince, 187, 191 Bardolph, in "The Merry Wives," Barnardine, as compared with Beatrice, 230, 231, 232 Bertram, 221 Boccacio, 222-224; the excellence Bolingbroke. See Henry IV. 29, 30; scene with Portia, 30; Caius, Dr., 251; scene with Sir Caliban, the masterly conception as Cassius, his fitness for conspiracy, Celia, silent and retired character Chaucer, as contrasted with Claudio, 245; scene with his Cleopatra, her character a master- Comedy, varieties of, 195, 196 |