In the following he amusingly depicts the cutting coolness with which upstarts treat those who have suddenly become their inferiors in rank: "Good den, Sir Richard":"God-a-mercy, fellow"; And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter; For your conversion.-John, i. 1. In the following he notes the vulgar anxiety for precedence and priority : Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: sit, sit. Timon, iii. 6. In the following brief dialogue he pithily sets forth the style in which 'back-stairs interest' is used and succeeds in swaying the course of public justice : Davy. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Wincot against Clement Perkes of the hill. Shallow. There are many complaints, Davy, against that Visor: that Visor is an arrant knave, on my knowledge. Davy. I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir; but yet, God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. I have served your worship truly, sir, this eight years; and if I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, have but a very little credit with your worship. The knave is mine honest friend, sir; therefore, I beseech your worship, let him be countenanced. Shallow. Go to; I say, he shall have no wrong.-2 H. IV., v, I. In the following passage, and in several others [See ALLITERATION], Shakespeare ridicules the fashion of versifying with a profusion of words having the same commencing letter:— Whereas, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast.-Mid. N. D., v. I. In the concluding portion of the following he, in his own subtle vein of quiet humour, satirises the foppery of give-and-take criticism; implying praise, implying censure, yet giving definitely neither:— The play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation ; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. Hamlet, ii. 2. And, in the following, he satirises a wretched affectation (which prevailed in his time, and which has subsisted since among other persons besides "statists") of writing an illegible hand as a mark of supposed superiority, and holding a clear handwriting to be a mere vulgar and mechanical accomplishment: I sat me down; Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair : I once did hold it, as our statists do, SCENIC ARRANGEMENTS. In Shakespeare's time, stage scenery and machinery were of so meagre a kind that the dramatic author had need to rely greatly upon the vividness of his own descriptions and the imagination of his audiences, to aid in conveying impression of locality and situation. When we remember how inadequate were theatrical representative appointments at the period he wrote, we can the more keenly appreciate our author's being equal to the need there was for power of description in such passages as those that place before our eyes the loveliness of the enchanted island in "The Tempest"; the sylvan beauties of the forest of Arden in "As You Like It"; the moonlit wood-glades in “A Midsummer Night's Dream"; the battle-fields of Agincourt, Shrewsbury, and Tewkesbury in his historical plays; his castle platforms, blasted heaths, and midnight tempests in his tragedies of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and "Lear." When we think of the inefficient representation of shipboard that existed in his time, we the better recognise the marvellous force and poetry of his diction in such passages as those that open the play of "The Tempest," and the one that opens the third act of" Pericles"; passages that set the actors in these scenes face to face with the roar of the elements, and let us positively behold them exposed to the full sweep of the storm, on a sea-washed deck. So poor were the scenic resources in the Elizabethian era, that they consisted of little more than mere walls, hung round with well-worn tapestry. A curtain, technically called "a traverse," formed an occasional substitute for a scene, and was used as an indication of adjoining apartments, an inner room, &c.; a few boards put together served to represent towers, battlements, caves, tombs, or other such needed accessories. The upper portion of the stage decoration, technically called "the heavens," represented the sky; but when the performance was of a tragic character, the upper and side portions of the stage were hung with black. To this particular, there is probably figurative reference in the following passage :— Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night.-1 H. VI., i. 1. The back of the stage was fitted up with a raised platform or balcony to which curtains were appended; and this was used when it was requisite that some of the characters in the drama should be supposed to appear at a window, or to be occupying any other elevated position overlooking the front portion of the stage, where the rest of the performers were. In the following passages, we find trace of this antique stage arrangement; and we give them as printed in the First Folio, in order the more clearly to make these particulars apparent :Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants, some with apparel, Bason and Ewer, and other appurtenances, and Lord.-Tam. of S., Induc. 2. [Exeunt.] The Presenters aboue speakes. 1 Man. My lord, you nod, you do not minde the play. Beg. Yes by Saint Anne do I, a good matter surely: Comes there any more of it? Lady. My lord, 'tis but begun. Beg. 'Tis a verie excellent peece of worke, Madame Ladie: would 'twere done. They sit and marke.—Ibid., i. I. Enter Elianor aloft. [See STAGE Directions, &c.]—2 H. VI., i. 4. Enter the King, and Buts, at a Windowe aboue. Buts. Ile shew your Grace the strangest sight. King. What's that Buts? Butts. I thinke your Highnesse saw this many a day. Butts. There, my Lord: The high promotion of his Grace of Canterbury, Pages, and Foot-boyes.-H. VIII., v. 2. Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft. Jul. Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet neere day.-R. & Jul., iii. 3. . . Oh, come, come, come. They heaue Anthony aloft to Cleopatra. And welcome, welcome.-Ant. & C., iv. 13. The scantiness of stage appointments may be estimated by the fact that frequently a change of scene from an exterior to an interior was signified by the mere introduction of a few tables and chairs; or even by two or three words, indicative of altered place, put into the mouth of one of the speakers. In the first of the following passages, the commencement of the scene takes place in the lobby before the Council Chamber; but proceeds to display the inside of the Council Chamber itself: though the change is only indicated in the First Folio by this stage direction : A Councell Table brought in with Chayres and Stooles, and placed under the State. Enter Lord Chancellour, places himselfe at the upper end of the Table, on the lefte hand: A Seate being left void aboue him, as for Canterburies Seate. Duke of Suffolke, Duke of Norfolke, Surrey, Lord Chamberlaine, Gardiner, seat themselves in Order on each side. Cromwell at lower end, as Secretary.—H. VIII., v. 2. In the second passage, there is no indication whatever in the First Folio of the locality in which the scene takes place but the dialogue denotes that we are first supposed to see the "street" where the Soothsayer encounters Cæsar, where Artemidorus presents his petition, and where Decius presents that of Trebonius, while the imperial procession is on its way to the Capitol; and that we are subsequently supposed to behold Cæsar and his train enter the Capitol itself, where he takes his seat amid the assembled "senate." The exigencies of the successive scene require that both the outside and the inside of the Capitol should be visible to the audience during the progress of representation; but there is no other denotement in the Folio of the shifting scene than what may be gathered from the dialogue itself: What! urge you your petitions in the street? Come to the Capitol. What is now amiss That Cæsar and his senate must redress?-Jul. C., iii. 1. In the third passage, the requirements of the scene demand that both the outside and the inside of Cleopatra's monument should be seen by the audience as the action progresses; and the modern editions of this play give stage directions, &c. (made up for the most part from Plutarch's narrations of the incidents here dramatised by Shakespeare), that shall explain the situation; but in the First Folio edition no indication is given of the scenic arrangements, which can only be inferred [See STAGE DIRECTIONS, &c.]: You see how easily she may be surpris'd: Guard her till Cæsar come. Royal queen! O Cleopatra, thou art taken, queen!—Ant. & C., v. 2. In the fourth passage, the situation requires that we should see the deck of the ship, and then the cabin where Thaisa is lying apparently dead; but the original editions give no stage direction. It is probable that at the nurse's words, "Here she lies, sir," the speaker put by a curtain-most likely the one called "a traverse "—and disclosed the recumbent figure of Pericles' wife, whom he proceeds to address in those affecting farewell terms:— Lychorida. Here she lies, sir. Pericles. A terrible child-bed hast thou had, my dear; To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight Where, for a monument upon thy bones, And humming waters must o'erwhelm thy corpse, In the fifth passage, the original copies of the play give no stage. direction; but the words, "Behold him," imply that a curtain was withdrawn, discovering Pericles absorbed in grief: One of the stage usages of former times was the adoption of a particular garment; which gave token that its wearer was supposed to be invisible to the audience and to the other personages engaged in the scene. It is probable that the following passage denotes the assuming such a garment by Oberon, when he says:— But who comes here? I am invisible ; And I will overhear their conference.-Mid. N. D., ii. 2. Among the expedients for supplying the deficiencies of former stage representation, it was not unfrequently the custom to introduce an explanatory" apology" or "prologue," by way of justification, vindication, or elucidation : You shall present before her the Nine Worthies. . . . Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?-Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page Hercules,—Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for that Worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.-Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.-An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, "Well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake!" that is the way to make an offence gracious, though few have the grace to do it.— Love's L. L., v. 1. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.-Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed. . Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.—Mid. N. D., iii. 1. It is among Shakespeare's merits, and forms one of the many proofs of his being a dramatist far in advance of his own time, that he introduced such clumsy expedients as those just cited merely in burlesque performances like the Show of the "Nine Worthies" and the Interlude of" Pyramus and Thisbe." SHAKESPEARE'S SELF-ILLUSTRATION AND COMMENT. Shakespeare, of all other writers the least egoistical, gives little or no token of himself in his writings. Shakespeare, the most perfect of dramatists, lets little of his own individuality appear in his dramatic characters. The only two instances we can recall where there is direct introduction of his actual identity, in the whole course of his plays, are the following: If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story with Sir John in it.—2 H. IV. (Epilogue). Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen, Our bending author hath pursued the story.-H. V., v. 2 (Chorus). In the brief prefaces to his two Poems, "Venus and Adonis " and "Lucrece" there is of course absolute personal mention; but, to our thinking, it is instinct with modest, manly feeling, earnest fervour, and noble self-dedication to exalted attachment and exalted purpose: just the expression-at once reticent yet ardent-to be expected from the devoted friend and author, William Shakespeare. In the " Sonnets," there is the same spirit of modesty, fervour, and self-dedication; but in more intense degree, and with the utmost veiledness of diction. So remarkable a self-revelation, couched in terms that tell nothing whatever of the person writing or the person addressed-so wonderful an outpouring of inner heart thoughts and emotions, with no word of betrayal concerning_individual identity-we believe never existed, as in those Sonnets. So warm with very heart-blood are they, so glowing and impassioned are their every sentence, that we can never read them without being moved to our own heart's core; yet there is in them not a syllable that declares the personality of either their object or their author. But though, throughout his plays, there is little token of himself, yet there are here and there certain touches from which we may gather traces of his own tastes, predilections, opinions, and tendencies. Markedly is deducible his passionate sense of friendship, attachment, |