FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, 1865 ONLY three or four generations of fairly long-lived men lie between us and Shakespeare; literature in his own time had reached a high development; his grandeur and sweetness were freely recognised; within seventy years of his death his biography was attempted; yet we know little more of Shakespeare himself than we do of Homer. Like several of the greatest men,-Lucretius, Virgil, Tacitus, Dante, a mystery never to be dispelled hangs over his life. He has entered into the cloud. With a natural and an honourable diligence, other men have given their lives to the investigation of his, and many external circumstances, mostly of a minor order, have been thus collected: yet of "the man Shakespeare," in Mr. Hallam's words, we know nothing. Something which seems more than human in immensity of range and calmness of insight moves before us in the Plays; but, from the nature of dramatic writing, the author's personality is inevitably veiled; no letter, no saying of his, or description by an intimate friend, has been preserved and even when we turn to the Sonnets, though each is an autobiographical confession, we find ourselves equally foiled. These revelations of the poet's innermost nature appear to teach us less of the man than the tone of mind which we trace, or seem to trace, in Measure for Measure, Hamlet, and the Tempest: the strange imagery of passion which passes over the magic mirror has no tangible existence before or behind it :-the great artist, like Nature herself, is still latent in his works; diffused through his own creation. Yet there is, after all, nothing more remarkable or fascinating in English poetry than these personal revelations of the mind of our greatest poet. We read them again and again, and find each time some new proof of his almost superhuman insight into human nature; of his unrivalled mastery over all the tones of love. Songs and Sonnets of William Shakespeare. Edited by Francis Turner Palgrave. 1865, pp. 238-9 and 243. FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE, 1866 (1809-1893) "To Shakespeare.” SHELTER and succour such as common men Afford the weaker partners of their fate, From sordid sorrows thou hast set me free, And turned from want's grim ways my tottering feet, A labour, than all leisure far more sweet. And still with converse noble, wise, and mild, Poems. 1866, p. 61. JOHN RUSKIN, 1868 IT does not matter how little, or how much, any of us have read, either of Homer, or Shakespeare: everything round us, in substance, or in thought, has been moulded by them. All Greek gentlemen were educated under Homer. All Roman gentlemen by Greek literature. All Italian, and French, and English gentlemen, by Roman literature, and by its principles. Of the scope of Shakespeare, I will say only, that the intellectual measure of every man since born, in the domains of creative thought, may be assigned to him, according to the degree in which he has been taught by Shakespeare. The Mystery of Life and its Arts. Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art, delivered at DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, 1871 (1828-1882) "On the Site of a Mulberry-Tree." Planted by William Shakespeare; felled by the Rev. F. THIS tree, here fall'n, no common birth or death Shared with its kind. The world's enfranchised son, Who found the trees of Life and Knowledge one, Here set it, frailer than his laurel-wreath. Shall not the wretch whose hand it fell beneath Rank also singly-the supreme unhung? Lo! Sheppard, Turpin, pleading with black tongue, This viler thief's unsuffocated breath! We'll search thy glossary, Shakespeare! whence almost, Academy, 15 Feb. 1871.1 Collected Works. Ed. 1 The last line in the earlier version-that printed in the Academy-has "tailor's" for "Starveling's." Rossetti made the alteration from fear of offending sensitive members of the tailoring profession. |