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transparency, like a bright cheerful summer's day, but that a secret veil never to be raised completely in this life-an obscure power, whose action is neither always nor everywhere traceable, hangs over and constrains him. It conveys the intimation that it is only by a strict adherence to the law of God, that man can emancipate himself from its mysterious agency; and that if he wanders ever so little from the right way, he inevitably falls a prey to it, and becomes the plaything of its good or ill humour. If, in the present piece, the humour is good, and restores all the wanderers into the beaten track again; still, this is only a chance, which moreover was necessary to satisfy the requirements of the comic theory. If, on the other hand, this mysterious power had been understood in its immediate truth as the eternal justice of God, and the moral law of universal order, it must have appeared in a tragic form; such, for instance, as it has taken in "Othello."

Perhaps the objection may be brought against the "Winter's Tale," that it is tragical in the first three acts, but comic in the last two. Apparently, no doubt, this is the case. But the objection holds good only on a superficial and external consideration of the piece, and at most is only applicable to particulars of detail. Viewed externally, the comic does seem to be reserved to the two last acts. But the attentive reader will discover even in the first three the cheerful comic view on which the whole intrinsically rests. The jealousy of Leontes, his repentance and sorrow, and the misery of his wife, are lightly sketched, and painted without any strong or broad touches; the colours are laid on in mild and soft tones. Thus, too, to come to details, the declaration of the oracle evidently alludes to a happy event. And even on this account the comic scenes appear naturally enough confined to the merry festivities of the shepherds in Bohemia, and afterwards in Sicily. The contrast, no doubt, is not altogether removed by these considerations; but, on the other hand, whatever of it still remains, is perfectly agreeable to the legendary character of the whole, which, with great propriety, it also serves to throw out the more strongly. As is common in tales of marvel, here, also, pain and anxiety are mingled with fantastic pleasure and grotesque merriment.

It will be sufficient to have called attention to the rare beauty with which the different characters are shaded off, as well as to the

contrasts by which they are thrown out by the groups into which they fall, and the harmony which results from their co-ordination. How nobly does the mild dignity, the majestic sweetness and pure womanly feeling of Hermione, contrast with the Duke's unmanly and unworthy passionateness, as well under his unmerited insults as in the revenge which she takes for her own wrongs and agonies, and by which she works the repentance of her suspicious husband. The fidelity of Camillo and Paulina are undismayed by any threat or sacrifice. How artlessly does Perdita's innate nobility of soul shine forth amid her rude and ill-assorted companions! how exquisite is the impression of her beauty and graceful demeanour! with what correct taste does the heart of the young Prince distinguish her from all others! How significantly is the simple, joyous, and peaceful life of the Shepherd contrasted with the splendid misery of the throne! The reader who enters heartily into the poem, will at once recognize the beauty of the composition, the propriety of the characters, and the rich coruscations of thought which sparkle throughout.

Most critics agree in placing the "Winter's Tale" between 1610 and 1613; in which date they are supported both by the diction and characterization. Even Malone, who at first assigned it the early date of 1594, and then of 1604, afterwards changed his opinion in favour of its later origin; and as to the view of Pope, that it was an unsuccessful production of Shakspeare's youth, it has no better foundation than his own incorrect estimate of its poetical merits. Very recently, however, Collier has proved, by means of a recently-discovered document, that it was acted on the 15th of May, 1611, and that, as Malone had previously shewn, it was first licensed by Sir George Buc, who did not enter upon his office of Master of the Revels until 1610, so that it is now clearly established that the "Winter's Tale" must have been finished some time between August 1610 and May 1611, when it was first acted. Yet it is not improbable that the present drama is but a recast of an earlier piece. In the Stationers' Register a work is entered as early as 1594, with the title, "A Winternyght's Pastime." This is probably the same drama as we now have, which, upon its revision, received a name more suited to its altered form. The shepherd scenes are probably a remnant of the earlier piece, a fact which may perhaps account for its fresher and brighter

colouring, as compared with the "Tempest," "Cymbeline," and "Timon," while the darker shades of profound earnestness which are spread over the whole, are in all probability belonging to the revision.

3. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.—THE TEMPEST.

The "Winter's Tale" forms, as it were, the transition to a couple of purely fantastic comedies. The "Midsummer-Night's Dream" and the "Tempest" are intrinsically and extrinsically tales of marvel, and in both Shakspeare is indebted to his own invention for the materials*. At the first glance we are no doubt puzzled what to make, in an artistic and aesthetical point of view, of the strange aerial beings which revel before us in the "Midsummer-Night's Dream." Throughout there is such a wanton play of fancy and frolic; such cameleon-like succession of tricks and complicated cross-purpose, that at the first sight we are disposed to deny that it can possess any rational meaning. Theseus and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, are about to celebrate their nuptials; but with the proper action of the piece they have nothing to do. Then we have the loves of two noble Athenian youths and maidens, whose happy union is hindered by the whim of a cross old father and their own caprice. In the midst of all, Oberon and Titania, in ill-humour and jealous bickering, pursue their own designs, or cross with their wanton tricks the wise plans of poor mortals; and, lastly, a company of amateur players are pressed into the service with their burlesque follies and silliness, who exhibit a play within the play, having as much connexion with the rest as the several parts have with each other. Such are the rare and heterogeneous elements of the piece, which at once give rise to

* Oberon and Titania had been long known to the English through the old French romant of Huon and Auberon. The legend of the "Love Potion" is also ancient. But it is not in these details that the subject-matter and the invention of "Midsummer-Night's Dream" consists. Of the "Tempest," Tieck (Deutscher Theater, p. 22) conjectures that it was based on an older English piece, of which, however, no trace is discoverable, and J. Ayrer's piece of "The Fair Sidea" is not an adequate support for so bare an hypothesis.

the question whether it really satisfies the first requirement of art that the several parts should round themselves into an organic whole, and if so, what is the centre around which they all adjust themselves?

Now it is the comic view of things itself that forms the basis of the whole piece. Its presence may be traced clearly and distinctly. Not merely in particular cases do the maddest tricks of accident, as well as of human caprice, perversity, and folly, destroy each other in turn, but generally the principal pursuits and provinces of life are made to parody and paralyze each other. It is this last particular that distinguishes the "Midsummer-Night's Dream" from all other comedies soever. Theseus and Hippolyta represent the grand heroic and historically important aspect of human life. But instead of maintaining the high dignity and exalted grandeur of history, they come down to a level with the common, every-day sort of folk; while, by seeming to exist for no other purpose than to marry with suitable pomp and splendour, they form with agreeable irony a merry parody on their own heroic importance. The Carpenter, Joiner, Weaver, Bellows-mender, and Tinker, present a merry contrast to the highest ranks in the lowest and vulgarest region, the very prose of every-day life. But they, too, instead of remaining in their own true station, wherein they at once command respect, worm themselves into the higher domain of tragedy and poetry, and render it as well as themselves ridiculous. Between the two extremes stand the lovers, who belong to the middle ranks of life. But instead of behaving agreeably to their station, and regarding life in its plain and sober aspect, they lose themselves in the fantastic humours of a capricious passion, and thereby parody themselves and the class to which they belong. Lastly, the fairy prince, with his interposition in the action, represents that higher power which guides human life with an invisible thread. But even this superintending power is not depicted in its true god-like grandeur and elevation, but, like all the other parties of the piece, is carried away by the same torrent of irony, and either appears as the nimble, frolicsome play of the personified powers of nature, or parodies itself, so far as it is subject to the universal caprice of chance and to its own waywardness; as is distinctly indicated by Titania's passion for the ass-headed Weaver.

It is on this basis of reciprocal parody that the different and heterogeneous groups first coalesce into unity. From it they all derive the same characteristic tendency. The play of the mechanics, which, at its close, so gaily ridicules the dramatic art, and thereby also the very piece, which pursues every thing with its unsparing irony, carries the parodical tendency to its utmost limit, and gives to the whole its point. But even an external bond is not wanting to combine the several parts, which, although but slight and loose, is nevertheless dexterously woven into all the parts. The marriage festival of Theseus and Hippolyta surrounds the whole picture as with a splendid frame of gold. Within it the sports and gambols of the elves and fairies, crossing and recrossing the story of the lovers, and the labours of the theatrical artizans, connect together these two different groups, while the blessings which at the end of the piece they bestow by their presence at the nuptial festival upon the house and lineage of Theseus, give reason and dignity to the part which they have been playing throughout.

The particular modification of the general comic view which results from this ironical parodying of all the domains of life, at once determines and gives expression to the special ground-idea, which first reduces the whole into organic unity. Life is throughout regarded in the light of a " Midsummer-Night's Dream." With the rapidity of wit the merry piece passes like a dream over our minds; the most rare and motley elements, and the most fantastic shapes, are blended together as in a vision of the night, and form a whole, highly wonderful, both in form and composition. Dreamlike does the play within the play hold up its distorting mirror, while a shadow of reason comments upon its own visionary creations, and half-doubting, half-believing their reality, at one moment opposes, and at the next is hurried along by the light gambol which frolics before it in a magic light and darkness.

To look upon life as a dream is no new idea in poetry. In the ideal and poetical philosophy of Plato, it is represented in this light, where he supposes the soul of man to possess an obscure memory of an earlier and truer sphere of existence, out of which it spins in this life a motley web of truth and falsehood. Calderon, too, has treated the same idea in a serious but not properly tragic

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