Halleck's New English Literature Part 24

The _First Folio_ edition of Shakespeare's works was published in 1623, seven years after his death, by two of his friends, John Heming and Henry Condell. In their dedication of the plays they say:--

"We have but collected them and done an office to the dead ...

without ambition either of self profit or fame, only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of his plays."

If Shakespeare had not possessed the art of making friends, we might to-day be without such plays as _Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Macbeth_. These were printed for the first time in the 1623 _Folio_.

Amount and Cla.s.sification of his Work.--The _First Folio_ edition contained thirty-five plays, containing 100,120 lines. The Globe edition, one of the best modern texts of Shakespeare, has thirty-seven plays. Even if we give him no credit for the unknown dramas which he a.s.sisted in fas.h.i.+oning, and if we further deduct all doubtful plays from this number, the amount of dramatic work of which he is certainly the author is only less astonis.h.i.+ng than its excellence. His non-dramatic poetry, comprising _Venus and Adonis, Lucrece_, 154 _Sonnets_, and some other short pieces, amounts to more than half as many lines as Milton's _Paradise Lost_.

Mere genius without wonderful self-control and a well-ordered use of time would not have enabled Shakespeare to leave such a legacy to the world. The pressure for fresh plays to meet exigencies is sufficient to explain why he did not always do his best work, even if we suppose that his health was never "out of joint."

The _First Folio_ gives the current contemporary cla.s.sification of the plays into "Comedies," "Histories," and "Tragedies." We indicate the following as some of the best in each cla.s.s:--

Comedies: _A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale_, and _The Tempest_.

Histories: _Richard III., Henry IV., Henry V., Julius Caesar_.

Tragedies: _Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Oth.e.l.lo, Romeo and Juliet_.

Four Periods of his Life.--We may make another cla.s.sification from a different point of view, according to the period of his development at the time of writing special plays. In order to study his growth and changing ideals, it will a.s.sist us to divide his work into four periods.

(1) There was the sanguine period, showing the exuberance of youthful love and imagination. Among the plays that are typical of these years are _The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II._, and _Richard III_. These were probably all composed before 1595.

(2) The second period, from 1595 to 1601, shows progress in dramatic art. There is less exaggeration, more real power, and a deeper insight into human nature. There appears in his philosophy a vein of sadness, such as we find in the sayings of Jaques in _As You Like It_, and more appreciation of the growth of character, typified by his treatment of Orlando and Adam in the same play. Among the plays of this period are _The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV., Henry V.,_ and _As You Like It_.

(3) We may characterize the third period, from 1601 to 1608, as one in which he felt that the time was out of joint, that life was a fitful fever. His father died in 1601, after great disappointments. His best friends suffered what he calls, in _Hamlet,_ "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." In 1601 Elizabeth executed the Earl of Ess.e.x for treason, and on the same charge threw the Earl of Southampton into the Tower. Even Shakespeare himself may have been suspected. The great plays of this period are tragedies, among which we may instance _Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Oth.e.l.lo, Macbeth,_ and _King Lear_.

(4) The plays of his fourth period, 1608-1613, are remarkable for calm strength and sweetness. The fierceness of _Oth.e.l.lo_ and _Macbeth_ is left behind. In 1608 Shakespeare's mother died. Her death and the vivid recollection of her kindness and love may have been strong factors in causing him to look on life with kindlier eyes. The greatest plays of this period are _Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale_, and _The Tempest_.

While the dates of the composition of these plays are not exactly known, the foregoing cla.s.sification is probably approximately correct.

It should be followed in studying the development and the changing phases of Shakespeare's mind. (See table, pp. 188 and 189.)

Development as a Dramatist.--It is possible to study some of Shakespeare's plays with increased interest, if we note the reasons for a.s.signing them to certain periods of his life. We conclude that _Love's Labor's Lost_, for instance, is an early play, because of its form,--excess of rime, small proportion of blank verse, lack of mastery of poetic expression,--and also because it suffers from the puns, conceits, and overdrawn wit and imagery of his early work.

Almost one half of the 2789 lines of _Love's Labor's Lost_ rime, while there are only 579 lines of blank verse. Of the 2064 lines in _The Tempest_, one of the last of his plays, 1458 are in blank verse. The plays of his first period show less freedom in the use of verse. He dislikes to let his meaning run over into the next line without a pause, and he hesitates to introduce those extra syllables which give such wonderful variety to his later work. As he grows older, he also uses more prose. _Romeo and Juliet_ has 405 lines of prose in a total of 3052 lines, while _Hamlet_, a tragedy of 3931 lines, has 1208 lines of prose.

His treatment of his characters is even a more significant index to his growth than the form of his dramas. In the earlier plays, his men and women are more engaged with external forces than with internal struggles. In as excellent an early tragedy as _Romeo and Juliet_, the hero fights more with outside obstacles than with himself. In the great later tragedies, the internal conflict is more emphasized, as in the cases of Hamlet and Macbeth. "See thou character" became in an increasing degree Shakespeare's watchword. He grew to care less for mere incident, for plots based on mistaken ident.i.ty, as in _The Comedy of Errors_; but he became more and more interested in the delineation of character, in showing the effect of evil on Macbeth and his wife, of jealousy on Oth.e.l.lo, of indecision on Hamlet, as well as in exploring the ineffectual attempts of many of his characters to escape the consequences of their acts.

Sources of his Plots.--We should have had fewer plays from Shakespeare, if he had been compelled to take the time to invent new plots. The sources of the plots of his plays may usually be found in some old chronicle, novel, biography, or older play. Holinshed's _Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_, published when Shakespeare was fourteen years old, gives the stories of Lear, Cymbeline, Macbeth, and of all the English kings who are the heroes of the historical plays. As Holinshed is very dry reading, if Shakespeare had followed him closely, for instance, in _King Lear_, the play would have lost its most impressive parts. There is not in Holinshed even a suggestion of the Falstaff of _Henry IV_., that veritable "comic Hamlet," who holds a unique place among the humorous characters of the world.

North's translation of Plutarch's _Lives_, published when Shakespeare was fifteen years old, became his textbook of ancient history and furnished him the raw material for plays like _Julius Caesar_ and _Antony and Cleopatra_.

TABLE OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS[23]

Play Total Prose Blank Penta- Rimes, Songs Publ- Supp- of meter Short ished osed Lines Rimes Lines Date

I.--PLAYS OF FIRST (RIMING) PERIOD

Love's Labor's 2789 1086 579 1028 54 32 1598 1588-9 Lost Comedy of 1778 240 1150 380 --- --- 1623 1589-91 Errors [24]

Midsummer 2174 441 878 731 138 63 1600 1590-1 Night's Dream Two Gentlemen 2294 409 1510 116 --- 15 1623 1590-2 of Verona Romeo and 3052 405 2111 486 --- --- 1597 1591-3 Juliet Richard II. 2756 --- 2107 537 --- --- 1597 ? 1593 Richard III. 3619 55? 3374 170 --- --- 1597 ? 1594-5

II.--HISTORIES AND COMEDIES OF SECOND PERIOD

King John 2570 --- 2403 150 --- --- 1623 1594-5 Merchant of 2660 673 1896 93 34 9 1600[24]? 1595-6 Venice 1 Henry IV. 3176 1464 1622 84 --- --- 1598 1596-7[25]

2 Henry IV. 3446 1860 1417 74 7 15 1600 1598-9 Henry V. 3380 1531 1678 101 2 8 1600 1599[25]

Merry Wives 3018 2703 227 69 --- 19 1602 1599 Much Ado, &c. 2826 2106 643 40 18 16 1600 1599-1600 As You Like It 2857 1681 925 71 130 97 1623 1599-1600[25]

Twelfth Night 2690 1741 763 120 --- 60 1623 1601[25]

All's Well 2966 1453 1234 280 2 12 1623 1601-2 (Love's Labor's Won, 1590)

III.--TRAGEDIES AND COMEDY OF THIRD PERIOD

Julius Caesar 2478 165 2241 34 --- --- 1623 1601[3]

Hamlet 3931 1208 2490 81 --- 60 1603[24]1602-3[25]

Measure for 2821 1134 1574 73 22 6 1623 ? 1603 Measure Oth.e.l.lo 3316 541 2672 86 --- 25 1622 ? 1604 Macbeth 2108 158 1588 118 129 --- 1623 1605-6[25]

King Lear 3334 903 2238 74 --- 83 1608[24]1605-6[25]

Antony and 3063 255 2761 42 --- 6 1623 1606-7 Cleopatra Coriola.n.u.s 3410 829 2521 42 --- --- 1623 ? 1607-8

IV.--PLAYS OF FOURTH PERIOD

Tempest 2064 458 1458 2 --- 96 1623 1609-10 Cymbeline 3339 638 2585 107 --- 32 1623 1609-10 Winter's Tale 3075 844 1825 --- --- 57 1623 ? 1611

V.--DOUBTFUL PLAYS

t.i.tus 2523 43 2338 144 --- --- 1594 1588-90 Andronicus 1 Henry VI. 2677 --- 2379 314 --- --- 1623 1592-4 2 Henry VI. 3162 448 2562 122 --- --- 1623 1592-4 3 Henry VI. 2904 --- 2749 155 --- --- 1623 1592-4 Contention 1952 381 1571 44 --- --- 1594 1586-8 True Tragedy 2101 --- 2035 66 --- --- 1595 1586-8

VI.--PLAYS IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS NOT SOLE AUTHOR

Taming of the 2649 516 1971 169 15 --- 1623 1596-7 Shrew Troilus and 3496 1186 2025 196 --- 16 1609 1603 Cressida Timon of 2373 596 1560 184 18 --- 1623 1607-8 Athens Pericles 2389 418 1436 225 89 --- 1609[23]1608-9[24]

Henry VIII. 2822 67? 2613 16 --- 12 1623 1610-12[24]

Poems published.--_Venus and Adonis_, 1593; _Lucrece_, 1594; _Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_, 1599; _Phoenix and Turtle_ in Chester's _Loves Martyr_, 1601; _Sonnets_, 1609, with _A Lover's Complaint_.

Shakespeare recognized the greatness of North's _Plutarch_ and paid it the compliment of following its thought more closely than that of any other of his sources.

Shakespeare found suggestions for _As You Like It_ in Thomas Lodge's contemporary novel _Rosalynde_, but Touchstone and Adam are original creations.

Our astonishment is often increased to find that the merest hint led to an imperishable creation, such as the character of Lady Macbeth, the reference to whom in Holinshed is confined to these twenty-eight words, "...specially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen." His plays are almost as different from the old chronicles or tales as the rose from the soil which nourished it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHAKESPEARE--THE D'AVENANT BUST. _Discovered in 1845 on site of Duke's Theater_.]

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Sympathy.---His most p.r.o.nounced characteristic is the broadest sympathy ever shown by an author. He seems to have been able to sympathize with every kind of human soul in every emergency. He plays with the simple rustics in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. The portrait of the serving man Adam, in _As You Like It_, is as kindly and as discriminating as that of king or n.o.bleman. Though he is the scholar and philosopher in _Hamlet_, he can afterward roam the country with the tramp Autolycus in _The Winter's Tale_. Women have marveled at the ease with which his sympathy crosses the barriers of s.e.x, at his portraits of Portia, Rosalind, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Miranda, Cleopatra, and Cordelia. Great actresses have testified to their amazement at his discovery of feminine secrets which they had thought no man could ever divine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY IRVING AS HAMLET.]

Universality.--Shakespeare's sympathy might have been broad enough to include all the people of his own time and their peculiar interests, but might have lacked the power to project itself into the universal heart of humanity. Sometimes a writer voices the ideals and aspirations of his own day so effectively that he is called the spokesman of his age, but he makes slight appeal to future generations. Shakespeare was the spokesman of his own time, but he had the genius also to speak to all ages. He loved to present the eternal truths of the human heart and to invest them with such a touch of nature as to reveal the kins.h.i.+p of the entire world.

His contemporary, the dramatist, Ben Jonson, had the penetration to say of Shakespeare:--