Repository: UIHistories Project: Sophograph - 1890 [PAGE 43]

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W e may describe it as Shakespeare himself describi y try, and say •

litis is like a Circle in tho water Which in r oeaseth to enlarge."

In short, did be live in the greal cities, or in shepherd's

c o t t a g e s or in fields and woods?

[fe appears perfectly at home in whs on Stratford-on-Avon.

rer sphere we

The most . atial quality required for true genius is the power to give outward life to the inward conception. Without this the poei ia dumb. Be may be a "Mute, inglorii i Milton:" he can not be a speaking, noble ShakesThe < uee of his genius consists in what is the very soul of dramatic idea, the power to throw himself into the situation, the circumstances, the nature, the feelings of his char r. His di - are unlike those of his j>redec< ors, bis con tnporaries or his succ< rs both in thought and language : and his power of dramatic characterization, he is unapproaehed by any writer who ever lived. The fertility of bis mind appears to have been inexhs jle, the profundity of his thoughts unfathomable. His language in the purest and b . bis vers the most flowing and r i. Indeed, the use of a word by tb at master is taken o e iblish its authority and render it classic. Volui s m be written on his works, which Mon1 taigne fondly calls the "children of his brain,' and. in facl ti re on the ibj includes ontnbations from th gr- est writers of e ry gem ition since his time. W\ "anger might ask i- the man. and where was he born? Did he live in ancie Rome, trolling on the F or climb. ; the Capitoline \ I en bo conpirators g the columi porticos, mingle with Benaton r i P or with plebians erov to b r \U haras I I he i -t of princes, and li • to the of kij ] or the witty vin of COUl

place h i m ; but we are compelled to allot h i m a rural h o m e "Win !ir-i infant lays swec kespeare sang, Where his last accents faltered on hi T h e story of his life is f a m i l i a r to all. and n 1 not here he r e p e a t e d .

And though his early life is clouded in my -rv.it seem certain that his boyhood w tnt in his native vill e

w h e r e he m i g h t have been seen d-boy. "With his satchel and shining morning face, Creeping liken snail, unwillingly t< ol."

lie appears to have left school at an early a , it adeed he ever attended at all. ami to have entered the world I earn his living. Whether these meagre educational advantag :ficient to insure that wonderful depth and var y of learning of which we have spoken, and which is displayed in nearly every sentence he utters, is eri< ly <\' led many. Even though his subsequent residen in London and com lion with a prominent publisher of the day, and hi position as manager of the ' >be Th< incre I 1 knowledge of men and things, ve\ it is a qi r genius even of the highesi order, onaid > tdu y D ami systematic training, aid pr the grai result embodied in the works that bear his name. II ice Walpole ap] to bn\-• been on use the question of the authorship of the Plays •• Hi-tone Doubl on the Reign of Ricbi I III." The it of Bkepticism 1 Uvn grown literalure on the suhji incre r till u no less than three hundred 1 . and j i have been wntten on t he BUI