the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers, like frost and snow, hail and dew, hail-storm and thunder,-which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert; but that the further we press in our discoveries the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident." DE QUINCEY: The Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth: Essays. "The works of Shakspeare are miracles of art. In a piece which may be read aloud in three hours, we see a character gradually unfold all its recesses to us. We see it change with the change of circumstances. The petulant youth rises into the politic and warlike sovereign. The profuse and courteous philanthropist sours into a hater and scorner of his kind. The tyrant is altered, by the chastening of affliction, into a pensive moralist. The veteran general, distinguished by coolness, sagacity, and self-command, sinks under a conflict between love strong as death and jealousy cruel as the grave. The brave and loyal subject passes step by step to the extremities of human depravity. We trace his progress from the first dawning of unlawful ambition to the cynical melancholy of his impenitent remorse. Yet in these pieces there are no unnatural transitions. Nothing is omitted; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, narrow as is the compass within which they are exhibited, they shock us as little as the gradual alterations of those human faces we see every evening and every morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles that of the Dervise in The Spectator, who condensed all the events of seven years into the single moment during which the king held his head under the water. . . . Dryden truly said that 'Shakspeare's magic could not copied be: 66 LORD MACAULAY: Essays: John Dryden (Edin. Rev. Jan. 1828). His lordship ascribes to Shakespeare supreme and universal excellence" (on Mitford's Greece); pronounces him "the greatest of poets" (on Milton); the Prince of Poets; "the greatest poet that ever lived" (on Dryden); declares that he "has had neither equal nor second" (on Madame D'Arblay); and considers Othello "perhaps the greatest work in the world" (Criticisms on the Principal Italian writers). See also his reviews of Moore's Life of Byron and Croker's Boswell's Johnson. "Well, this is our poor Warwickshire Peasant who rose to be manager of a Playhouse, so that he could live without begging; whom the Earl of Southampton cast some kind glances on; whom Sir Thomas Lucy, many thanks to him, was for sending to the treadmill! We did not account him a god like Odin, while he dwelt with us;-on which point there were much to be said. But I will say rather, or repeat: In spite of the sad state Hero-worship now lies in, consider what this Shakespeare has actually become among Which Englishman we ever made, in this land of ours, which million of Englishmen, would we not give up rather than the Stratford Peasant? us. There is no regiment of highest dignitaries that we would sell him for. He is the grandest thing we have yet done. For our honour among foreign nations, as an ornament to our English household, what item is there that we would not surrender rather than him? Consider now, if they asked us : Will you give up your Indian Empire or your Shakespeare, you English; never have had any Indian Empire, or never have had any Shakespeare ? Really it were a grave question. Official persons would answer doubtless in official language; but we, for our part too, should not we be forced to answer : Indian Empire or no Indian Empire; we cannot do without our Shakespeare : Indian Empire will go, at any rate, some day; but this Shakespeare does not go, he lasts for ever with us; we cannot give up our Shakespeare. Nay, apart from spiritualities; and considering him merely as a real marketable, tangibly useful possession: England, before long, this Island of ours, will hold but a small fraction of the English; in America, in New Holland, east and west, to the very Antipodes, there will be a Saxondom covering great spaces of the globe. And now what is it that can keep all these together into virtually one Nation, so that they do not fall out and fight, but live at peace, in brother-like intercourse, helping one another? This is justly regarded as the greatest practical problem, the thing all manner of sovereignties and governments are here to accomplish: what is it that will accomplish this? Act of Parliament, administrative prime ministers, cannot. America is parted from us, so far as Parliament could part it. Call it not fantastic, for there is much reality in it: Here, I say, is an English king, whom no time or chance, Parliament or combination of Parliaments, can dethrone ! This king, Shakespeare, does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all the nations of Englishmen, a thousand years hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of Parish-Constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one another: Yes, this Shakespeare is ours; we produced him, we speak and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him.' The most common-sense politician, too, if he pleases, may think of that." CARLYLE: Lectures on Heroes: Lecture III: The Hero as Poet. LENOX LIBRARY, NEW YORK, July 28, 1880. S. AUSTIN Allibone. CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX TO EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE. PLAYS, AND PLAYS AND POEMS, 1623-1879. 1623-First edition, folio, pp. 32, 35. 1786-94-Rann, 6 vols. 8, No. 215. 224. 1797-Robinson, 7 vols. 8°, No. 225. 1803-Steevens, Glossarial Notes, 10 vols. 1803-Johnson & Steevens, 5th edition, 21 1803-5-Bensley, 10 vols. 8°, No. 221. Reed, Phila., etc., 17 vols. 12°, No. 226. 1810-12-Johnson, Steevens, and Others, 9 1817-18-Johnson, Steevens, Reed, etc., 10 1821-Plays and Poems, by Malone and 1823 Whittingham, Tegg, 12°, No. 237. 1825-Pickering, 9 vols. 48°, No. 239. 1825-Family, Bowdler, 10 vols. 12°, No.241. 1826-Pickering, India, 1.p. No. 244. 1831-Family, Bowdler, roy. 82, No. 247 1838-T. Campbell, roy. 8°, No. 249. 1848-Supplement, Seven Dramas, Simms, 1850-51-Phillips, Boston, 8 vols. 8°, No. 253. 1851-Companion to Knight's Pictorial, 8°, 1851-59-Dramatic and Supplementary, W. 1853-65-Halliwell, 15 vols. fol. No. 258. 1868-69-Tauchnitz, 8 vols. 16°, No. 279. 1873-Knight, Nelson, fp. 8°, No. 287. 1874-C. and M. C. Clarke, Bickers, 2 vols. 1875-C. and M. C. Clarke, Cassell, 3 vols. 1875-76-Dyce's Third Edition, 9 vols. 8°. 1877-Leopold, Delius and Furnivall, 8° 1879-Avon Edition, roy. 8°, No. 292. CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX TO SHAKESPEARI- ANA, 1516-1879. 1516-Appolonius, Froschauer, No. 293. No. 315. 1777-Essay on Falstaff, No. 316. 1796-Shakspeare's Manuscripts, No. 331. 1797-Investigation into Malone, No. 337. 1797-Enquiry into Malone, No. 338. 1805-Confessions of Ireland, Nos. 343, 344. 345. 1797-Virgin Queen, Waldron, No. 346. 1805-Notes by Lord Chedworth, No. 351. 1809-11-Dramatische Kunst, Von Schle- 1810-Essays by Mrs. Montagu, No. 358; 1817-Macbeth and Richard III., No. 367. 1821-Life of Shakspeare, Malone, No. 373- 1824-Beauties of Shakspeare, Nos. 376, 377- 1824-Life, by Skottowe, No. 378. |