"I have often said, and will often repeat,"
writes Goethe, "that the final cause and consummation of all natural and
human activity is dramatic poetry." Englishmen do not appear yet to
understand what arrogance and what profound wisdom there is in this
saying; but in a dull, half-conscious way they are beginning dimly to
realize that the biggest thing they have done in the world yet is to
produce Shakespeare. When I think of his paltry education, his limiting
circumstances, the scanty appreciation of his contemporaries, his
indifferent health, and recall his stupendous achievement, I am fain to
apply to him, as most appropriate, the words he gave to his
alter
ego, Antony, Antony who, like himself, was world-worn and
passion-weary:
"A rarer spirit never
Did steer humanity; but you, gods, will give us
Some faults to make us men."
THE END.
INDEX
Abbess
Academe
Achilles
Actium
Adam
Adonis
Adriana
Aegeon
Aeneas
Agamemnon
Agincourt
Agrippa
Ajax
Albany, The Duke of (in "Lear")
Aleppo
Alexander
Angelo
Anne, Lady
Antigone
Antipholus
Antonio
Antonio (Duke in the "Tempest"),
Antony, Marc
"Antony and Cleopatra"
Apelles
Apemantus
"Arabian Nights' Entertainment"
Archbishop of Canterbury
Arden, Mary
Arden, the family of
Argus
Ariel
Armado
Arnold, Matthew
Arthur, Prince
Arviragus
Asbies
"As You Like It"
Aubrey
Aufidius
Aumerle
Austin, Alfred
Autolycus
"Babes in a Wood"
Bacon
Bagot
Balzac
Bankside
Banquo
Bardolph
Barnardine
Bartholomew Fair
Bassanio
Bastard (the)
Bazarof
Beatrice
Beaumont
Beckett, Ernest, dedication.
Pages:
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579