Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, Volume I.

Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And
Characters, Volume I.

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Characters,
Volume I., by H. N. Hudson This eBook is for the use of anyone
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Title: Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An
Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In
England
Author: H. N. Hudson
Release Date: September 7, 2004 [EBook #13387]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SHAKESPEARE: HIS LIFE, ART, ***

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SHAKESPEARE:
HIS
LIFE, ART, AND CHARACTERS.

WITH
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF
THE DRAMA IN ENGLAND.
_FOURTH EDITION, REVISED_.
BY
THE REV. H.N. HUDSON, LL.D.
VOLUME I.
GINN AND COMPANY
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
HENRY N. HUDSON,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TO
MR. JOSEPH BURNETT, OF SOUTHBOROUGH, MASS.
Sir:
The Memories of a Friendship running, I believe, without interruption
through a period of more than five-and-twenty years, prompt the
inscribing of these volumes to you.
H.N. HUDSON.
BOSTON, January 1, 1872.

CONTENTS.
LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE
ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE DRAMA IN ENGLAND
MIRACLE-PLAYS MORAL-PLAYS COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
SHAKESPEARE'S CONTEMPORARIES
SHAKESPEARE'S ART NATURE AND USE OF ART PRINCIPLES
OF ART DRAMATIC COMPOSITION CHARACTERIZATION
HUMOUR STYLE MORAL SPIRIT
SHAKESPEARE'S CHARACTERS A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S
DREAM THE MERCHANT OF VENICE THE MERRY WIVES OF
WINDSOR MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING AS YOU LIKE IT
TWELFTH NIGHT ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL MEASURE
FOR MEASURE THE TEMPEST THE WINTER'S TALE
[Illustration: Etched by Leopold Fluming after the Chandos painting.]

LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE.
* * * * *
Shakespeare,[1] by general suffrage, is the greatest name in literature.
There can be no extravagance in saying, that to all who speak the
English language his genius has made the world better worth living in,
and life a nobler and diviner thing. And even among those who do not
"speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake," large numbers are studying
the English language mainly for the purpose of being at home with him.
How he came to be what he was, and to do what he did, are questions
that can never cease to be interesting, wherever his works are known,
and men's powers of thought in any fair measure developed. But
Providence has left a veil, or rather a cloud, about his history, so that
these questions are not likely to be satisfactorily answered.
[1] Much discussion has been had in our time as to the right way of
spelling the Poet's name. The few autographs of his that are extant do
not enable us to decide positively how he wrote his name; or rather
they show that he had no one constant way of writing it. But the Venus
and Adonis and the Lucrece were unquestionably published by his
authority, and in the dedications of both these poems the name is
printed "Shakespeare." The same holds in all the quarto issues of his
plays where the author's name is given, with the one exception of
_Love's Labour's Lost_, which has it "Shakespere"; as it also holds in
the folio. And in very many of these cases the name is printed with a
hyphen, "Shake-speare," as if on purpose that there might be no
mistake about it. All which, surely, is or ought to be decisive as to how
the Poet willed his name to be spelt in print. Inconstancy in the spelling
of names was very common in his time.
The first formal attempt at an account of Shakespeare's life was made
by Nicholas Rowe, and the result thereof published in 1709,
ninety-three years after the Poet's death. Rowe's account was avowedly
made up, for the most part, from traditionary materials collected by
Betterton the actor, who made a visit to Stratford expressly for that
purpose. Betterton was born in 1635, nineteen years after the death of
Shakespeare; became an actor before 1660, retired from the stage about
1700, and died in 1710. At what time he visited Stratford is not known.
It is to be regretted that Rowe did not give Betterton's authorities for
the particulars gathered by him. It is certain, however, that very good

sources of information were accessible in his time: Judith Quiney, the
Poet's second daughter, lived till 1662; Lady Barnard, his
granddaughter, till 1670; and Sir William Davenant, who in his youth
had known Shakespeare, was manager of the theatre in which Betterton
acted.
After Rowe's account, scarce any thing