original plays were comedies; but even in these we see the truthfulness of his work, and something of the earnestness of purpose, which give such greatness to his later plays. One of his first comedies was The Two Gentlemen of Verona. This is a story of two friends, one of whom is false and infirm of purpose, but the honesty and truth of those around him bring him at last to repentance and a sense of duty. It is a working out in life of the eternal truth that evil is overcome by good. Love's Labour's Lost, another early comedy, is an earnest but good-humoured laugh at the tendency of that time to insist so much on the outside form of literature, the ornamental phrases and rare words, while the inward thought and substance were in danger of being lost; and the play illustrates how a mere striving after art is not in itself a noble life, but is only Love's labour lost, for true beauty of life can only find expression in noble and loving action. The charming fairy play, Midsummer Night's Dream, is also one of Shakespeare's early comedies. In it he shows the wonderful power of imagination, how it colours the feelings in regard to persons and things, how it can throw a tender grace over all the insignificant duties of life-typified by the little work of the fairies-"hanging dewdrops in the cowslips," "killing cankers in the musk-rose buds ;" while without it, the drama of the clowns, containing all the supposed elements of poetry-love, moonlight, tragic death -is prosaic and dull, and stirs no feeling of sympathy. The days when Shakespeare was writing plays in London were days of intense national life and of great national danger. The Spanish Armada had threatened the very existence of England as a nation, and there was constant danger from the plots and conspiracies aiming at the life of Queen Elizabeth, on whom depended the maintenance of freedom of thought and progress. Shakespeare entered earnestly into the anxiety felt by every true man for the L welfare of his country; and in his own way and through his own work did his part in keeping up that spirit of patriotism and unity on which the safety of the nation rested in this time of danger. He wrote a number of historical plays, dealing with times of difficulty or of glory to the English nation; and through these the necessity of union in the present crisis was shown, and the spirit of patriotism was roused. We can fancy the effect produced on an Elizabethan audience of this period, with Babington's conspiracy* and the Spanish Armadat fresh in their minds as recent events, when they listened to the brave words of Henry V. at Agincourt, so full of trust in English courage and steadfastness, and of faith in God; or heard Faulconbridge in King John § declare : "This England never did, nor never shall And we shall shock them; nought shall make us rue, We have seen all through Elizabeth's time how she gathered to herself, as to a focus, the devotion and patriotism of her people, and that she was to them the very personification of all that was most highly esteemed at that time; but a patriotism which centred so much in enthusiastic devotion to an individual had not in it the elements of enduring strength. Queen Elizabeth grew old, and there was no settled heir to the throne to keep alive the feeling of attachment to it. Then arose discord and strife of parties, while at the same time there was decay of the higher tone in social life. Family ties were held lightly, partly perhaps from the encouragement the queen had * 1586. 1588. Dispersion of the Second Armada, 1597. given to a chivalric admiration, rather than to the true love which holds fast through sorrow and joy in the sweet duties of family life, such as Chaucer loved to sing of in his poems. There was especially a lawlessness of life among many of the dramatists and other writers of the time: Marlowe was killed in a drunken brawl, and Greene ended his life in the bitter consciousness that he had made shipwreck of it, and could only with tender pity cry to others to take warning from himself :— "Oh that a year were granted me to live, And for that year my former wits restored! calm, deep nature of All these things stirred the Shakespeare to intense earnestness. Many of his tragedies illustrate the evils of discord in a state, as in Julius Cæsar; or the terrible catastrophes that follow the setting aside of the love and the duties that are the bonds of family life, as in King Lear; or the wide circle of misery into which one lawless crime draws the innocent as well as the guilty, as in Hamlet. Even his comedies have serious lessons of life underlying the bright story, as in the Merchant of Venice, where he teaches that whoever would choose the true life must give and hazard all he has in order to win the high ideal, and shows that harmony, like that of heaven, can only be made on earth when each man is as true as "the smallest orb" to God's laws. While Shakespeare's clear insight and wonderful imagination enabled him to put such pictures of life upon the stage, he was working steadily onwards himself towards what he always seems to have held to be the reward of his labourthe gathering of his family around him in a pleasant home at Stratford. Whatever we do not know about Shakespeare's life in London, there is one thing at least which is quite certain, and that is that he was making money and keeping it. To do this in the midst of the wild recklessness of the circle around him proves plainly that Shakespeare's own life was governed by law and self-restraint, that he was strong enough and brave enough not to drift into the disorders of the time. Another thing we plainly see is his own faithfulness to family ties and old friendships. He helped his father and supported his family, and bought with his literary earnings a house at Stratford called New Place, making purchases from time to time of land around it and in other parts of the parish. There is uncertainty as to the exact year in which Shakespeare gave up his life in London and settled with his family in New Place. He was no longer dependent on his literary work; for the money he had prudently saved and invested brought him in some income. But he did not give up writing plays; and in these later plays there has been noticed a most settled calm faith that God rules the world and does all things well, and a still firmer grasp of the conviction that evil is only overcome by good. He shows hatred and discord healed by constant patient love, falseness conquered by steadfast truth, and low suspicion banished by quiet continuance in well-doing. We may imagine many pleasant pictures of Shakespeare's life at Stratford. We can fancy him taking country walks through the old scenes of his boyhood, showing his grandchildren "the bank whereon the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;" pointing their eyes to the lark singing at heaven's gate, and telling stories of all his adventures in these woods and fields when he was a boy. And we can fancy him, with cheerful, hearty hospitality, gathering his family and old friends and neighbours around him at Christmastide in New Place, making merry little speeches to them all, and surprising the country folk with tales of London and his experience of life there. But of these years only three actual records now remain: one is of the resistance Shakespeare made to the enclosing of some common lands near Stratford which had been of advantage to the poor; another tells us of his having a Puritan minister preaching at New Place; and the third is the record of his death, which took place on the 23rd of April, 1616, the day of the month generally supposed to have been his birthday. It was no doubt his own desire to lie after death in the little church where he had been baptised as a baby, where he had been married, where his father, mother, brother, sister, and his little boy lay buried, and where his wife and children might be laid near him; and this wish to be buried in Stratford Church, rather than to be placed with pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey, accords well with the whole spirit of Shakespeare's life and works; for in these we always find that the simple true love of kindred and real friends is held of far higher value than the glitter of fame. With those who had known and loved him his memory would never die; but other dramatists might soon arise before whose fame his own would be forgotten. It is supposed that he himself wrote the lines placed upon his tomb; if he did not do so, they were written at any rate by some one who knew his strong desire, as it is Shakespeare himself who is made to say "Good frend, for Jesus' sake forbeare Blest be the man that spares these stones, A play of Shakespeare's is so full and many-sided that we may read it at different times in our lives and in different moods, again and again, and still find it as fresh as ever. There is always the bright, charming story, fasci |