----------------------------------------
-  ,transcribers note3 ,old spellings of
 the   words have been retained as well 
as the   doubtful use of colons instead 
of         semicolons in many places for
 the sake    of fidelity to the original
 text4                                  
----------------------------------------
-     ,,montaigne ,,and ,,shakspere     
,,by  ,,john ,m4 ,,robertson  ,,london  
,,the ,,university ,,press1 ,,limited   
#af1 ,,john ,,street1 ,,bedford ,,row1  
,w4,c4 #ahig   ,,the ,,university       
,,press  ,,montaigne ,,and ,,shakspere  
,for a good many years past the anatomic
 study of ,shakspere1 of which a revival
 seems now on foot1 has been somewhat   
out of fashion1 as compared with its    
vogue in the palmy days of the ,new     
,shakspere ,society in ,england1 and the
 years of the battle between the        
iconoclasts and the worshippers in      
,germany4 ,when ,mr4 ,fleay and ,mr4    
,spedding were hard at work on the      
metrical tests2 when ,mr4 ,spedding was 

subtly undoing the chronological        
psychology of ,dr4 ,furnivall2 when the 
latter student was on his part undoing  
in quite another style some of the      
judgments of ,mr4 ,swinburne2 and when  
,mr4 ,halliwell-,phillipps was with     
natural wrath calling on ,mr4 ,browning1
 as ,president of the ,society1 to keep 
,dr4 ,furnivall in order1 we 7then7     
younger onlookers felt that literary    
history was verily being made4 ,our     
sensations1 it seemed1 might be as those
 of our elders had been over ,mr4       
,collier's emendated folio1 and the     
tragical end thereof4 ,then came a      
period of lull in things ,shaksperean1  
partly to be accounted for by the       
protrusion of the ,browning ,society and
 kindred undertakings4 ,it seemed as if 
once more men had come to the attitude  
of #ahej1 when ,mr4 ,phillipps had      
written3 ,an opinion has been gaining   
ground1 and has been encouraged by      
writers whose judgment is entitled to   
respectful consideration1 that almost if

 not all the commentary on the works of 
,shakspere of a necessary and desirable 
kind has already been given to the      
world4#a ,and1 indeed1 so much need was 
there for time to digest the new        
criticism that it may be doubted whether
 among the general cultured public the  
process is even now accomplished4  ,to  
this literary phase in particular1 and  
to our occupation with other studies in 
general1 may be attributed the          
opportunity which still exists for the  
discussion of one of the most           
interesting of all problems concerning  
,shakspere4 ,mr4 ,browning1 ,mr4        
,meredith1 ,ibsen1 ,tolstoi--a host of  
peculiarly modern problem-makers have   
been exorcising our not inexhaustible   
taste for the problematic1 so that there
 was no very violent excitement over    
even the series of new ,keys to the     
sonnets which came forth in the lull of 
the analysis of the plays2 and yet1 even
 with all the problems of modernity in  
view1 it seems as if it must be rather  

by accident of oversight than for lack  
of interest in new developments of      
,shakspere-study that so little         
attention has been given among us to a  
question which1 once raised1 has a very 
peculiar literary and psychological     
attraction of its own--the subject1     
namely1 of the influence which the plays
 show their author to have undergone    
from the ,essays of ,montaigne4  ,as to 
the bare fact of the influence1 there   
can be little question4 ,that ,shakspere
 in one scene in the ,,tempest versifies
 a passage from the prose of ,florio's  
translation of ,montaigne's chapter ,,of
 ,,the ,,cannibals has been recognised  
by all the commentators since ,capell   
7#agfg71 who detected the transcript    
from a reading of the ,french only1 not 
having compared the translation4 ,the   
first thought of students was to connect
 the passage with ,ben ,johnson's       
allusion in ,,volpone#b to frequent     
stealings from ,montaigne by            
contemporary writers2 and though        

,,volpone dates from #afje1 and the     
,,tempest from #afaj-afac1 there has    
been no systematic attempt to apply the 
clue chronologically4 ,still1 it has    
been recognised or surmised by a series 
of writers that the influence of the    
essayist on the dramatist went further  
than the passage in question4 ,john     
,sterling1 writing on ,montaigne in     
#ahch 7when ,sir ,frederick ,madden's   
pamphlet on the autograph of ,shakspere 
in a copy of ,florio had called special 
attention to the ,essays71 remarked that
 on the whole1 the celebrated soliloquy 
in ,,hamlet presents a more             
characteristic and expressive           
resemblance to much of ,montaigne's     
writings than any other portion of the  
plays of the great dramatist which we at
 present remember2 and further threw out
 the germ of a thesis which has since   
been disastrously developed1 to the     
effect that the ,prince of ,denmark is  
very nearly a ,montaigne1 lifted to a   
higher eminence1 and agitated by more   

striking circumstances and a severer    
destiny1 and altogether a somewhat more 
passionate structure of man4#c ,in      
#ahdf1 again1 ,philarete ,chasles1 an   
acute and original critic1 citing the   
passage in the ,,tempest1 went on to    
declare that once on the track of the   
studies and tastes of ,shakspere1 we    
find ,montaigne at every corner1 in     
,,hamlet1 in ,,othello1 in ,,coriolanus4
 ,even the composite style of           
,shakspere1 so animated1 so vivid1 so   
new1 so incisive1 so coloured1 so hardy1
 offers a multitude of striking         
analogies to the admirable and free     
manner of ,montaigne4#d ,the suggestion 
as to the ,to be or not to be soliloquy 
has been taken up by some critics1 but  
rejected by others2 and the propositions
 of ,m4 ,chasles1 so far as ,i am aware1
 have never been supported by evidence4 
,nevertheless1 the general fact of a    
frequent reproduction or manipulation of
 ,montaigne's ideas in some of          
,shakspere's later plays has1 ,i think1 

since been established4  ,twelve years  
ago ,i incidentally cited1 in an essay  
on the composition of ,,hamlet1 some    
dozen of the ,essays of ,montaigne from 
which ,shakspere had apparently received
 suggestions1 and instanced one or two  
cases in which actual peculiarities of  
phrase in ,florio's translation of the  
,essays are adopted by him1 in addition 
to a peculiar coincidence which has been
 pointed out by ,mr4 ,jacob ,feis in his
 work entitled ,,shakspere ,,and        
,,montaigne2 and since then the late    
,mr4 ,henry ,morley1 in his edition of  
the ,florio translation1 has pointed to 
a still more remarkable coincidence of  
phrase1 in a passage of ,,hamlet which  
,i had traced to ,montaigne without     
noticing the decisive verbal agreement  
in question4 ,yet so far as ,i have     
seen1 the matter has passed for little  
more than a literary curiosity1 arousing
 no new ideas as to ,shakspere's mental 
development4 ,the notable suggestion of 
,chasles on that head has been ignored  

more completely than the theory of ,mr4 
,feis1 which in comparison is merely    
fantastic4 ,either1 then1 there is an   
unwillingness in ,england to conceive of
 ,shakspere as owing much to foreign    
influences1 or as a case of intelligible
 mental growth1 or else the whole       
critical problem which ,shakspere       
represents--and he may be regarded as   
the greatest of critical problems--comes
 within the general disregard for       
serious criticism1 noticeable among us  
of late years4 ,and the work of ,mr4    
,feis1 unfortunately1 is as a whole so  
extravagant that it could hardly fail to
 bring a special suspicion on every form
 of the theory of an intellectual tie   
between ,shakspere and ,montaigne4 ,not 
only does he undertake to show in dead  
earnest what ,sterling had vaguely      
suggested as conceivable1 that          
,shakspere meant ,hamlet to represent   
,montaigne1 but he strenuously argues   
that the poet framed the play in order  
to discredit ,montaigne's opinions--a   

thesis which almost makes the ,bacon    
theory specious by comparison4          
,naturally it has made no converts1 even
 in ,germany1 where1 as it happens1 it  
had been anticipated4  ,in ,france1     
however1 the neglect of the special     
problem of ,montaigne's influence on    
,shakspere is less easily to be         
explained1 seeing how much intelligent  
study has been given of late by ,french 
critics to both ,shakspere and          
,montaigne4 ,the influence is           
recognised2 but here again it is only   
cursorily traced4 ,the latest study of  
,montaigne is that of ,m4 ,paul         
,stapfer1 a vigilant critic1 whose      
services to ,shakspere-study have been  
recognised in both countries4 ,but all  
that ,m4 ,stapfer claims for the        
influence of the ,french essayist on the
 ,english dramatist is thus put3--      
,montaigne is perhaps too purely ,french
 to have exercised   much influence     
abroad4 ,nevertheless his influence on  
,england   is not to be disdained4      

,shakspere appreciated him 7le          
goutait72 he has inserted in the        
,,tempest a passage of the   chapter    
,,des ,,cannibales2 and the strong      
expressions of the   ,,essays on man1   
the inconstant1 irresolute being1       
contrary to   himself1 marvellously     
vain1 various and changeful1 were       
perhaps not unconnected with 7peut etre 
pas etrangeres a7   the conception of   
,,hamlet4 ,the author of the scene of   
the   grave-diggers must have felt the  
savour and retained the   impression of 
this thought1 humid and cold as the     
grave3   ',the heart and the life of a  
great and triumphant emperor   are but  
the repast of a little worm4' ,the      
translation of   ,plutarch1 or rather of
 ,amyot1 by ,thomas ,north1 and that of 
,montaigne by ,florio1 had together a   
great and long vogue in   the ,english  
society of the seventeenth century4#e   
,so modest a claim1 coming from the     
,french side1 can hardly be blamed on   
the score of that very modesty4 ,it is  

the fact1 however1 that1 though ,m4     
,stapfer has in another work#f compared 
,shakspere with a ,french classic       
critically enough1 he has here          
understated his case4 ,he was led to    
such an attitude in his earlier study of
 ,shakspere by the slightness of the    
evidence offered for the claim of ,m4   
,chasles1 of which he wrote that it is a
 gratuitous supposition1 quite          
unjustified by the few traces in his    
writings of his having read the         
,essays4#g ,but that verdict was passed 
without due scrutiny4 ,the influence of 
,montaigne on ,shakspere was both wider 
and deeper than ,m4 ,stapfer has        
suggested2 and it is perhaps more       
fitting1 after all1 that the proof      
should be undertaken by some of us who1 
speaking ,shakspere's tongue1 cannot    
well be suspected of seeking to belittle
 him when we trace the sources for his  
thought1 whether in his life or in his  
culture4 ,there is still1 indeed1 a     
tendency among the more primitively     

patriotic to look jealously at such     
inquiries1 as tending to diminish the   
glory of the worshipped name2 but for   
anyone who is capable of appreciating   
,shakspere's greatness1 there can be no 
question of iconoclasm in the matter4   
,shakspere ignorantly adored is a mere  
dubious mystery2 ,shakspere followed up 
and comprehended1 step by step1 albeit  
never wholly revealed1 becomes more     
remarkable1 more profoundly interesting1
 as he becomes more intelligible4 ,we   
are embarked1 not on a quest for        
plagiarisms1 but on a study of the      
growth of a wonderful mind4 ,and in the 
idea that much of the growth is         
traceable to the fertilising contact of 
a foreign intelligence there can be     
nothing but interest and attraction for 
those who have mastered the primary     
sociological truth that such contacts of
 cultures are the very life of          
civilisation4     ,,ii4   ,the first    
requirement in the study1 obviously1 is 
an exact statement of the coincidences  

of phrase and thought in ,shakspere and 
,montaigne4 ,not that such coincidences 
are the main or the only results to be  
looked for2 rather we may reasonably    
expect to find ,shakspere's thought     
often diverging at a tangent from that  
of the writer he is reading1 or even    
directly gainsaying it4 ,but there can  
be no solid argument as to such indirect
 influence until we have fully          
established the direct influence1 and   
this can only be done by exhibiting a   
considerable number of coincidences4 ,m4
 ,chasles1 while avowing that the       
comparison of texts is indispensable--we
 must undergo this fatigue in order to  
know to what extent ,shakspere1 between 
#afjc and #afae1 became familiar with   
,montaigne--strangely enough made no    
comparison of texts whatever beyond     
reproducing the familiar paraphrase in  
the ,,tempest1 from the essay ,,of      
,,cannibals2 and left absolutely        
unsupported his assertion as to         
,,hamlet1 ,,othello1 and ,,coriolanus4  

,it is necessary to produce proofs1 and 
to look narrowly to dates4 ,florio's    
translation1 though licensed in #afja1  
was not published till #afjc1 the year  
of the piratical publication of the     
,first ,quarto of ,,hamlet1 in which the
 play lacks much of its present matter1 
and shows in many parts so little trace 
of ,shakspere's spirit and versification
 that1 even if we hold the text to have 
been imperfectly taken down in          
shorthand1 as it no doubt was1 we cannot
 suppose him to have at this stage      
completed his refashioning of the older 
play1 which is undoubtedly the          
substratum of his4#h ,we must therefore 
keep closely in view the divergencies   
between this text and that of the       
,second ,quarto1 printed in #afjd1 in   
which the transmuting touch of          
,shakspere is broadly evident4 ,it is   
quite possible that ,shakspere may have 
seen parts of ,florio's translation     
before #afjc1 or heard passages from it 
read2 or even that he might have read   

,montaigne in the original4 ,but as his 
possession of the translation is made   
certain by the preservation of the copy 
bearing his autograph1 and as it is from
 ,florio that he is seen to have copied 
in the passages where his copying is    
beyond dispute1 it is on ,florio's      
translation that we must proceed4   ,i4 
,in order to keep all the evidence in   
view1 we may first of all collate once  
more the passage in the ,,tempest with  
that in the ,essays which it            
unquestionably follows4 ,in ,florio's   
translation1 ,montaigne's words run3    
,they ,lycurgus and ,plato could not    
imagine a genuity so   pure and simple1 
as we see it by experience1 nor ever    
believe our society might be maintained 
with so little art   and human          
combination4 ,it is a nation 7would ,i  
answer ,plato7   that hath no kind of   
traffic1 no knowledge of letters1 no    
intelligence of numbers1 no name of     
magistrate1 nor of   politic            
superiority2 no use of service1 of      

riches1 or of   poverty2 no contracts1  
no successions1 no dividences1 no       
occupations1 but idle2 no respect of    
kindred1 but common2 no   apparel1 but  
natural2 no manuring of lands1 no use of
 wine1   corn1 or metal4 ,the very words
 that import lying1 falsehood1          
treason1 dissimulation1 covetousness1   
envy1 detraction1 and   passion1 were   
never heard of amongst them4 ,how       
dissonant   would he find his imaginary 
commonwealth from this   perfection8    
,compare the speech in which the kind   
old ,gonzalo seeks to divert the        
troubled mind of the shipwrecked ,king  
,alonso3   ,i' the commonwealth ,i would
 by contraries   ,execute all things3   
for no kind of traffic   ,would ,i      
admit2 no name of magistrate2   ,letters
 should not be known2 no use of service1
   ,of riches1 or of poverty2 no        
contracts1   ,succession2 bound of land1
 tilth1 vineyard1 none3   ,no use of    
metal1 corn1 or wine1 or oil3   ,no     
occupation1 all men idle1 all2   ,and   

women too3 but innocent and pure3   ,no 
sovereignty4444  ,there can be no       
dispute as to the direct transcription  
here1 where the dramatist is but        
incidentally playing with ,montaigne's  
idea1 proceeding to put some gibes at it
 in the mouths of ,gonzalo's rascally   
comrades2 and it follows that ,gonzalo's
 further phrase1 to excel the golden    
age1 proceeds from ,montaigne's previous
 words3 exceed all the pictures         
wherewith licentious poesy hath proudly 
embellished the golden age4 ,the play   
was in all probability written in or    
before #afaj4 ,it remains to show that  
on his first reading of ,florio's       
,montaigne1 in #afjc-d1 ,shakspere was  
more deeply and widely influenced1      
though the specific proofs are in the   
nature of the case less palpable4       
,,ii4 ,let us take first the more       
decisive coincidences of phrase4        
,correspondences of thought which in    
themselves do not establish their direct
 connection1 have a new significance    

when it is seen that other coincidences 
amount to manifest reproduction4 ,and   
such a coincidence we have1 to begin    
with1 in the familiar lines3    ,there's
 a divinity that shapes our ends1       
,rough-hew them how we will4#i  ,i      
pointed out in #ahhe that this          
expression1 which does not occur in the 
,first ,quarto ,,hamlet1 corresponds    
very closely with the theme of          
,montaigne's essay1 ,,that ,,fortune    
,,is ,,oftentimes ,,met ,,withall ,,in  
,,pursuit ,,of ,,reason1#aj in which    
occurs the phrase1 ,fortune has more    
judgment#aa than we1 a translation from 
,menander4 ,but ,professor ,morley1     
having had his attention called to the  
subject by the work of ,mr4 ,feis1 who  
had suggested another passage as the    
source of ,shakspere's1 made a more     
perfect identification4 ,reading the    
proofs of the ,florio translation for   
his reprint1 he found1 what ,i had not  
observed in my occasional access to the 
old folio1 not then reprinted1 that the 

very metaphor of rough-hewing occurs in 
,florio's rendering of a passage in the 
,essays3--#ab ,my consultation doth     
somewhat roughly hew the matter1 and by 
its first shew lightly consider the     
same3 the main and chief point of the   
work ,i am wont to resign to ,heaven4   
,this is a much more exact coincidence  
than is presented in the passage cited  
by ,mr4 ,feis from the essay ,,of       
,,physiognomy3--#ac ,therefore do our   
designs so often miscarry4444 ,the      
heavens are angry1 and ,i may say       
envious of the extension and large      
privilege we ascribe to human wisdom1 to
 the prejudice of theirs1 and abridge   
them so much more unto us by so much    
more we endeavour to amplify them4 ,if  
there were no closer parallel than that 
in ,montaigne1 we should be bound to    
take it as an expansion of a phrase in  
,seneca's ,,agamemnon1#ad which was     
likely to have become proverbial4 ,i may
 add that the thought is often repeated 
in the ,essays1 and that in several     

passages it compares notably with       
,shakspere's lines4 ,these begin3       
,rashly1   --,and praised be rashness   
for it--,let us know   ,our indiscretion
 sometimes serves us well   ,when our   
deep plots do pall2 and that should     
learn us   ,there's a divinity etc4     
,compare the following extracts from    
,florio's translation3--    ,the ,daemon
 of ,socrates were peradventure a       
certain   impulsion or will which       
without the advice of his discourse     
presented itself unto him4 ,in a mind so
 well purified1 and   by continual      
exercise of wisdom and virtue so well   
prepared   as his was1 it is likely his 
inclinations 7though rash and           
inconsiderate7 were ever of great       
moment1 and worthy to be   followed4    
,every man feeleth in himself some image
 of such   agitations1 of a prompt1     
vehement1 and casual opinion4 ,it is    
in me to give them some authority1 that 
afford so little to   our wisdom4 ,and  
,i have had some 7equally weak in reason

 and   violent in persuasion and        
dissuasion1 which was more   ordinary to
 ,socrates7 by which ,i have so happily 
and so   profitably suffered myself to  
be transported1 as they might   perhaps 
be thought to contain some matter of    
divine   inspiration4#ae    ,even in our
 counsels and deliberations1 some chance
 or good   luck must needs be joined to 
them2 for whatsoever our   wisdom can   
effect is no great matter4#af    ,when  
,i consider the most glorious exploits  
of war1 methinks   ,i see that those who
 have had the conduct of them employ    
neither counsel nor deliberation about  
them1 but for fashion   sake1 and leave 
the best part of the enterprise to      
fortune2   and on the confidence they   
have in her aid1 they still go   beyond 
the limits of all discourse4 ,casual    
rejoicings and   strange furies ensue   
among their deliberations4#ag etc4      
,compare finally ,florio's translation  
of the lines of ,manilius cited by      
,montaigne at the end of the #dgth      

,essay of the ,first ,book3    ',tis    
best for ill-advis'd1 wisdom may        
fail1#ah   ,fortune proves not the cause
 that should prevail1   ,but here and   
there without respect doth sail3   ,a   
higher power forsooth us overdraws1     
,and mortal states guides with immortal 
laws4  ,it is to be remembered1 indeed1 
that the idea expressed in ,hamlet's    
words to ,horatio is partly anticipated 
in the rhymed speech of the             
,player-,king in the play-scene in ,act 
,,iii41 which occurs in the ,first      
,quarto3   ,our wills1 our fates do so  
contrary run   ,that our devices still  
are overthrown2   ,our thoughts are     
ours1 their ends none of our own4  ,such
 a passage1 reiterating a familiar      
commonplace1 might seem at first sight  
to tell against the view that ,hamlet's 
later speech to ,horatio is an echo of  
,montaigne4 ,but that view being found  
justified by the evidence1 and the idea 
in that passage being exactly coincident
 with ,montaigne's1 while the above     

lines are only partially parallel in    
meaning1 we are forced to admit that    
,shakspere may have been influenced by  
,montaigne even where a partial         
precedent might be found in his own or  
other ,english work4   ,,iii4 ,the      
phrase discourse of reason1 which is    
spoken by ,hamlet in his first          
soliloquy1#ai and which first appears in
 the ,second ,quarto1 is not used by    
,shakspere in any play before ,,hamlet2 
and he uses it again in ,,troilus ,,and 
,,cressida2#bj while discourse of       
thought appears in ,,othello2#ba and    
discourse1 in the sense of reasoning    
faculty1 is used in ,hamlet's last      
soliloquy4#bb ,in ,english literature   
this use of the word seems to be special
 in ,shakspere's period1#bc and it has  
been noted by an admirer as a finely    
,shaksperean expression4 ,but the       
expression discourse of reason occurs at
 least four times in ,montaigne's       
,essays1 and in ,florio's translation of
 them3 in the essay#bd ,,that ,,to      

,,philosophise ,,is ,,to ,,learn ,,how  
,,to ,,die2 again at the close of the   
essay#be ,a demain les affaires2 again  
in the first paragraph of the ,,apology 
,,of ,,raimond ,,sebonde#bf2 and yet    
again in the chapter on ,,the ,,history 
,,of ,,spurina2#bg and though it seems  
to be scholastic in origin1 and occurs  
once or twice before #afjj in ,english  
books1 it is difficult to doubt that1   
like the other phrase above cited1 it   
came to ,shakspere through ,florio's    
,montaigne4 ,the word discours is a     
hundred times used singly by ,montaigne1
 as by ,shakspere in the phrase of such 
large discourse1 for the process of     
ratiocination4   ,,iv4 ,then again there
 is the clue of ,shakspere's use of the 
word consummation in the revised form of
 the ,to be soliloquy4 ,this1 as ,mr4   
,feis pointed out1#bh is the word used  
by ,florio as a rendering of            
aneantissement in the speech of         
,socrates as given by ,montaigne in the 
essay#bi ,,of ,,physiognomy4 ,shakspere 

makes ,hamlet speak of annihilation as a
 consummation devoutly to be wished4    
,florio has3 ,if it 7death7 be a        
consummation of one's being1 it is also 
an amendment and entrance into a long   
and quiet night4 ,we find nothing so    
sweet in life as a quiet and gentle     
sleep1 and without dreams4 ,here not    
only do the words coincide in a peculiar
 way1 but the idea in the two phrases is
 the same2 the theme of sleep and dreams
 being further common to the two        
writings4  ,beyond these1 ,i have not   
noted any correspondences of phrase so  
precise as to prove reminiscence beyond 
possibility of dispute2 but it is not   
difficult to trace striking             
correspondences which1 though falling   
short of explicit reproduction1         
inevitably suggest a relation2 and these
 it now behoves us to consider4 ,the    
remarkable thing is1 as regards         
,,hamlet1 that they almost all occur in 
passages not present in the ,first      
,quarto4   ,v4 ,when we compare part of 

the speech of ,rosencrantz on           
sedition#cj with a passage in           
,montaigne's essay1 ,,of ,,custom1#ca we
 find a somewhat close coincidence4 ,in 
the play ,rosencrantz says3             
,the cease of ,majesty1   ,dies not     
alone2 but like a gulf doth draw        
,what's near with it3 it is a massy     
wheel   ,fix'd on the summit of the     
highest mount1   ,to whose huge spokes  
ten thousand lesser things   ,are       
mortised and adjoined2 which1 when it   
falls1   ,each small annexment1 petty   
consequence1   ,attends the boisterous  
ruin4  ,florio has3    ,those who       
attempt to shake an ,estate are commonly
 the first   overthrown by the fall of  
it4444 ,the contexture and   combining  
of this monarchy and great building     
having been   dismissed and dissolved by
 it1 namely1 in her old years1   giveth 
as much overture and entrance as a man  
will to like   injuries4 ,royal majesty 
doth more hardly fall from the top   to 
the middle1 than it tumbleth down from  

the middle to the   bottom4  ,the verbal
 correspondence here is only less       
decisive--as regards the use of the word
 majesty--than in the passages collated 
by ,mr4 ,morley2 while the thought      
corresponds as closely4   ,,vi4 ,the    
speech of ,hamlet1#cb ,there is nothing 
either good or bad but thinking makes it
 so2 and ,iago's 'tis in ourselves that 
we are thus or thus1#cc are expressions 
of a favourite thesis of ,montaigne's1  
to which he devotes an entire essay4#cd 
,the ,shaksperean phrases echo closely  
such sentences as3--    ,if that which  
we call evil and torment be neither     
torment   nor evil1 but that our fancy  
only gives it that quality1 it   is in  
us to change it4444 ,that which we term 
evil is not so   of itself4 444 ,every  
man is either well or ill according as  
he finds himself4  ,and in the essay#ce 
,,of ,,democritus ,,and ,,heraclitus    
there is another close parallel3--      
,therefore let us take no more excuses  
from external   qualities of things4 ,to

 us it belongeth to give ourselves      
account of it4 ,our good and our evil   
hath no dependency but   from ourselves4
   ,,vii4 ,hamlet's apostrophe to his   
mother on the power of custom--a passage
 which1 like the others above cited1    
first appears in the ,second ,quarto--is
 similarly an echo of a favourite       
proposition of ,montaigne1 who devotes  
to it the essay#cf ,,of ,,custom1 ,,and 
,,not ,,to ,,change ,,readily ,a        
,,received ,,law4 ,in that there occur  
the typical passages3--    ,custom doth 
so blear us that we cannot distinguish  
the   usage of things4444 ,certes1      
chastity is an excellent virtue1   the  
commodity whereof is very well known2   
but to use it1 and   according to nature
 to prevail with it1 is as hard as it is
   easy to endear it and to prevail with
 it according to   custom1 to laws and  
precepts4 ,the laws of conscience1      
which we say are born of nature1 are    
born of custom4  ,again1 in the essay   
,,of ,,controlling ,,one',s ,,will#cg we

 have3 ,custom is a second nature1 and  
not less potent4  ,hamlet's words are3--
   ,that monster1 custom1 who all sense 
doth eat   ,of habits devil1 is angel   
yet in this   ,that to the use of       
actions fair and good   ,he likewise    
gives a frock or livery   ,that aptly is
 put on4444   ,for use can almost change
 the stamp of nature4  ,no doubt the    
idea is a classic commonplace2 and in   
the early ,,two ,,gentlemen ,,of        
,,verona#ch we actually have the line1  
,how use doth breed a habit in a man2   
but here again there seems reason to    
regard ,montaigne as having suggested   
,shakspere's vivid and many-coloured    
wording of the idea in the tragedy4     
,indeed1 even the line cited from the   
early comedy may have been one of the   
poet's many later additions to his text4
   ,,viii4 ,a less close but still a    
noteworthy resemblance is that between  
the passage in which ,hamlet expresses  
to ,rosencrantz and ,guildenstern the   
veering of his mood from joy in things  

to disgust with them1 and the paragraph 
in the ,,apology ,,of ,,raymond         
,,sebonde in which ,montaigne sets      
against each other the splendour of the 
universe and the littleness of man4     
,here the thought diverges1 ,shakspere  
making it his own as he always does1 and
 altering its aim2 but the language is  
curiously similar4 ,hamlet says3    ,it 
goes so heavily with my disposition that
 this goodly   frame1 the earth1 seems  
to me a sterile promontory3 this   most 
excellent canopy1 the air1 look you1    
this brave   o'erhanging firmament1 this
 majestical roof1 fretted with   golden 
fire1 why it appears no other thing to  
me than a foul   and pestilent          
congregation of vapours4 ,what a piece  
of work   is man6 ,how noble in reason6 
how infinite in faculties6 in   form and
 moving1 how express and admirable6 in  
action1 how   like an angel6 in         
apprehension1 how like a ,god6 the      
beauty   of the world6 the paragon of   
animals6 ,and yet to me what is   this  

quintessence of dust8 ,man delights not 
me4  ,montaigne1 as translated by       
,florio1 has3    ,let us see what       
hold-fast or free-hold he 7man7 hath in 
this gorgeous and goodly equipage4444   
,who hath persuaded   him1 that this    
admirable moving of heaven's vaults1    
that the   eternal light of these lamps 
so fiercely rolling over his   head 444 
were established 444 for his commodity  
and service8   ,is it possible to       
imagine anything so ridiculous as this  
miserable and wretched creature1 which  
is not so much as   master of himself1  
exposed and subject to offences of all  
things1 and yet dareth call himself     
,master and ,emperor of   this          
universe8444 ,to consider 444 the power 
and domination   these 7celestial7      
bodies have1 not only upon our lives and
   conditions of our fortune 444 but    
also over our dispositions   and        
inclinations1 our discourses and wills1 
which they rule1   provoke1 and move at 
the pleasure of their influences4 444   

,of all creatures man is the most       
miserable and frail1 and   therewithal  
the proudest and disdainfullest4 ,who   
perceiveth   himself placed here1 amidst
 the filth and mire of the world   444  
and yet dareth imaginarily place himself
 above the   circle of the ,moon1 and   
reduce heaven under his feet4 ,it is    
through the vanity of the same          
imagination that he dare   equal himself
 to ,god4  ,the passage in brackets is  
left here in its place1 not as          
suggesting anything in ,hamlet's speech1
 but as paralleling a line in ,,measure 
,,for ,,measure1 to be dealt with       
immediately4 ,but it will be seen that  
the rest of the passage1 though turned  
to quite another purpose than ,hamlet's1
 brings together in the same way a set  
of contrasted ideas of human greatness  
and smallness1 and of the splendour of  
the midnight firmament4#ci   ,,ix4 ,the 
nervous protest of ,hamlet to ,horatio  
on the point of the national vice of    
drunkenness1#dj of which all save the   

beginning is added in the ,second       
,quarto just before the entrance of the 
,ghost1 has several curious points of   
coincidence with ,montaigne's essay#da  
on ,,the ,,history ,,of ,,spurina1 which
 discusses at great length a matter of  
special interest to ,shakspere--the     
character of ,julius ,caesar4 ,in the   
course of the examination ,montaigne    
takes trouble to show that ,cato's use  
of the epithet drunkard to ,caesar could
 not have been meant literally2 that the
 same ,cato admitted ,caesar's sobriety 
in the matter of drinking4 ,it is after 
making light of ,caesar's faults in     
other matters of personal conduct that  
the essayist comes to this decision3    
,but all these noble inclinations1 rich 
gifts1 worthy   qualities1 were altered1
 smothered1 and eclipsed by this        
furious passion of ambition4444 ,to     
conclude1 this only vice   7in mine     
opinion7 lost and overthrew in him the  
fairest   natural and richest ingenuity 
that ever was1 and hath made   his      

memory abominable to all honest minds4  
,compare the exquisitely high-strung    
lines1 so congruous in their excited    
rapidity with ,hamlet's intensity of    
expectation1 which follow on his notable
 outburst on the subject of drunkenness3
   ,so oft it chances in particular men1
   ,that for some vicious mode of nature
 in them1   ,as in their birth 7wherein 
they are not guilty1   ,since nature    
cannot choose its origin71   ,by the    
o'ergrowth of some complexion1   ,oft   
breaking down the pales and forts of    
reason2   ,or by some habit that too    
much o'er-leavens   ,the form of        
plausive manners2 that these men1--     
,carrying1 ,i say1 the stamp of one     
defect2   ,being nature's livery1 or    
fortune's star1--   ,their virtues else 
7be they as pure as grace1   ,as        
infinite as man may undergo7   ,shall in
 the general censure take corruption    
,from that particular fault4444  ,even  
the idea that nature cannot choose its  
origin is suggested by the context in   

,montaigne4#db ,shakspere's estimate of 
,caesar1 of course1 diverged from that  
of the essay4   ,x4 ,i find a certain   
singularity of coincidence between the  
words of ,king ,claudius on kingship3   
,there's such divinity doth hedge a     
king1   ,that treason can but peep to   
what it would1   ,acts little of his    
will1  and a passage in the essay#dc    
,,of ,,the ,,incommodity ,,of           
,,greatness3    ,to be a king1 is a     
matter of that consequence1 that only by
   it he is so4 ,that strange glimmering
 and eye-dazzling light1   which round  
about environeth1 over-casteth and      
hideth from   us3 our weak sight is     
thereby bleared and dissipated1 as      
being filled and obscured by that       
greater and   further-spreading         
brightness4  ,the working out of the    
metaphor here gives at once to          
,shakspere's terms divinity and can but 
peep a point not otherwise easily seen2 
but the idea of a dazzling light may be 
really what was meant in the play2 and  

one is tempted to pronounce the passage 
a reminiscence of ,montaigne4 ,here1    
however1 it has to be noted that in the 
,first ,quarto we have the lines3       
,there's such divinity doth wall a king 
,that treason dares not look on4  ,and  
if ,shakspere had not seen or heard the 
passage in ,montaigne before the        
publication of ,florio's folio--which1  
however1 he may very well have done--the
 theory of reminiscence here cannot     
stand4   ,,xi4 ,in ,hamlet's soliloquy  
on the passage of the army of           
,fortinbras--one of the many passages   
added in the ,second ,quarto--there is a
 strong general resemblance to a passage
 in the essay ,,of ,,diversion4#dd      
,hamlet first remarks to the ,captain3  
,two thousand souls and twenty thousand 
ducats   ,will not debate the question  
of this straw3   ,this is the imposthume
 of much wealth and peace2  and         
afterwards soliloquises3                
,examples gross as earth exhort me3     
,witness1 this army of such mass and    

charge1   ,led by a delicate and tender 
prince1   ,whose spirit1 by divine      
ambition puff'd1   ,makes mouths at the 
invisible event2   ,exposing what is    
mortal and unsure   ,to all that        
fortune1 death1 and danger dare1   ,even
 for an egg-shell4 ,rightly to be great1
   ,is not to stir without great        
argument1   ,but greatly to find quarrel
 in a straw4   ,when honour is at       
stake4444                   4444to my   
shame ,i see   ,the imminent death of   
twenty thousand men1   ,that for a      
fantasy and trick of fame1   ,go to     
their graves like beds2 fight for a plot
   ,whereon the numbers cannot try the  
cause4444  ,montaigne has the same      
general idea in the essay ,,of          
,,diversion3    ,if one demand that     
fellow1 what interest he hath in such a 
siege3 ,the interest of example 7he will
 say7 and common   obedience of the     
,prince3 ,i nor look nor pretend any    
benefit   thereby 444 ,i have neither   
passion nor quarrel in the   matter4    

,yet the next day you will see him all  
changed1 and   chafing1 boiling and     
blushing with rage1 in his rank of      
battle1 ready for the assault4 ,it is   
the glaring reflecting   of so much     
steel1 the flashing thundering of the   
cannon1 the   clang of trumpets1 and the
 rattling of drums1 that have   infused 
this new fury and rancour in his        
swelling veins4 ,a   frivolous cause1   
will you say8 ,how a cause8 ,there      
needeth   none to excite our mind4 ,a   
doting humour without body1   without   
substance1 overswayeth it up and down4  
,the thought recurs in the essay1 ,,of  
,,controlling ,,one',s ,,will4#de       
,our greatest agitations have strange   
springs and ridiculous   causes4 ,what  
ruin did our last ,duke of ,burgundy run
 into1   for the quarrel of a cart-load 
of sheep-skins8444 ,see why   that man  
doth hazard both his honour and life on 
the fortune   of his rapier and dagger2 
let him tell you whence the cause   of  
that confusion ariseth1 he cannot       

without blushing2 so   vain and         
frivolous is the occasion4  ,and the    
idea in ,hamlet's lines rightly to be   
great1 etc41 is suggested in the essay  
,,of ,,repenting1#df where we have3     
,the nearest way to come unto glory were
 to do that for   conscience which we do
 for glory4444 ,the worth of the mind   
consisteth not in going high1 but in    
going orderly4 ,her   greatness is not  
exercised in greatness2 in mediocrity it
   is4  ,in the essay ,,of              
,,experience#dg there is a sentence     
partially expressing the same thought1  
which is cited by ,mr4 ,feis as a       
reproduction3    ,the greatness of the  
mind is not so much to draw up1 and     
hale forward1 as to know how to range1  
direct1 and   circumscribe itself4 ,it  
holdeth for great what is   sufficient1 
and sheweth her height in loving mean   
things   better than eminent4  ,here1   
certainly1 as in the previous citation1 
the idea is not identical with that     
expressed by ,hamlet4 ,but the elements 

he combines are there2 and again1 in the
 essay ,,of ,,solitariness#dh we have   
the picture of the soldier fighting     
furiously for the quarrel of his        
careless king1 with the question3 ,who  
doth not willingly chop and             
counter-change his health1 his ease1 yea
 his life1 for glory and reputation1 the
 most unprofitable1 vain1 and           
counterfeit coin that is in use with us4
  ,and yet again the thought crops up in
 the ,,apology ,,of ,,raymond ,,sebonde3
    ,this horror-causing array of so    
many thousands of armed   men1 so great 
fury1 earnest fervour1 and undaunted    
courage1   it would make one laugh to   
see on how many vain occasions it   is  
raised and set on fire4444 ,the hatred  
of one man1 a   spite1 a pleasure 444   
causes which ought not to move two      
scolding fishwives to catch one another1
 is the soul and   motive of all this   
hurly-burly4   ,,xii4 ,yet one more of  
,hamlet's sayings peculiar to the       
revised form of the play seems to be an 

echo of a thought of ,montaigne's4 ,at  
the outset of the soliloquy last quoted 
from1 ,hamlet says3--                   
,what is a man   ,if his chief good and 
market of his time1   ,be but to sleep  
and feed8 ,a beast2 no more4   ,sure ,he
 that made us with such large discourse1
   ,looking before and after1 gave us   
not   ,that capability and godlike      
reason   ,to fust in us unused4  ,the   
bearing of the thought in the soliloquy1
 where ,hamlet spasmodically applies it 
to the stimulation of his vengeance1 is 
certainly never given to it by          
,montaigne1 who has left on record#di   
his small approbation of revenge2 but   
the thought itself is there1 in the     
essay#ej ,,on ,,goods ,,and ,,evils4    
,shall we employ the intelligence       
,heaven hath bestowed upon   us for our 
greatest good1 to our ruin1 repugning   
nature's   design and the universal     
order and vicissitude of things1   which
 implieth that every man should use his 
instrument and   means for his own      

commodity8  ,again1 there is a passage  
in the essay ,,of ,,the ,,affection ,,of
 ,,fathers ,,to ,,their ,,children1#ea  
where there occurs a specific           
coincidence of phrase1 the special use  
of the term discourse1 which we have    
already traced from ,shakspere to       
,montaigne2 and where at the same time  
the contrast between man and beast is   
drawn1 though not to the same purpose as
 in the speech of ,hamlet3--    ,since  
it hath pleased ,god to endow us with   
some capacity of   discourse1 that as   
beasts we should not servilely be       
subjected to common laws1 but rather    
with judgment and   voluntary liberty   
apply ourselves unto them1 we ought     
somewhat to yield unto the simple       
authority of ,nature1 but   not suffer  
her tyrannically to carry us away2 only 
reason   ought to have the conduct of   
our inclinations4  ,finally we have a   
third parallel1 with a slight           
coincidence of terms1 in the essay#eb   
,,of ,,giving ,,the ,,lie3    ,nature   

hath endowed us with a large faculty to 
entertain   ourselves apart1 and often  
calleth us unto it1 to teach us   that  
partly we owe ourselves unto society1   
but in the better   part unto ourselves4
  ,it may be argued that these1 like one
 or two of the other sayings above cited
 as echoed by ,shakspere from           
,montaigne1 are of the nature of general
 religious or ethical maxims1 traceable 
to no one source2 and if we only found  
one or two such parallels1 their        
resemblance of course would have no     
evidential value1 save as regards       
coincidence of terms4 ,for this very    
passage1 for instance1 there is a       
classic original1 or at least a familiar
 source1 in ,cicero1#ec where the       
commonplace of the contrast between man 
and beast is drawn in terms that come in
 a general way pretty close to          
,hamlet's4 ,this treatise of ,cicero was
 available to ,shakspere in several     
,english translations2#ed and only the  
fact that we find no general trace of   

,cicero in the play entitles us to      
suggest a connection in this special    
case with ,montaigne1 of whom we do find
 so many other traces4 ,it is easy      
besides to push the theory of any       
influence too far2 and when for instance
 we find ,hamlet saying he fares ,of the
 chameleon's dish3 ,i eat the air1      
promise-crammed1 it would be as idle to 
assume a reminiscence of a passage of   
,montaigne on the chameleon#ee as it    
would be to derive ,hamlet's phrase ,a  
king of shreds and patches from         
,florio's rendering in the essay#ef ,,of
 ,,the ,,inconstancy ,,of ,,our         
,,actions3    ,we are all framed of     
flaps and patches1 and of so   shapeless
 and diverse a contexture1 that every   
piece and   every moment playeth his    
part4  ,in the latter case we have a    
mere coincidence of idiom2 in the former
 a proverbial allusion4#eg ,an          
uncritical pursuit of such mere         
accidents of resemblance has led ,mr4   
,feis to such enormities as the         

assertion that ,shakspere's             
contemporaries knew ,hamlet's use of his
 tablets to be a parody of the          
much-scribbling ,montaigne1 who had     
avowed that he made much use of his2 the
 assertion that ,ophelia's ,come1 my    
coach6 has reference to ,montaigne's    
remark that he has known ladies who     
would rather lend their honour than     
their coach2 and a dozen other          
propositions1 if possible still more    
amazing4 ,but when1 with no foregone    
conclusion as to any polemic purpose on 
,shakspere's part1 we restrict ourselves
 to real parallels of thought and       
expression2 when we find that a certain 
number of these are actually textual2   
when we find further that in a single   
soliloquy in the play there are several 
reproductions of ideas in the essays1   
some of them frequently recurring in    
,montaigne2 and when finally it is found
 that1 with only one exception1 all the 
passages in question have been added to 
the play in the ,second ,quarto1 after  

the publication of ,florio's            
translation1 it seems hardly possible to
 doubt that the translation influenced  
the dramatist in his work4  ,needless to
 say1 the influence is from the very    
start of that high sort in which he that
 takes becomes co-thinker with him that 
gives1 ,shakspere's absorption of       
,montaigne being as vital as            
,montaigne's own assimilation of the    
thought of his classics4 ,the process is
 one not of surface reflection1 but of  
kindling by contact2 and we seem to see 
even the vibration of the style passing 
from one intelligence to the other2 the 
nervous and copious speech of ,montaigne
 awakening ,shakspere to a new sense of 
power over rhythm and poignant phrase1  
at the same time that the stimulus of   
the thought gives him a new confidence  
in the validity of his own reflection4  
,some cause there must have been for    
this marked species of development in   
the dramatist at that particular time3  
and if we find pervading signs of one   

remarkable new influence1 with no       
countervailing evidence of another      
adequate to the effect1 the inference is
 about as reasonable as many which pass 
for valid in astronomy4 ,for it will be 
found1 on the one hand1 that there is no
 sign worth considering of a ,montaigne 
influence on ,shakspere before ,,hamlet2
 and1 on the other hand1 that the       
influence to some extent continues      
beyond that play4 ,indeed1 there are    
still further minute signs of it there1 
which should be noted before we pass on4
   ,,xiii4 ,among parallelisms of       
thought of a less direct kind1 one may  
be traced between an utterance of       
,hamlet's and a number of ,montaigne's  
sayings on the power of imagination and 
the possible equivalence of dream life  
and waking life4 ,in his first dialogue 
with ,rosencrantz and ,guildenstern1    
where we have already noted an echo of  
,montaigne1 ,hamlet cries3    ,o ,god6  
,i could be bounded in a nutshell1 and  
count myself a   king of infinite space2

 were it not that ,i have bad dreams2   
and ,guildenstern answers3    ,which    
dreams1 indeed1 are ambition2 for the   
very substance   of the ambitious is    
merely the shadow of a dream4  ,the     
first sentence may be compared with a   
number in ,montaigne1#eh of which the   
following#ei is a type3    ,man clean   
contrary to the ,gods possesseth goods  
in   imagination and evils essentially4 
,we have had reason to   make the powers
 of our imagination to be of force1 for 
all   our felicities are but in         
conceipt1 and as it were in a   dream2  
while the reply of ,guildenstern further
 recalls several of the passages already
 cited4   ,,xiv4 ,another apparent      
parallel of no great importance1 but of 
more verbal closeness1 is that between  
,hamlet's jeering phrase3#fj ,your worm 
is your only emperor for diet1 and a    
sentence in the ,,apology3 ,the heart   
and the life of a great and triumphant  
emperor are the dinner of a little worm1
 which ,m4 ,stapfer compares further    

with the talk of ,hamlet in the         
grave-diggers' scene4 ,here1 doubtless1 
we are near the level of proverbial     
sayings1 current in all countries4      
,,xv4 ,as regards ,,hamlet1 ,i can find 
no further parallelisms so direct as any
 of the foregoing1 except some to be    
considered later1 in connection with the
 ,to be soliloquy4 ,i do not think it   
can be made out that1 as ,m4 ,chasles   
affirmed1 ,hamlet's words on his        
friendship for ,horatio can be traced   
directly to any of ,montaigne's passages
 on that theme4 ,it would be easy1 says 
,m4 ,chasles1 to show in ,shakspere the 
branloire perenne#fa of ,montaigne1 and 
the whole magnificent passage on        
friendship1 which is found reproduced   
7se trouve reporte7 in ,,hamlet4 ,the   
idea of the world as a perpetual        
mutation is certainly prevalent in      
,shakspere's work2 but ,i can find no   
exact correspondence of phrase between  
,montaigne's pages on his love for his  
dead friend ,etienne de la ,boetie and  

the lines in which ,hamlet speaks of his
 love for ,horatio4 ,he rather gives his
 reasons for his love than describes the
 nature and completeness of it in       
,montaigne's way2 and as regards the    
description of ,horatio1 it could have  
been independently suggested by such a  
treatise as ,seneca's ,,de ,,constantia 
,,sapientis1 which is a monody on the   
theme with which it closes3 esse aliquem
 invictum1 esse aliquem in quem nihil   
fortuna possit--to be something         
unconquered1 something against which    
fortune is powerless4 ,in the fifth     
section the idea is worded in a fashion 
that could have suggested ,shakspere's  
utterance of it2 and he might easily    
have met with some citation of the kind4
 ,but1 on the other hand1 this note of  
passionate friendship is not only new in
 ,shakspere but new in ,,hamlet1 in     
respect of the ,first ,quarto1 in which 
the main part of the speech to ,horatio 
does not occur1 and in view of the      
singular fact that in the first ,act of 

the play as it stands ,hamlet greets    
,horatio as a mere acquaintance2 and it 
is further to be noted that the         
description of ,horatio as one in       
suffering all that suffers nothing is   
broadly suggested by the quotation from 
,horace in ,montaigne's nineteenth      
chapter 7which1 as we have already seen1
 impressed ,shakspere71 and by various  
other sayings in the ,essays4 ,after the
 quotation from ,horace 7,non vultus    
instantis tyranni71 in the ,nineteenth  
,essay1 ,florio's translation runs3     
,she 7the soul7 is made mistress of her 
passions and   concupiscences1 lady of  
indigence1 of shame1 of poverty1 and    
of all fortune's injuries4 ,let him that
 can1 attain to this   advantage4       
,herein consists the true and sovereign 
liberty1   that affords us means        
wherewith to jest and make a scorn of   
force and injustice1 and to deride      
imprisonment1 gyves1 or   fetters4      
,again1 in the essay ,,of ,,three       
,,commerces ,,or ,,societies1#fb we have

 this3    ,we must not cleave so fast   
unto our humours and   dispositions4    
,our chiefest sufficiency is to supply  
ourselves to diverse fashions4 ,it is a 
being1 but not a   life1 to be tied and 
bound by necessity to one only course4  
,the goodliest minds are those that have
 most variety and   pliableness in      
them4444 ,life is a motion unequal1     
irregular1   and multiform4444     444  
,my fortune having inured and allured   
me1 even from my   infancy1 to one sole1
 singular1 and perfect amity1 hath      
verily in some sort distasted me from   
others4444 ,so that it   is naturally a 
pain unto me to communicate myself by   
halves1   and with modification4444     
,i should commend a high-raised mind    
that could both bend   and discharge    
itself2 that wherever her fortune might 
transport her1 she might continue       
constant4444 ,i envy those   which can  
be familiar with the meanest of their   
followers1   and vouchsafe to contract  
friendship and frame discourse   with   

their own servants4  ,again1 la ,boetie 
is panegyrised by ,montaigne for his    
rare poise and firmness of character2#fc
 and elsewhere in the essays we find    
many allusions to the ideal of the      
imperturbable man1 which ,montaigne has 
in the above cited passages brought into
 connection with his ideal of           
friendship4 ,it could well be1          
then--though here we cannot argue the   
point with confidence--that in this as  
in other matters the strong general     
impression that ,montaigne was so well  
fitted to make on ,shakspere's mind was 
the source of such a change in the      
conception and exposition of ,hamlet's  
relation to ,horatio as is set up by    
,hamlet's protestation of his           
long-standing admiration and love for   
his friend4 ,shakspere's own relations  
with one or other of his noble patrons  
would make him specially alive to such  
suggestion4   ,,xvi4 ,we now come to the
 suggested resemblance between the ,to  
be or not to be soliloquy and the       

general tone of ,montaigne on the       
subject of death4 ,on this resemblance  
,i am less disposed to lay stress now   
than ,i was on a first consideration of 
the subject thirteen years ago4 ,while  
,i find new coincidences of detail on a 
more systematic search1 ,i am less      
impressed by the alleged general        
resemblance of tone4 ,in point of fact1 
the general drift of ,hamlet's soliloquy
 is rather alien to the general tone of 
,montaigne on the same theme4 ,that     
tone1 as we shall see1 harmonises much  
more nearly with the speech of the ,duke
 to ,claudio1 on the same theme1 in     
,,measure ,,for ,,measure4 ,what really 
seems to subsist in the ,to be          
soliloquy1 after a careful scrutiny1 is 
a series of echoes of single thoughts2  
but there is the difficulty that some of
 these occur in the earlier form of the 
soliloquy in the ,first ,quarto1 a      
circumstance which tends--though not    
necessarily#fd--to throw a shade of     
doubt on the apparent echoes in the     

finished form of the speech4 ,we can but
 weigh the facts as impartially as may  
be4  ,first1 there is the striking      
coincidence of the word consummation    
7which appears only in the ,second      
,quarto71 with ,florio's translation of 
aneantissement in the essay ,,of        
,,physiognomy1 as above noted4          
,secondly1 there is a curious           
resemblance between the phrase take arms
 against a sea of troubles and a passage
 in ,florio's version of the same essay1
 which has somehow been overlooked in   
the disputes over ,shakspere's line4 ,it
 runs3    ,i sometimes suffer myself by 
starts to be surprised with   the       
pinchings of these unpleasant conceits1 
which1 whilst ,i   arm myself to expel  
or wrestle against them1 assail and beat
   me4 ,lo here another huddle or tide  
of mischief1 that on the   neck of the  
former came rushing upon me4  ,there    
arises here the difficulty that         
,shakspere's line had been              
satisfactorily traced to ,a,elian's#fe  

story of the ,celtic practice of rushing
 into the sea to resist a high tide with
 weapons2 and the matter must1 ,i think1
 be left open until it can he           
ascertained whether the statement       
concerning the ,celts was available to  
,shakspere in any translation or        
citation4#ff  ,again1 the phrase        
,conscience doth make cowards of us all 
is very like the echo of two passages in
 the essay#fg ,,of ,,conscience3 ,of    
such marvellous working power is the    
sting of conscience3 which often        
induceth us to bewray1 to accuse1 and to
 combat ourselves2 which as it doth fill
 us with fear and doubt1 so doth it     
store us with assurance and trust2 and  
the lines about the dread of something  
after death might point to the passage  
in the ,fortieth ,essay1 in which       
,montaigne cites the saying of          
,augustine that ,nothing but what       
follows death1 makes death to be evil   
7malam mortem non facit1 nisi quod      
sequitur mortem7 cited by ,montaigne in 

order to dispute it4 ,the same thought1 
too1 is dealt with in the essay#fh on ,a
 ,,custom ,,of ,,the ,,isle ,,of ,,cea1 
which contains a passage suggestive of  
,hamlet's earlier soliloquy on          
self-slaughter4 ,but1 for one thing1    
,hamlet's soliloquies are contrary in   
drift to ,montaigne's argument2 and1 for
 another1 the phrase ,conscience makes  
cowards of us all existed in the        
soliloquy as it stood in the ,first     
,quarto1 while the gist of the idea is  
actually found twice in a previous play1
 where it has a proverbial ring4#fi ,and
 the hope of something after death      
figures in the ,first ,quarto also4     
,finally1 there are other sources than  
,montaigne for parts of the soliloquy1  
sources nearer1 too1 than those which   
have been pointed to in the ,senecan    
tragedies4 ,there is1 indeed1 as ,dr4   
,cunliffe has pointed out1#gj a broad   
correspondence between the whole        
soliloquy and the chorus of women at the
 end of the second ,act of the          

,,troades1 where the question of a life 
beyond is pointedly put3   ,verum est8  
an timidos fabula decepit1   ,umbras    
corporibus vivere conditis8  ,it is true
 that the choristers in ,seneca         
pronounce definitely against the future 
life3   ,post mortem nihil est1 ipsaque 
mors nihil4444   ,rumores vacui verbaque
 inania1   ,et par sollicito fabula     
somnio4  ,but wherever in ,christendom  
the pagan's words were discussed1 the   
,christian hypothesis would be pitted   
against his unbelief1 with the effect of
 making one thought overlay the other2  
and in this fused form the discussion   
may easily have reached ,shakspere's eye
 and ear4 ,so it would be with the echo 
of two ,senecan passages noted by ,mr4  
,munro in the verses on the undiscovered
 country from whose bourn no traveller  
returns4 ,in the ,,hercules ,,furens#ga 
we have3   ,nemo ad id sero venit1 unde 
nunquam   ,quum semel venit potuit      
reverti2  and in the ,,hercules         
,,oetaeus#gb there is the same thought3 

regnum canis inquieti   ,unde non unquam
 remeavit ullus4  ,but here1 as         
elsewhere1 ,seneca himself was employing
 a standing sentiment1 for in the best  
known poem of ,catullus we have3   ,qui 
nunc it per iter tenebricosum   ,illuc1 
unde negant redire quemquam4#gc  ,and   
though there was in ,shakspere's day no 
,english translation of ,catullus1 the  
commentators long ago noted#gd that in  
,sandford's translation of ,cornelius   
,agrippa 78 #aefi71 there occurs the    
phrase1 ,the countrie of the dead is    
irremeable1 that they cannot return1 a  
fuller parallel to the passage in the   
soliloquy than anything cited from the  
classics4  ,finally1 in ,marlowe's      
,,edward ,,ii41#ge written before #aeic1
 we have3                 ,weep not for 
,mortimer1   ,that scorns the world1    
and1 as a traveller1   ,goes to discover
 countries yet unknown4#gf  ,so that1   
without going to the ,latin1 we have    
obvious ,english sources for notable    
parts of the soliloquy4  ,thus1 though  

,shakspere may 7#a7 have seen part of   
the ,florio translation1 or separate    
translations of some of the essays1     
before the issue of the ,first ,quarto2 
or may 7#b7 easily have heard that very 
point discussed by ,florio1 who was the 
friend of his friend ,jonson1 or by     
those who had read the original2 or may 
even 7#c7 himself have read in the      
original2 and though further it seems   
quite certain that his consummation     
devoutly to be wished was an echo of    
,florio's translation of the ,apology of
 ,socrates2 on the other hand we are not
 entitled to trace the soliloquy as a   
whole to ,montaigne's stimulation of    
,shakspere's thought4 ,that ,shakspere  
read ,montaigne in the original once    
seemed probable to me1 as to others2    
but1 on closer study1 ,i consider it    
unlikely1 were it only because the      
,montaigne influence in his work begins1
 as aforesaid1 in ,,hamlet4 ,of all the 
apparent coincidences ,i have noticed   
between ,shakspere's previous plays and 

the essays1 none has any evidential     
value4 7#a7 ,the passage on the music of
 the spheres in the ,,merchant ,,of     
,,venice#gg recalls the passage on the  
subject in ,montaigne's essay of        
,,custom2#gh but then the original      
source is ,cicero1 ,,in ,,somnium       
,,scipionis1 which had been translated  
into ,english in #aegg4 7#b7 ,falstaff's
 rhapsody on the virtues of sherris#gi  
recalls a passage in the essay ,,of     
,,drunkenness1#hj but then ,montaigne   
avows that what he says is the common   
doctrine of wine-drinkers4 7#c7         
,montaigne cites#ha the old saying of   
,petronius1 that all the world's a      
stage1 which occurs in ,,as ,,you ,,like
 ,,it2 but the phrase itself1 being     
preserved by ,john of ,salisbury1 would 
be current in ,england4 ,it is1 indeed1 
said to have been the motto of the      
,globe ,theatre4 ,thus1 while we are the
 more strongly convinced of a ,montaigne
 influence beginning with ,,hamlet1 we  
are bound to concede the doubtfulness of

 any apparent influence before the      
,second ,quarto4 ,at most we may say    
that both of ,hamlet's soliloquies which
 touch on suicide evidently owe         
something to the discussions set up by  
,montaigne's essays4#hb   ,,xvii4 ,in   
the case of the ,duke's exhortation to  
,claudio in ,,measure ,,for ,,measure1  
on the contrary1 the whole speech may be
 said to be a synthesis of favourite    
propositions of ,montaigne4 ,the thought
 in itself1 of course1 is not new or    
out-of-the-way2 it is nearly all to be  
found suggested in the ,latin classics2 
but in the light of what is certain for 
us as to ,shakspere's study of          
,montaigne1 and of the whole cast of the
 expression1 it is difficult to doubt   
that ,montaigne is for ,shakspere the   
source4 ,let us take a number of        
passages from ,florio's translation of  
the ,nineteenth ,essay1 to begin with3  
,the end of our career is death3 it is  
the necessary object   of our aim2 if it
 affright us1 how is it possible we     

should   step one foot further without  
an ague8    ,what hath an aged man left 
him of his youth's vigour1 and   of his 
fore past life8444 ,when youth fails in 
us1 we feel1   nay we perceive1 no      
shaking or transchange at all in        
ourselves3 which is essence and verity  
is a harder death   than that of a      
languishing and irksome life1 or that of
 age4   ,forasmuch as the leap from an  
ill being into a not being is   not so  
dangerous or steepy as it is from a     
delightful and   flourishing being into 
a painful and sorrowful condition4 ,a   
weak bending and faint stopping body    
hath less strength to   bear and undergo
 a heavy burden3 ,so hath our soul4     
,our religion hath no surer human       
foundation than the   contempt of life4 
,discourse of reason doth not only call 
and   summon us unto it4 ,for why should
 we fear to lose a thing1   which being 
lost1 cannot be moaned8 ,but also1 since
 we are   threatened by so many kinds of
 death1 there is no more   inconvenience

 to fear them all than to endure one3   
what   matter it when it cometh1 since  
it is unavoidable8444 ,death   is a part
 of yourselves2 you fly from yourselves4
 ,the being   you enjoy is equally      
shared between life and death 444 ,the  
continual work of your life is to       
contrive death2 you are in   death      
during the time you continue in life 444
 during life   you are still dying4     
,the same line of expostulation occurs  
in other essays4 ,in the ,fortieth we   
have3    ,now death1 which some of all  
horrible things call the most           
horrible1 who knows not how others call 
it the only haven of   this life's      
torments8 the sovereign good of nature8 
the only   stay of our liberty8 and the 
ready and common receipt of our         
evils8444     444 ,death is but felt by 
discourse1 because it is the   emotion  
of an instant4 ,a thousand beasts1 a    
thousand men1   are sooner dead than    
threatened4  ,then take a passage       
occurring near the end of the ,,apology 

,,of ,,raymond ,,sebonde3    ,we do     
foolishly fear a kind of death1 whereas 
we have   already passed and daily pass 
so many others4444 ,the flower   of age 
dieth1 fadeth1 and fleeteth1 when age   
comes upon us1   and youth endeth in the
 flower of a full-grown man's age1      
childhood in youth1 and the first age   
dieth in infancy2 and   yesterday endeth
 in this day1 and to-day shall die in   
to-morrow4  ,now compare textually the  
,duke's speech3   ,be absolute for      
death3 either death or life   ,shall    
thereby be the sweeter4 ,reason thus    
with life3--   ,if ,i do lose thee1 ,i  
do lose a thing   ,that none but fools  
would keep3 a breath thou art1          
7,servile to all the skiey influences7  
,that dost this habitation1 where thou  
keep'st1   ,hourly afflict3 merely1 thou
 are death's fool2   ,for him thou      
labour'st by thy flight to shun1   ,and 
yet run'st towards him still3 ,thou art 
not noble2   ,for all the accommodations
 that thou bear'st   ,are nursed by     

baseness3 ,thou art by no means valiant1
   ,for thou dost fear the soft and     
tender fork   ,of a poor worm3 ,thy best
 of rest is sleep1   ,and that thou oft 
provok'st2 yet grossly fear'st   ,thy   
death1 which is no more4 ,thou art not  
thyself2   ,for thou exist'st on many   
thousand grains   ,which issue out of   
dust3 ,happy thou art not2   ,for what  
thou hast not1 still thou striv'st to   
get1   ,and what thou hast forget'st3   
,thou art not certain1   ,for thy       
complexion shifts to strange effects1   
,after the moon3 ,if thou art rich1 thou
 art poor2   ,for1 like an ass whose    
back with ingots bows1   ,thou bear'st  
thy heavy riches but a journey1   ,and  
death unloads thee3 ,friend hast thou   
none2   ,for thine own bowels1 which do 
call thee sire1   ,do curse the gout1   
serpigo1 and the rheum1   ,for ending   
thee no sooner3 ,thou hast no youth nor 
age1   ,but1 as it were1 an             
after-dinner's sleep1   ,dreaming on    
both3 for all thy blessed youth         

,becomes as aged1 and doth beg the alms 
,of palsied eld2 and when thou art old  
and rich1   ,thou hast neither heat1    
affection1 limbs1 nor beauty1   ,to make
 thy riches pleasant4 ,what's yet in    
this1   ,that bears the name of life8   
,yet in this life   ,lie hid more       
thousand deaths3 yet death we fear1     
,that makes these odds all even4#hc     
,then collate yet further some more     
passages from the ,essays3    ,they     
perceived her 7the soul7 to be capable  
of diverse   passions1 and agitated by  
many languishing and painful   motions  
444 subject to her infirmities1         
diseases1 and   offences1 even as the   
stomach or the foot 444 dazzled and     
troubled by the force of wine2 removed  
from her seat by the   vapours of a     
burning fever4444 ,she was seen to      
dismay and   confound all her faculties 
by the only biting of a sick dog1   and 
to contain no great constancy of        
discourse1 no virtue1   no philosophical
 resolution1 no contention of her       

forces1   that might exempt her from the
 subjection of these   accidents4444#hd 
,it is not without reason we are taught 
to take notice of   our sleep1 for the  
resemblance it hath with death4 ,how    
easily we pass from waking to sleeping2 
with how little   interest we lose the  
knowledge of light1 and of              
ourselves4444#he    ,wherefore as we    
from that instant take a title of being1
   which is but a twinkling in the      
infinite course of an   eternal night1  
and so short an interruption of our     
perpetual   and natural condition1 death
 possessing whatever is before   and    
behind this moment1 and also a good part
 of this moment1   #hf    ,every human  
nature is ever in the middle between    
being born   and dying1 giving nothing  
of itself but an obscure   appearance   
and shadow1 and an uncertain and weak   
opinion4#hg  ,compare finally the line  
,thy best of rest is sleep 7where the   
word rest seems a printer's error7 with 
the passage ,we find nothing so sweet in

 life as a quiet and gentle sleep1      
already cited in connection with our    
fourth parallel4   ,,xviii4 ,the theme1 
in fine1 is one of ,montaigne's         
favourites4 ,and the view that          
,shakspere had been impressed by it     
seems to be decisively corroborated by  
the fact that the speech of ,claudio to 
,isabella1 expressing those fears of    
death which the ,duke seeks to calm1 is 
likewise an echo of a whole series of   
passages in ,montaigne4 ,shakspere's    
lines run3   ,ay1 but to die1 and go we 
know not where1   ,to lie in cold       
obstruction and to rot3   ,this sensible
 warm motion to become   ,a kneaded     
clod2 and the delighted spirit   ,to    
bathe in fiery floods or to reside   ,in
 thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice1 
,to be imprisoned in the viewless winds1
   ,and blown with restless violence    
round about   ,the pendent world2 or to 
be worse than worst   ,of those1 that   
lawless and incertain thoughts          
,imagine howling6--'tis too horrible6444

  ,so far as ,i know1 the only idea in  
this passage which belongs to the       
current ,english superstition of        
,shakspere's day1 apart from the natural
 notion of death as a mere rotting of   
the body1 is that of the purgatorial    
fire2 unless we assume that the common  
superstition as to the souls of         
unbaptised children being blown about   
until the day of judgment was extended  
in the popular imagination to the case  
of executed criminals4 ,he may have     
heard of the account given by           
,empedocles1 as cited in ,plutarch1#hh  
of the punishment of the offending      
daemons1 who were whirled between earth 
and air and sun and sea2 but there is no
 suggestion in that passage that human  
souls were so treated4 ,dante's         
,,inferno1 with its pictures of carnal  
sinners tossed about by the winds in the
 dark air of the second circle1#hi and  
of traitors punished by freezing in the 
ninth1#ij was probably not known to the 
dramatist2 nor does ,dante's vision     

coincide with ,claudio's1 in which the  
souls are blown about the pendent world4
 ,shakspere may indeed have heard some  
of the old tales of a hot and cold      
purgatory1 such as that of ,drithelm1   
given by ,bede1#ia whence 7rather than  
from ,dante7 ,milton drew his idea of an
 alternate torture4#ib ,but there again1
 the correspondence is only partial2    
whereas in ,montaigne's ,,apology ,,of  
,,raimond ,,sebonde we find1 poetry     
apart1 nearly every notion that enters  
into ,claudio's speech3    ,the most    
universal and received fantasy1 and     
which   endureth to this day1 hath been 
that whereof ,pythagoras is   made      
author 444 which is that souls at their 
departure from   us did but pass and    
roll from one to another body1 from a   
lion to a horse1 from a horse to a king1
 incessantly   wandering up and down1   
from house to mansion4444 ,some added   
more1 that the same souls do sometimes  
ascend up to heaven1   and come down    
again4444 ,origen waked them eternally1 

to go   and come from a good to a bad   
estate4 ,the opinion that ,varro        
reporteth is1 that in the revolutions of
 four hundred and   forty years they    
reconjoin themselves unto their first   
bodies4444 ,behold her 7the soul's7     
progress elsewhere3 ,he   that hath     
lived well reconjoineth himself unto    
that star or   planet to which he is    
assigned2 who evil1 passeth into a      
woman4 ,and if then he amend not        
himself1 he transchangeth   himself into
 a beast1 of condition agreeing to his  
vicious   customs1 and shall never see  
an end of his punishments until   444 by
 virtue of reason he have deprived      
himself of those   gross1 stupid1 and   
elementary qualities that were in       
him4444   ,they 7the ,epicureans7       
demand1 what order there should be if   
the throng of the dying should be       
greater than that of such   as be born  
444 and demand besides1 what they should
 pass   their time about1 whilst they   
should stay1 until any other   mansion  

were made ready for them4444 ,others    
have staved the   soul in the deceased  
bodies1 wherewith to animate serpents1  
worms1 and other beasts1 which are said 
to engender from the   corruption of our
 members1 yea1 and from our ashes4444   
,others make it immortal without any    
science or knowledge4   ,nay1 there are 
some of ours who have deemed that of    
condemned men's souls devils were       
made4444#ic  ,it is at a short distance 
from this passage that we find the      
suggestion of a frozen purgatory3       
,amongst them 7barbarous nations7 was   
also found the belief   of purgatory1   
but after a new form1 for what we       
ascribe unto   fire they impute unto    
cold1 and imagine that souls are both   
purged and punished by the vigor of an  
extreme   coldness4#id  ,and over and   
above this peculiar correspondence      
between the ,essays and the two speeches
 on death1 we may note how some of the  
lines of the ,duke in the opening scene 
connect with two of the passages above  

cited in connection with ,hamlet's last 
soliloquy1 expressing the idea that     
nature or deity confers gifts in order  
that they should be used4 ,the ,duke's  
lines are among ,shakspere's best3      
,thyself and thy belongings   ,are not  
thine own so proper as to waste         
,thyself upon thy virtues1 them on thee4
   ,heaven doth with us as we with      
torches do1   ,not light them for       
themselves3 for if our virtues   ,did   
not go forth of us1 'twere all alike    
,as if we had them not4 ,spirits are not
 finely touched   ,but to fine issues3  
nor nature never lends   ,the smallest  
scruple of her excellence1   ,but1 like 
a thrifty goddess1 she determines       
,herself the glory of a creditor1       
,both thanks and use4444  ,here we have 
once more a characteristically          
,shaksperean transmutation and          
development of the idea rather than a   
reproduction2 and the same appears when 
we compare the admirable lines of the   
poet with a homiletic sentence from the 

,,apology ,,of ,,raymond ,,sebonde3--   
,it is not enough for us to serve ,god  
in spirit and soul2 we   owe him besides
 and we yield unto him a corporal       
worshipping3 we apply our limbs1 our    
motions1 and all   external things to   
honour him4  ,but granting the          
philosophic as well as the poetic       
heightening1 we are still led to infer a
 stimulation of the poet's thought by   
the ,essays--a stimulation not limited  
to one play1 but affecting other plays  
written about the same time4 ,another   
point of connection between ,,hamlet and
 ,,measure ,,for ,,measure is seen when 
we compare the above passage1 ,spirits  
are not finely touched but to fine      
issues1 with ,laertes' lines#ie3        
,nature is fine in love1 and when 'tis  
fine   ,it sends some precious instance 
of itself   ,after the thing it loves4  
,and though such data are of course not 
conclusive as to the time of composition
 of the plays1 there is so much of      
identity between the thought in the     

,duke's speech1 just quoted1 and a      
notable passage in ,,troilus ,,and      
,,cressida1 as to strengthen greatly the
 surmise that the latter play was also  
written1 or rather worked-over1 by      
,shakspere about #afjd4 ,the phrase3    
if our virtues   ,did not go forth of   
us1 'twere all the same   ,as if we had 
them not1  is developed in the speech of
 ,ulysses to ,achilles#if3              
,a strange fellow here   ,writes me that
 man--how dearly ever parted   ,how much
 in having1 or without1 or in--         
,cannot make boast to have that which he
 hath1   ,nor feels not what he knows1  
but by reflection2   ,as when his       
virtues shining upon others   ,heat     
them1 and they retort their heat again  
,to the first giver4  ,i do not remember
 in ,montaigne any such development of  
the idea as ,shakspere here gives it2   
indeed1 we have seen him putting forth a
 contrary teaching2 and looking to the  
context1 where ,ulysses admits the      
thesis to be familiar1 we are bound to  

infer a direct source for it4 ,in all   
probability it derives from ,seneca1 who
 in his treatise ,,de ,,beneficiis#ig   
throws out the germ of the ideas as to  
,nature demanding back her gifts1 and as
 to virtue being nothing if not         
reflected2 and even suggests the        
principle of thanks and use4#ih ,this   
treatise1 too1 lay to ,shakspere's hand 
in the translation of #aegh1 where the  
passages3 ,rerum natura nihil dicitur   
perdere1 quia quidquid illi avellitur1  
ad illam redit2 nec perire quidquam     
potest1 quod quo excidat non habet1 sed 
eodem evolvitur unde discedit2 and      
quaedam quum sint honesta1 pulcherrima  
summae virtutis1 nisi cum altero non    
habent locum1 are translated3    ,the   
nature of a thing cannot be said to have
 foregone   aught1 because that         
whatsoever is plucked from it returneth 
to it again2 neither can anything be    
lost which hath not   whereout of to    
pass1 but windeth back again unto whence
 it   came2  and    ,some things though 

they be honest1 very goodly and right   
excellently vertuous1 yet have they not 
their effect but in   a co-partner4     
,whether it was ,shakspere's reading of 
,montaigne that sent him to ,seneca1 to 
whom ,montaigne#ii avows so much        
indebtedness1 we of course cannot tell2 
but it is enough for the purpose of our 
argument to say that we have here       
another point or stage in a line of     
analytical thought on which ,shakspere  
was embarked about #afjc1 and of which  
the starting point or initial stimulus  
was the perusal of ,florio's ,montaigne4
 ,we have the point of contact with     
,montaigne in ,,hamlet1 where the saying
 that reason is implanted in us to be   
used1 is seen to be one of the many     
correspondences of thought between the  
play and the ,essays4 ,the idea is more 
subtly and deeply developed in ,,measure
 ,,for ,,measure1 and still more subtly 
and philosophically in ,,troilus ,,and  
,,cressida4 ,the fact of the process of 
development is all that is here         

affirmed1 over and above the actual     
phenomena of reproduction before set    
forth4  ,as to these1 the proposition is
 that in sum they constitute such an    
amount of reproduction of ,montaigne as 
explains ,jonson's phrase about habitual
 stealings4 ,there is no justification  
for applying that to the passage in the 
,,tempest1 since not only is that play  
not known to have existed in its present
 form in #afje1ajj when ,,volpone was   
produced1 but the phrase plainly alleges
 not one but many borrowings4 ,i am not 
aware that extracts from ,montaigne have
 been traced in any others of the       
,english contemporary dramatists4 ,but  
here in two plays of ,shakspere1 then   
fresh in memory--the ,second ,quarto    
having been published in #afjd and      
,,measure ,,for ,,measure produced in   
the same year--were echoes enough from  
,montaigne to be noted by ,jonson1 whom 
we know to have owned1 as did           
,shakspere1 the ,florio folio1 and to   
have been ,florio's warm admirer4 ,and  

there seems to be a confirmation of our 
thesis in the fact that1 while we find  
detached passages savouring of          
,montaigne in some later plays of the   
same period1 as in one of the concluding
 period1 the ,,tempest1 we do not again 
find in any one play such a cluster of  
reminiscences as we have seen in        
,,hamlet and ,,measure ,,for ,,measure1 
though the spirit of ,montaigne's       
thought1 turned to a deepening          
pessimism1 may be said to tinge all the 
later tragedies4  7a7 ,in ,,othello 78  
#afjd7 we have ,iago's 'tis in ourselves
 that we are thus or thus1 already      
considered1 to say nothing of ,othello's
 phrase--   ,i saw it not1 thought it   
not1 it harmed not me4444   ,he that is 
robb'd1 not wanting what is stolen1     
,let him not know it1 and he's not      
robb'd at all4  --a philosophical       
commonplace which compares with various 
passages in the ,fortieth ,essay4  7b7  
,in ,,lear 7#afjf7 we have such a touch 
as the king's lines#aja--   ,and take   

upon's the mystery of things   ,as if we
 were ,god's spies2  --which recalls the
 vigorous protest of the essays1 ,,that 
,a ,,man ,,ought ,,soberly ,,to ,,meddle
 ,,with ,,the ,,judging ,,of ,,the      
,,divine ,,laws1#ajb where ,montaigne   
avows that if he dared he would put in  
the category of imposters the           
interpreters and ordinary controllers of
 the designs of   ,god1 setting about to
 find the causes of each accident1 and  
to see in the secrets of the divine will
 the   incomprehensible motives of its  
works4  ,this1 again1 is a recurrent    
note with ,montaigne2 and much of the   
argument of the ,,apology is typified in
 the sentence3--    ,what greater vanity
 can there be than to go about by our   
proportions and conjectures to guess at 
,god8  7c7 ,but there is a yet more     
striking coincidence between a passage  
in the essay#ajc of ,,judging ,,of      
,,others' ,,death and the speech of     
,edmund#ajd on the subject of stellar   
influences4 ,in the essay ,montaigne    

sharply derides the habit of ascribing  
human occurrences to the interference of
 the stars--which very superstition he  
was later to support by his own         
authority in the ,,apology1 as we have  
seen above1 in the passage on the power 
and domination of the celestial bodies4 
,the passage in the thirteenth essay is 
the more notable in itself1 being       
likewise a protest against human        
self-sufficiency1 though the bearing of 
the illustration is directly reversed4  
,here he derides man's conceit3 ,we     
entertain and carry all with us3 whence 
it followeth that we deem our death to  
be some great matter1 and which passeth 
not so easily1 nor without a solemn     
consultation of the stars4 ,then follow 
references to ,caesar's sayings as to   
his star1 and the common foppery as to  
the sun mourning his death a year4      
,and a thousand such1 wherewith the     
world suffers itself to   be so easily  
cony-catched1 deeming that our own      
interests   disturb heaven1 and his     

infinity is moved at our least          
actions4 ',there is no such society     
between heaven and us   that by our     
destiny the shining of the stars should 
be as   mortal as we are4'  ,there seems
 to be an unmistakable reminiscence of  
this passage in ,edmund's speech1 where 
the word foppery is a special clue3     
,this is the excellent foppery of the   
world6 that when we   are sick in       
fortune 7often the surfeit of our own   
behaviour71 we make guilty of our       
disasters the sun1 the   moon1 and the  
stars3 as if we were villains by        
necessity2   fools by heavenly          
compulsion2 knaves1 thieves1 and        
traitors   by spherical predominance2   
drunkards1 liars1 and adulterers   by an
 enforced obedience of planetary        
influence2 and all   that we are evil   
in1 by divine thrusting on4444  7d7     
,again1 in ,,macbeth 7#afjf71 the words 
of ,malcolm to ,macduff#aje3   ,give    
sorrow words3 the grief that does not   
speak1   ,whispers the o'erfraught heart

 and bids it break  --an idea which also
 underlies ,macbeth's this perilous     
stuff1 which weighs upon the            
heart--recalls the essay#ajf ,,of       
,,sadness1 in which ,montaigne remarks  
on the    mournful silent stupidity     
which so doth pierce us when   accidents
 surpassing our strength overwhelm us1  
and on the   way in which the soul1     
bursting afterwards forth into tears    
and complaints 444 seemeth to clear and 
dilate itself2   going on to tell how   
the ,german ,lord ,raisciac looked on   
his   dead son till the vehemency of his
 sad sorrow1 having   suppressed and    
choked his vital spirits1 felled him    
stark   dead to the ground4  ,the       
parallel here1 such as it is1 is at     
least much more vivid than that drawn   
between ,shakspere's lines and one of   
,seneca3    ,curae leves loquuntur3     
ingentes stupent#ajg--,light   troubles 
speak3 the great ones are dumb4         
,certainly no one of these latter       
passages would singly suffice to prove  

that ,shakspere had read ,montaigne1    
though the peculiar coincidence of one  
word in ,edgar's speech with a word in  
,florio1 above noted1 would alone raise 
the question4 ,but even had ,shakspere  
not passed1 as we shall see cause to    
acknowledge1 beyond the most melancholy 
mood of ,montaigne into one of far      
sterner and more stringent pessimism1 an
 absence or infrequency of suggestions  
of ,montaigne in the plays between #afje
 and #afaj would be a very natural      
result of ,jonson's gibe in ,,volpone4  
,that gibe1 indeed1 is not really so    
ill-natured as the term steal is apt to 
make it sound for our ears1 especially  
if we are prepossessed--as even ,mr4    
,fleay still seems to be--by the old    
commentators' notion of a deep ill-will 
on ,jonson's part towards ,shakspere4   
,there was probably no such ill-will in 
the matter1 the burly scholar's habit of
 robust banter being enough to account  
for the form of his remark4 ,as a matter
 of fact1 his own plays are strewn with 

classic transcriptions2 and though he   
evidently plumed himself on his power of
 invention#ajh in the matter of plots--a
 faculty which he knew ,shakspere to    
lack--he cannot conceivably have meant  
to charge his rival with having         
committed any discreditable plagiarism  
in drawing upon ,montaigne4 ,at most he 
would mean to convey that borrowing from
 the ,english translation of ,montaigne 
was an easy game as compared with his   
own scholar-like practice of translating
 from the ,greek and ,latin1 and from   
out-of-the-way authors1 too4  ,however  
that might be1 the fact stands that     
,shakspere did about #afjd reproduce    
,montaigne as we have seen2 and it      
remains to consider what the            
reproduction signifies1 as regards      
,shakspere's mental development4        
,,iii4   ,but first there has to be     
asked the question whether the          
,montaigne influence is unique or       
exceptional4 ,of the many literary      
influences which an ,elizabethan        

dramatist might undergo1 was            
,montaigne's the only one which wrought 
deeply upon ,shakspere's spirit1 apart  
from those of his contemporary          
dramatists and the pre-existing plays1  
which were then models and points of    
departure8 ,it is clear that ,shakspere 
must have thought much and critically of
 the methods and the utterance of his   
co-rivals in literary art1 as he did of 
the methods of his fellow-actors4 ,the  
author of the advice to the players in  
,,hamlet was hardly less a critic than a
 poet2 and the sonnet#aji which speaks  
of its author as    ,desiring this man's
 art and that man's scope1  is one of   
the least uncertain revelations that    
these enigmatic poems yield us4 ,we may 
confidently decide1 too1 with ,professor
 ,minto1#aaj that the ,eighty-sixth     
,sonnet1 beginning3    ,was it the full1
 proud sail of his great verse8  has    
reference to ,chapman1 in whom          
,shakspere might well see one of his    
most formidable competitors in poetry4  

,but we are here concerned with         
influences of thought1 as distinct from 
influences of artistic example2 and the 
question is3 ,do the plays show any     
other culture-contact comparable to that
 which we have been led to recognise in 
the case of ,montaigne's ,essays8  ,the 
matter cannot be said to have been very 
fully investigated when even the        
,montaigne influence has been thus far  
left so much in the vague4 ,as regards  
the plots1 there has been exhaustive and
 instructive research during two        
centuries2 and of collations of parallel
 passages1 apart from ,montaigne1 there 
has been no lack2 but the deeper problem
 of the dramatist's mental history can  
hardly be said to have arisen till our  
own generation4 ,as regards many of the 
parallel passages1 the ground has been  
pretty well cleared by the dispassionate
 scholarship brought to bear on them    
from ,farmer onwards2 though the        
idolatry of the ,coleridgean school1 as 
represented by ,knight1 did much to     

retard scientific conclusions on this as
 on other points4  ,farmer's ,essay on  
the ,learning of ,shakspere 7#agfg7     
proved for all open-minded readers that 
much of ,shakspere's supposed classical 
knowledge was derived from translations 
alone2#aaa and further investigation    
does but establish his general view4#aab
 ,such is the effect of ,m4 ,stapfer's  
chapter on ,shakspere's ,classical      
,knowledge2#aac and the pervading       
argument of that chapter will be found  
to hold good as against the view        
suggested1 with judicious diffidence1 by
 ,dr4 ,john ,w4 ,cunliffe1 concerning   
the influence of ,seneca's tragedies on 
,shakspere's4 ,unquestionably the body  
of ,senecan tragedy1 as ,dr4 ,cunliffe's
 valuable research has shown1 did much  
to colour the style and thought of the  
,elizabethan drama1 as well as to       
suggest its themes and shape its        
technique4 ,but it is noteworthy that   
while there are in the plays1 as we have
 seen1 apparent echoes from the ,senecan

 treatises1 and while1 as we have seen1 
,dr4 ,cunliffe suggests sources for some
 ,shaksperean passages in the ,senecan  
tragedies1 he is doubtful as to whether 
they represent any direct study of      
,seneca by ,shakspere4    ,whether      
,shakspere was directly indebted to     
,seneca1 he   writes1 is a question as  
difficult as it is interesting4 ,as     
,english tragedy advances1 there grows  
up an accumulation of   ,senecan        
influence within the ,english drama1 in 
addition to   the original source1 and  
it becomes increasingly difficult   to  
distinguish between the direct and the  
indirect influence   of ,seneca4 ,in no 
case is the difficulty greater than in  
that   of ,shakspere4 ,of ,marlowe1     
,jonson1 ,chapman1 ,marston1 and        
,massinger1 we can say with certainty   
that they read ,seneca1   and reproduced
 their readings in their tragedies2 of  
,middleton and ,heywood we can say with 
almost equal certainty   that they give 
no sign of direct indebtedness to       

,seneca2 and   that they probably came  
only under the indirect influence1      
through the imitations of their         
predecessors and   contemporaries4 ,in  
the case of ,shakspere we cannot be     
absolutely certain either way4          
,professor ,baynes thinks it is         
probable that ,shakspere read ,seneca at
 school2 and even if   he did not1 we   
may be sure that1 at some period of his 
career1 he would turn to the generally  
accepted model of   classical tragedy1  
either in the original or in the        
translation4#aad  ,this seems partially 
inconsistent2 and1 so far as the        
evidence from particular parallels goes1
 we are not led to take with any        
confidence the view put in the last     
sentence4 ,the above-noted parallels    
between ,seneca's tragedies and         
,shakspere's are but cases of citation  
of sentences likely to have grown       
proverbial2 and the most notable of the 
others that have been cited by ,dr4     
,cunliffe is one which1 as he notes1    

points to ,a,eschylus as well as to     
,seneca4 ,the cry of ,macbeth3   ,will  
all great ,neptune's ocean wash this    
blood   ,clean from my hand8 ,no1 this  
my hand will rather   ,the multitudinous
 seas incarnadine1   ,making the green  
one red3  certainly corresponds closely 
with that of ,seneca's ,hercules3#aae   
,quis ,tanais1 aut quis ,nilus1 aut quis
 persica   ,violentus unda ,tigris1 aut 
,rhenus ferox   ,tagusve ibera turbidus 
gaza fluens1   ,abluere dextram poterit8
 ,arctoum licet   ,maeotis in me gelida 
transfundat mare1   ,et tota ,tethys per
 meas currat manus1   ,haerebit altum   
facinus  and that of ,seneca's          
,hippolytus3#aaf   ,quis eluet me       
,tanais8 ,aut quae barbaris1   ,maeotis 
undis pontico incumbens mari4   ,non    
ipso toto magnus ,oceano pater   ,tantum
 expiarit sceleris4  ,but these         
declamations1 deriving as they do1 to   
begin with1 from ,a,eschylus1#aag are   
seen from their very recurrence in      
,seneca to have become stock speeches   

for the ancient tragic drama2 and they  
were clearly well-fitted to become so   
for the mediaeval4 ,the phrases used    
were already classic when ,catullus     
employed them before ,seneca3           
,suscipit1 ,o ,gelli1 quantum non ultima
 ,thetys   ,non genitor ,nympharum1     
abluit ,oceanus4#aah  ,in the           
,renaissance we find the theme          
reproduced by ,tasso2#aai and it had    
doubtless been freely used by           
,shakspere's ,english predecessors and  
contemporaries4 ,what he did was but to 
set the familiar theme to a rhetoric    
whose superb sonority must have left    
theirs tame1 as it leaves ,seneca's     
stilted in comparison4 ,marston did his 
best with it1 in a play which may have  
been written before1 though published   
after1 ,,macbeth#abj3--   ,although the 
waves of all the ,northern sea   ,should
 flow for ever through those guilty     
hands1   ,yet the sanguinolent stain    
would extant be  --a sad foil to        
,shakspere's   ,the multitudinous seas  

incarnadine4  ,it is very clear1 then1  
that we are not here entitled to suppose
 ,shakspere a reader of the ,senecan    
tragedies2 and even were it otherwise1  
the passage in question is a figure of  
speech rather than a reflection on life 
or a stimulus to such reflection4 ,and  
the same holds good of the other        
interesting but inconclusive parallels  
drawn by ,dr4 ,cunliffe4 ,shakspere's   
,diseases desperate grown   ,by         
desperate appliance are relieved1   ,or 
not at all1#aba  which he compares with 
,seneca's   ,et ferrum et ignis saepe   
medicinae loco est4   ,extrema primo    
nemo tentavit loco1#abb  --a passage    
that may very well be the original for  
the modern oracle about fire and        
iron--is really much closer to the      
aphorism of ,hippocrates1 that ,extreme 
remedies are proper for extreme         
diseases1 and cannot be said to be more 
than a proverb4 ,in any case1 it lay to 
,shakspere's hand in ,montaigne1#abc as 
translated by ,florio3   ,to extreme    

sicknesses1 extreme remedies4  ,equally 
inconclusive is the equally close       
parallel between ,macbeth's   ,canst    
thou not minister to a mind diseased8   
and the sentence of ,hercules3          
,nemo polluto queat   ,animo mederi4#abd
  ,such a reflection was sure to secure 
a proverbial vogue1 and in ,,the ,,two  
,,noble ,,kinsmen 7in which ,shakspere  
indeed seems to have had a hand71 we    
have the doctor protesting3 ,i think she
 has a perturbed mind1 which ,i cannot  
minister to4#abe  ,and so1 again1 with  
the notable resemblance between         
,hercules' cry3   ,cur animam in ista   
luce detineam amplius1   ,morerque1     
nihil est4 ,cuncta jam amisi bona1      
,mentem1 arma1 famem1 conjugam1 natos1  
manus1   ,etiam furorem4#abf  and       
,macbeth's3   ,i have lived long enough3
 my way of life   ,is fallen into the   
sear1 the yellow leaf2   ,and that which
 should accompany old age1   ,as honour1
 love1 obedience1 troops of friends1    
,i must not look to have4#abg  ,here    

there is indeed every appearance of     
imitation2 but1 though the versification
 in ,macbeth's speech is certainly      
,shakspere's1 such a lament had         
doubtless been made in other ,english   
plays1 in direct reproduction of        
,seneca2 and ,shakspere1 in all         
probability1 was again only perfecting  
some previous declamation4  ,there is a 
quite proverbial quality1 finally1 in   
such phrases as3   ,things at the worst 
will cease1 or else climb upward   ,to  
that they were before2#abh  and         
,we but teach   ,bloody instructions1   
which1 being taught1 return   ,to plague
 the inventor4#abi  --which might be    
traced to other sources nearer          
,shakspere's hand than ,seneca4 ,and    
beyond such sentences and such tropes as
 those above considered1 there was      
really little or nothing in the         
tragedies of ,seneca to catch           
,shakspere's eye or ear2 nothing to     
generate in him a deep philosophy of    
life or to move him to the manifold play

 of reflection which gives his later    
tragedies their commanding              
intellectuality4 ,some such stimulus1 as
 we have seen1 he might indeed have     
drawn from one or two of ,seneca's      
treatises1 which do1 in their           
desperately industrious manner1 cover a 
good deal of intellectual ground1 making
 some tolerable discoveries by the way4 
,but by the tests alike of quantity and 
quality of reproduced matter1 it is     
clear that the indirect influence of the
 ,senecan tragedies and treatises on    
,shakspere was slight compared with the 
direct influence of ,montaigne's essays4
 ,nor is it hard to see why2 even       
supposing ,shakspere to have had ,seneca
 at hand in translation4 ,despite       
,montaigne's own leaning to ,seneca1 as 
compared with ,cicero1 we may often say 
of the former what ,montaigne says of   
the latter1 that his manner of writing  
seemeth very tedious4 ,over the ,,de    
,,beneficiis and the ,,de ,,ira one is  
sometimes moved to say1 as the essayist 

does#acj over ,cicero1 ,i understand    
sufficiently what death and             
voluptuousness are2 let not a man busy  
himself to anatomise them4 ,for the     
swift and penetrating flash of          
,montaigne1 which either goes to the    
heart of a matter once for all or opens 
up a far vista of feeling and           
speculation1 leaving us newly related to
 our environment and even to our        
experience1 ,seneca can but give us a   
conscientious examination of the ground1
 foot by foot1 with a policeman's       
lantern1 leaving us consciously         
footsore1 eyesore1 and ready for bed4   
,under no stress of satisfaction from   
his best finds can we be moved to call  
him a man of genius1 which is just what 
we call ,montaigne after a few pages4   
,it is the broad difference between     
industry and inspiration1 between       
fecundity and pregnancy1 between ,jonson
 and ,shakspere4 ,and1 though a man of  
genius is not necessarily dependent on  
other men of genius for stimulus1 we    

shall on scrutiny find reason to believe
 that in ,shakspere's case the nature of
 the stimulus counted for a great deal4 
,even before that is made clear1        
however1 there can be little hesitation 
about dismissing the only other         
outstanding theory of a special         
intellectual influence undergone by     
,shakspere--the theory of ,dr4 ,benno   
,tschischwitz1 that he read and was     
impressed by the ,italian writings of   
,giordano ,bruno4 ,in this case1 the    
bases of the hypothesis are of the      
scantiest and the flimsiest4 ,bruno was 
in ,england from #aehc to #aehf1 before 
,shakspere came to ,london4 ,among his  
patrons were ,sidney and ,leicester1 but
 neither ,southampton nor ,pembroke4 ,in
 all his writings only one passage can  
be cited which even faintly suggests a  
coincidence with any in ,shakspere2 and 
in that the suggestion is faint indeed4 
,in ,bruno's ill-famed comedy ,,il      
,,candelajo1 ,octavio asks the pedant   
,manfurio1 ,che e la materia di vostri  

versi1 and the pedant replies1          
,litterae1 syllabae1 dictio et oratio1  
partes propinquae et remotae1 on which  
,octavio again asks3 ,io dico1 quale e  
il suggetto et il proposito4#aca ,so far
 as it goes this is something of a      
parallel to ,polonius's question to     
,hamlet as to what he reads1 and        
,hamlet's answer1 ,words1 words4 ,but   
the scene is obviously a stock          
situation2 and if there are any passages
 in ,,hamlet which clearly belong to the
 pre-,shaksperean play1 the fooling of  
,hamlet with ,polonius is one of them4  
,and beyond this1 ,dr4 ,tschischwitz's  
parallels are flatly unconvincing1 or   
rather they promptly put themselves out 
of court4 ,he admits that nothing else  
in ,bruno's comedy recalls anything else
 in ,shakspere2#acb but he goes on to   
find analogies between other passages in
 ,,hamlet and some of ,bruno's          
philosophic doctrines4 ,quoting ,bruno's
 theorem that all things are made up of 
indestructible atoms1 and that death is 

but a transformation1 ,dr4 ,tschischwitz
 cites as a reproduction of it ,hamlet's
 soliloquy3   ,o1 that this too1 too    
solid flesh would melt6  ,it is         
difficult to be serious over such a     
contention2 and it is quite impossible  
for anybody out of ,germany or the      
,bacon-,shakspere party to be as serious
 over it as ,dr4 ,tschischwitz1 who     
finds that ,hamlet's figure of the      
melting of flesh into dew is an         
illustration of ,bruno's atomic system1 
and goes on to find a further ,brunonian
 significance in ,hamlet's jeering      
answers to the king's demand for the    
body of ,polonius4 ,of these passages he
 finds the source or suggestion in one  
which he translates from ,bruno's ,,cena
 ,,de ,,le ,,ceneri3--    ,for to this  
matter1 of which our planet is formed1  
death   and dissolution do not come2 and
 the annihilation of all   nature is not
 possible2 but it attains from time to  
time1 by   a fixed law1 to renew itself 
and to change all its parts1            

rearranging and recombining them2 all   
this necessarily   taking place in a    
determinate series1 under which         
everything   assumes the place of       
another4#acc  ,in the judgment of ,dr4  
,tschischwitz1 this theorem1 which      
anticipates so remarkably the modern    
scientific conception of the universe1  
elucidates ,hamlet's talk about worms   
and bodies1 and his further sketch of   
the progress of ,alexander's dust to the
 plugging of a beer-barrel4 ,it seems   
unnecessary to argue that all this is   
the idlest supererogation4 ,the passages
 cited from ,,hamlet1 all of them found 
in the ,first ,quarto1 might have been  
drafted by a much lesser man than       
,shakspere1 and that without ever having
 heard of ,bruno or the theory of the   
indestructibility of matter4 ,there is  
nothing in the case approaching to a    
reproduction of ,bruno's far-reaching   
thought2 while on the contrary the leave
 not a wrack behind1 in the ,,tempest1  
is an expression which sets aside1 as if

 it were unknown1 the conception of an  
endless transmutation of matter1 in a   
context where the thought would         
naturally suggest itself to one who had 
met with it4 ,where ,hamlet is merely   
sardonic in the plane of popular or at  
least exoteric humour1 ,dr4             
,tschischwitz credits him with          
pantheistic philosophy4 ,where1 on the  
other hand1 ,hamlet speaks feelingly and
 ethically of the serious side of       
drunkenness1#acd ,dr4 ,tschischwitz     
parallels the speech with a sentence in 
the ,,bestia ,,trionfante1 which gives a
 merely ,rabelaisian picture of drunken 
practices4#ace ,yet again1 he puts      
,bruno's large aphorism1 ,sol et homo   
generant hominem1 beside ,hamlet's gibe 
about the sun breeding maggots in a dead
 dog--a phrase possible to any euphuist 
of the period4 ,that the parallels      
amount at best to little1 ,dr4          
,tschischwitz himself indirectly admits1
 though he proceeds to a new            
extravagance of affirmation3    ,we do  

not maintain that such expressions are  
philosophemes1   or that ,shakspere     
otherwise went any deeper into ,bruno's 
system than suited his purpose1 but that
 such passages show   ,shakspere1 at the
 time of his writing of ,,hamlet1 to    
have   already reached the heights of   
the thought of the age                  
7,zeitbewusstsein71 and to have made    
himself familiar with   the most        
abstract of the sciences4 ,many hitherto
 almost   unintelligible passages in    
,,hamlet are now cleared up by the      
poet's acquaintance with the atomic     
philosophy and the   writings of the    
,nolan4  ,all this belongs to the       
uncritical method of the ,german        
,shakspere-criticism of the days before 
,ruemelin4 ,it is quite possible that   
,shakspere may have heard something of  
,bruno's theories from his friends2 and 
we may be sure that much of ,bruno's    
teaching would have profoundly          
interested him4 ,if ,bruno's lectures at
 ,oxford on the immortality of the soul 

included the matter he published later  
on the subject1 they may have called    
,english attention to the ,pythagorean  
lore concerning the fate of the soul    
after death1#acf above cited from       
,montaigne4 ,we might again1 on ,dr4    
,tschischwitz's lines1 trace the verses 
on the shaping fantasies of the lunatic1
 the lover1 and the poet1 in the        
,,midsummer ,,night',s ,,dream1#acg to  
such a passage in ,bruno as this3--     
,the first and most capital painter is  
the vivacity of the   phantasy2 the     
first and most capital poet is the      
inspiration   that originally arises    
with the impulse of deep thought1 or    
is set up by that1 through the divine or
 akin-to-divine   breath of which they  
feel themselves moved to the fit        
expression of their thoughts4 ,for each 
it creates the other   principle4       
,therefore are the philosophers in a    
certain sense   painters2 the poets1    
painters and philosophers2 the          
painters1 philosophers and poets3 true  

poets1 painters1 and   philosophers love
 and reciprocally admire each other4    
,there   is no philosopher who does not 
poetise and paint4 ,therefore   is it   
said1 not without reason3 ,to understand
 is to perceive   the figures of        
phantasy1 and understanding is phantasy1
 or   is nothing without it4#ach  ,but  
since ,shakspere does not recognisably  
echo a passage which he would have been 
extremely likely to produce in such a   
context1 had he known it1 we are bound  
to decide that he had not even heard it 
cited1 much less read it4 ,and so with  
any other remote resemblances between   
his work and that of any author whom he 
may have read4 ,in regard even to       
passages in ,shakspere which come much  
nearer their originals than any of these
 above cited come to ,bruno1 we are     
forced to decide that ,shakspere got his
 thought at second or third hand4 ,thus 
the famous passage in ,,henry ,v41#aci  
in which the ,archbishop figures the    
,state as a divinely framed harmony of  

differing functions1 is clearly         
traceable to ,plato's ,,republic and    
,cicero's ,,de ,,republica2 yet rational
 criticism must decide with ,m4         
,stapfer#adj that ,shakspere knew       
neither of these treatises1 but got his 
suggestion from some ,english           
translation or citation4  ,in fine1 we  
are constrained by all our knowledge    
concerning ,shakspere1 as well as by the
 abstract principles of proof1 to regard
 him in general as a reader of his own  
language only1 albeit not without a     
smattering of others2 and among the     
books in his own language which we know 
him to have read in1 and can prove him  
to have been influenced by1 we come back
 to ,montaigne's ,essays1 as by far the 
most important and the most potential   
for suggestion and provocation4         
,,iv4   ,to have any clear idea1        
however1 of what ,montaigne did or could
 do for ,shakspere1 we must revise our  
conception of the poet in the light of  
the positive facts of his life and      

circumstances--a thing made difficult   
for us in ,england through the          
transcendental direction given to our   
,shakspere lore by those who first      
shaped it sympathetically1 to wit1      
,coleridge and the ,germans4 ,an adoring
 idea of ,shakspere1 as a mind of       
unapproachable superiority1 has thus    
become so habitual with most of us that 
it is difficult to reduce our notion to 
terms of normal individuality1 of       
character and mind as we know them in   
life4 ,when we read ,coleridge1         
,schlegel1 and ,gervinus1 or even the   
admirable essay of ,charles ,lamb1 or   
the eloquent appreciations of ,mr4      
,swinburne1 or such eulogists as        
,hazlitt and ,knight1 we are in a world 
of abstract aesthetics or of abstract   
ethics2 we are not within sight of the  
man ,shakspere1 who became an actor for 
a livelihood in an age when the best    
actors played in inn-yards for rude     
audiences1 mostly illiterate and not a  
little brutal2 then added to his craft  

of acting the craft of play-patching and
 refashioning2 who had his partnership  
share of the pence and sixpences paid by
 the mob of noisy ,london prentices and 
journeymen and idlers that filled the   
booth theatre in which his company      
performed2 who sued his debtors         
rigorously when they did not settle-up2 
worked up old plays or took a hand in   
new1 according as the needs of his      
concern and his fellow-actors dictated2 
and finally went with his carefully     
collected fortune to spend his last     
years in ease and quiet in the country  
town in which he was born4 ,our         
sympathetic critics1 even when1 like    
,dr4 ,furnivall1 they know absolutely   
all the archaeological facts as to      
theatrical life in ,shakspere's time1 do
 not seem to bring those facts into     
vital touch with their aesthetic        
estimate of his product2 they remain    
under the spell of ,coleridge and       
,gervinus4#ada ,emerson1 it is true1    
protested at the close of his essay that

 he could not marry this fact1 of       
,shakspere's being a jovial actor and   
manager1 to his verse2 but that         
deliverance has served only as a text   
for those who have embraced the         
fantastic tenet that ,shakspere was but 
the theatrical agent and representative 
of ,bacon2 a delusion of which the vogue
 may be partly traced to the lack of    
psychological solidity in the ordinary  
presentment of ,shakspere by his        
admirers4 ,the heresy1 of course1 merely
 leaps over the difficulty1 into        
absolute irrelevance4 ,emerson was      
intellectually to blame in that1 seeing 
as he did the hiatus between the poet's 
life and the prevailing conception of   
his verse1 he did not try to conceive it
 all anew1 but rather resigned himself  
to the solution that ,shakspere's mind  
was out of human ken4 ,a good reader can
 in a sort nestle into ,plato's brain   
and think from thence1 he said2 but not 
into ,shakspere's2 we are still out of  
doors4 ,we should indeed remain so for  

ever did we not set about patiently     
picking the locks where the             
transcendentalist has dreamily turned   
away4  ,it is imperative that we should 
recommence vigilantly with the concrete 
facts1 ignoring all the merely aesthetic
 and metaphysic syntheses4 ,where       
,coleridge and ,schlegel more or less   
ingeniously invite us to acknowledge a  
miraculous artistic perfection1 where   
,lamb more movingly gives forth the     
intense vibration aroused in his spirit 
by ,shakspere's ripest work1 we must    
turn back to track down the youth from  
,stratford2 son of a burgess once       
prosperous1 but destined to sink        
steadily in the world2 married at       
eighteen1 under pressure of             
circumstances1 with small prospect of   
income1 to the woman of twenty-five2 ill
 at ease in that position2 and at       
length1 having made friends with a      
travelling company of actors1 come to   
,london to earn a living in any         
tolerable way by means of his moderate  

education1 his small ,latin and less    
,greek1 his knack of fluent rhyming1 and
 his turn for play-acting4 ,to know him 
as he began we must measure him narrowly
 by his first performances4 ,these are  
not to be looked for in even the        
earliest of his plays1 not one of which 
can be taken to represent his young and 
unaided faculty1 whether as regards     
construction or diction4 ,collaboration1
 the natural resort of the modern       
dramatist1 must have been to some extent
 forced on him in those years by the    
nature of his situation2 and after all  
that has been said by adorers of the    
quality of his wit and his verse in such
 early comedies as ,,love',s ,,labour   
,,lost and ,,the ,,two ,,gentlemen ,,of 
,,verona1 the critical reader is apt to 
be left pretty evenly balanced between  
the two reflections that the wit and the
 versification have indeed at times a   
certain happy naturalness of their own1 
and that nevertheless1 if they really be
 ,shakspere's throughout1 the most      

remarkable thing in the matter is his   
later progress4 ,but even apart from    
such disputable issues1 we may safely   
say with ,mr4 ,fleay that there is not a
 play of his that can be referred even  
on the rashest conjecture to a date     
anterior to #aeid1 which does not bear  
the plainest internal evidence of having
 been refashioned at a later time4#adb  
,these plays1 then1 with all their      
evidences of immaturity1 of what ,mr4   
,bagehot called clever                  
young-mannishness1 cannot serve us as   
safe measures of ,shakspere's mind at   
the beginning of his career4  ,but it   
happens that we have such a measure in  
performances which1 since they imply no 
technical arrangement1 are of a         
homogenous literary substance1 and can  
be shown to be the work of a man brought
 up in the ,warwickshire dialect1#adc   
are not even challenged1 ,i believe1 by 
the adherents of the ,baconian faith4   
,the tasks which the greatest of our    
poets set himself when near the age of  

thirty1 and to which he presumably      
brought all the powers of which he was  
then conscious1 were the uninspired and 
pitilessly prolix poems of ,,venus ,,and
 ,,adonis and ,,the ,,rape ,,of         
,,lucrece1 the first consisting of some 
#a1bjj lines and the second of more than
 #a1hjj2 one a calculated picture of    
female concupiscence and the other a    
still more calculated picture of female 
chastity3 the two alike abnormally      
fluent1 yet external1 unimpassioned1    
endlessly descriptive1 elaborately      
unimpressive4 ,save for the sexual      
attraction of the subjects1 on the      
commercial side of which the poet had   
obviously reckoned in choosing them1    
these performances could have no        
unstudious readers in our day and few   
warm admirers in their own1 so little   
sign do they give of any high poetic    
faculty save the two which singly go so 
often without any determining           
superiority of mind--inexhaustible flow 
of words and endless observation of     

concrete detail4 ,of the countless      
thrilling felicities of phrase and      
feeling for which ,shakspere is renowned
 above all ,english poets1 not one1 ,i  
think1 is to be found in those three    
thousand fluently-scanned and           
smoothly-worded lines3 on the contrary1 
the wearisome succession of stanzas1    
stretching the succinct themes          
immeasurably beyond all natural fitness 
and all narrative interest1 might seem  
to signalise such a lack of artistic    
judgment as must preclude all great     
performance2 while the apparent plan of 
producing an effect by mere             
multiplication of words1 mere extension 
of description without intension of     
idea1 might seem to prove a lack of     
capacity for any real depth of passion4 
,they were simply manufactured poems1   
consciously constructed for the market1 
the first designed at the same time to  
secure the patronage of the ,maecenas of
 the hour1 ,lord ,southampton1 to whom  
it was dedicated1 and the second        

produced and similarly dedicated on the 
strength of the success of the first4   
,the point here to be noted is that they
 gained the poet's ends4 ,they succeeded
 as saleable literature1 and they gained
 the ,earl's favour4  ,and the rest of  
the poet's literary career1 from this   
point forward1 seems to have been no    
less prudently calculated4 ,having      
plenty of evidence that men could not   
make a living by poetry1 even if they   
produced it with facility2 and that they
 could as little count on living        
steadily by the sale of plays1 he joined
 with his trade of actor the business   
not merely of playwright but of         
part-sharer in the takings of the       
theatre4 ,the presumption from all we   
know of the commercial side of the      
play-making of the times is that1 for   
whatever pieces ,shakspere touched up1  
collaborated in1 or composed for his    
company1 he received a certain payment  
once for all2#add since there was no    
reason why his partners should treat his

 plays differently in this regard from  
the plays they bought of other men4     
,doubtless1 when his reputation was     
made1 the payments would be             
considerable4 ,but the main source of   
his income1 or rather of the            
accumulations with which he bought land 
and house and tithes at ,stratford1 must
 have been his share in the takings of  
the theatre--a share which would        
doubtless increase as the earlier       
partners disappeared4 ,he must have     
speedily become the principal man in the
 firm1 combining as he did the work of  
composer1 reviser1 and adaptor of plays 
with that of actor and working partner4 
,we are thus dealing with a temperament 
or mentality not at all obviously       
original or masterly1 not at all        
conspicuous at the outset for           
intellectual depth or seriousness1 not  
at all obtrusive of its mission2 but    
exhibiting simply a gift for acting1 an 
abundant faculty of rhythmical speech1  
and a power of minute observation1      

joined with a thoroughly practical or   
commercial handling of the problem of   
life1 in a calling not usually taken-to 
by commercially-minded men4 ,what       
emerges for us thus far is the          
conception of a very plastic            
intelligence1 a good deal led and swayed
 by immediate circumstances2 but at     
bottom very sanely related to life1 and 
so possessing a latent faculty for      
controlling its destinies2 not much     
cultured1 not profound1 not deeply      
passionate2 not particularly reflective 
though copious in utterance2 a          
personality which of itself1 if under no
 pressure of pecuniary need1 would not  
be likely to give the world any serious 
sign of mental capacity whatever4  ,in  
order1 then1 that such a man as this    
should develop into the ,shakspere of   
the great tragedies and tragic comedies1
 there must concur two kinds of         
life-conditions with those already      
noted--the fresh conditions of          
deeply-moving experience and of deep    

intellectual stimulus4 ,without these1  
such a mind would no more arrive at the 
highest poetic and dramatic capacity    
than1 lacking the spur of necessity or  
of some outside call1 it would be moved 
to seek poetic and dramatic utterance   
for its own relief4 ,there is no sign   
here of an innate burden of thought1    
bound to be delivered2 there is only the
 sensitive plate or responsive faculty1 
capable of giving back with peculiar    
vividness and spontaneity every sort of 
impression which may be made on it4 ,the
 faculty1 in short1 which could produce 
those #c1jjj fluent lines on the bare   
data of the stories of ,venus and       
,adonis and ,tarquin and ,lucrece1 with 
only the intellectual material of a     
rakish ,stratford lad's schooling and   
reading1 and the culture coming of a few
 years' association with the primitive  
,english stage and its hangers-on1 was  
capable of broadening and deepening1    
with vital experience and vital culture1
 into the poet of ,,lear and ,,macbeth4 

,but the vital culture must come to it1 
like the experience3 this was not a man 
who would go out of his way to seek the 
culture4 ,a man so minded1 a man who    
would bear hardship in order to win     
knowledge1 would not have settled down  
so easily into the actor-manager with a 
good share in the company's profits4    
,there is almost nothing to show that   
the young ,shakspere read anything save 
current plays1 tales1 and poems4 ,such a
 notable book as ,north's ,,plutarch1   
published in #aegi1 does not seem to    
have affected his literary activity till
 about the year #afjj3 and even then the
 subject of ,,julius ,,caesar may have  
been suggested to him by some other     
play-maker1 as was the case with his    
chronicle histories4 ,in his            
contemporary1 ,ben ,jonson1 we do have  
the type of the young man bent on       
getting scholarship as the best thing   
possible to him4 ,the bricklayer's      
apprentice1 unwillingly following the   
craft of his stepfather1 sticking       

obstinately all the while to his ,horace
 and his ,homer1 resolute to keep and to
 add to the humanities he had learned in
 the grammar school1 stands out clearly 
alongside of the other1 far less        
enthusiastic for knowledge and letters1 
but also far more plastically framed1   
and at the same time far more clearly   
alive to the seriousness of the struggle
 for existence as a matter of securing  
the daily bread-and-butter4 ,it may be1 
indeed--who knows--that but for that    
peculiarly early marriage1 with its     
consequent family responsibilities1     
,shakspere would have allowed himself a 
little more of youthful breathing-time3 
it may be that it was the existence of  
,ann ,hathaway and her three children   
that made him a seeker for pelf rather  
than a seeker for knowledge in the years
 between twenty and thirty1 when the    
concern for pelf sits lightly on most   
intellectual men4 ,the thesis undertaken
 in ,,love',s ,,labour ,,lost--that the 
truly effective culture is that of life 

in the world rather than that of        
secluded study--perhaps expresses a     
process of inward and other debate in   
which the wish has become father to the 
thought4 ,scowled upon by jealous       
collegians like ,greene for presuming1  
actor as he was1 to write dramas1 he    
must have asked himself whether there   
was not something to be gained from such
 schooling as theirs4#ade ,but then he  
certainly made more than was needed to  
keep the ,stratford household going2 and
 the clear shallow flood of ,,venus     
,,and ,,adonis and the ,,rape ,,of      
,,lucrece stands for ever to show how   
far from tragic consciousness was the   
young husband and father when close upon
 thirty years old4 ,it was in #aeif that
 his little ,hamnet died at ,stratford2 
and there is nothing to show1 says ,mr4 
,fleay1#adf that ,shakspere had ever    
been there in the interval between his  
departure in #aehg and the child's      
funeral4  ,but already1 it may be1 some 
vital experience had come4 ,whatever    

view we take of the drama of the        
sonnets1 we may so far adopt ,mr4       
,fleay's remarkable theory#adg as to    
surmise that the central episode of     
faithless love occurred about #aeid4 ,if
 so1 here was enough to deepen and      
impassion the plastic personality of the
 rhymer of ,,venus ,,and ,,adonis2 to   
add a new string to the heretofore      
,mercurial lyre4 ,all the while1 too1 he
 was undergoing the kind of culture and 
of psychological training involved in   
his craft of acting--a culture involving
 a good deal of contact with the        
imaginative literature of the           
,renaissance1 so far as then translated1
 and a psychological training of great  
though little recognised importance to  
the dramatist4 ,it seems obvious that   
the practice of acting1 by a plastic and
 receptive temperament1 capable of      
manifold appreciation1 must have counted
 for much in developing the faculties at
 once of sympathy and expression4 ,in   
this respect ,shakspere stood apart from

 his rivals1 with their merely literary 
training4 ,and in point of fact1 we do  
find in his plays1 year by year1 a      
strengthening sense of the realities of 
human nature1 despite their frequently  
idealistic method of portraiture1 the   
verbalism and factitiousness of much of 
their wit1 and their conventionality of 
plot4 ,above all things1 the man who    
drew so many fancifully delightful types
 of womanhood must have been intensely  
appreciative of the charm of sex2 and it
 is on that side that we are to look for
 his first contacts with the deeper     
forces of life4 ,what marks off the     
,shakspere of thirty-five1 in fine1 from
 all his rivals1 is just his peculiarly 
true and new#adh expression of the      
living grace of womanhood1 always1 it is
 true1 abstracted to the form of poetry 
and skilfully purified from the         
blemishes of the actual1 but none the   
less convincing and stimulating4 ,we are
 here in presence at once of a rare     
receptive faculty and a rare expressive 

faculty3 the plastic organism of the    
first poems touched through and through 
with a hundred vibrations of deeper     
experience2 the external and extensive  
method gradually ripening into an       
internal and intensive2 the innate      
facility of phrase and alertness of     
attention turned from the physical to   
the psychical4 ,but still it is to the  
psychics of sex1 for the most part1 that
 we are limited4 ,of the deeps of human 
nature1 male nature1 as apart from the  
love of woman1 the playwright still     
shows no special perception1 save in the
 vivid portrait of ,shylock1 the        
exasperated ,jew4 ,the figures in which 
we can easily recognise his hand in the 
earlier historical plays are indeed     
marked by his prevailing sanity of      
perception2 always they show the play of
 the seeing eye1 the ruling sense of    
reality which shaped his life2 it is    
this visible actuality that best marks  
them off from the non-,shaksperean      
figures around them4 ,and in the        

wonderful figures of ,falstaff and his  
group we have a roundness of comic      
reality to which nothing else in modern 
literature thus far could be compared4  
,but still this1 the most remarkable of 
all1 remains comic reality2 and1 what is
 more1 it is a comic reality of which1  
as in the rest of his work1 the         
substratum was pre-,shaksperean4 ,for it
 is clear that the figure of ,falstaff1 
as ,oldcastle1 had been popularly       
successful before ,shakspere took hold  
of it3#adi and what he did here1 as     
elsewhere1 with his uninventive mind1 in
 which the faculty of imagination always
 rectified and expanded rather than     
originated types and actions1 was       
doubtless to give the hues and tones of 
perfect life to the half-real inventions
 of others4 ,this must always be        
insisted on as the special psychological
 characteristic of ,shakspere4          
,excepting in the doubtful case of      
,,love',s ,,labour ,,lost1 he never     
invented a plot2 his male characters are

 almost always developments from an     
already sketched original2 it is in     
drawing his heroines1 where he is most  
idealistic1 that he seems to have been  
most independently creative1 his        
originals here being doubtless the women
 who had charmed him1 set living in     
ideal scenes to charm others4 ,and it   
resulted from this specialty of         
structure that the greater reality of   
his earlier male historic figures1 as   
compared with those of most of his      
rivals1 is largely a matter of saner and
 more felicitous declamation--the play  
of his great and growing faculty of     
expression--since he had no more special
 knowledge of the types in hand than had
 his competitors4 ,it is only when his  
unequalled receptive faculty has been   
acted upon by a peculiarly concentrated 
and readily assimilated body of culture1
 the ,english translation by ,sir       
,thomas ,north of ,amyot's ,french      
translation of ,plutarch's ,lives1 that 
we find ,shakspere incontestably        

superior to his contemporaries in the   
virile treatment of virile problems no  
less than in the sympathetic rendering  
of emotional charm and tenderness and   
the pathos of passion4 ,the tragedy of  
,,romeo ,,and ,,juliet1 with all its    
burning fervours and swooning griefs1   
remains for us a picture of the luxury  
of woe3 it is truly said of it that it  
is not fundamentally unhappy4 ,but in   
,,julius ,,caesar we have touched a     
further depth of sadness4 ,for the      
moving tragedy of circumstance1 of      
lovers sundered by fate only to be      
swiftly joined in exultant death1 we    
have the profounder tragedy of mutually 
destroying energies1 of grievously      
miscalculating men1 of failure and      
frustration dogging the steps of the    
strenuous and the wise1 of destiny      
searching out the fatal weakness of the 
strong4 ,to the poet has now been added 
the reader2 to the master of the pathos 
of passion the student of the tragedy of
 universal life4 ,it is thus by culture 

and experience--culture limited but     
concentrated1 and experience limited but
 intense--that the man ,shakspere has   
been intelligibly made into the         
dramatist ,shakspere as we find him when
 he comes to his greatest tasks4 ,for   
the formation of the supreme artist     
there was needed alike the purely       
plastic organism and the special culture
 to which it was so uniquely fitted to  
respond2 culture that came without      
search1 and could be undergone as       
spontaneously as the experience of life 
itself2 knowledge that needed no more   
wooing than ,ann ,hathaway1 or any      
dubious angel in the sonnets4 ,in the   
,english version of ,plutarch's ,,lives1
 pressed upon him doubtless by the      
play-making plans of other men1         
,shakspere found the most effectively   
concentrated history of ancient humanity
 that could possibly have reached him2  
and he responded to the stimulus with   
all his energy of expression because he 
received it so freely and vitally1 in   

respect alike of his own plasticity and 
the fact that the vehicle of the        
impression was his mother tongue4 ,it is
 plain that to the last he made no      
secondary study of antiquity4 ,he made  
blunders which alone might warn the     
,baconians off their vain quest3 he had 
no notion of chronology3 finding ,cato  
retrospectively spoken of by ,plutarch  
as one to whose ideal ,coriolanus had   
risen1 he makes a comrade of ,coriolanus
 say it1 as if ,cato were a dead        
celebrity in ,coriolanus' day2 just as  
he makes ,hector quote ,aristotle in    
,troy4 ,these clues are not to be put   
aside with aesthetic platitudes3 they   
are capital items in our knowledge of   
the man4 ,and if even the idolator feels
 perturbed by their obtrusion1 he has   
but to reflect that where the trained   
scholars around ,shakspere reproduced   
antiquity with greater accuracy in minor
 things1 tithing the mint and anise and 
cumin of erudition1 they gave us of the 
central human forces1 which it was their

 special business to realise1 mere      
hollow and tedious parodies4 ,jonson was
 a scholar whose variety of classic     
reading might have constituted him a    
specialist to-day2 but ,jonson's        
ancients are mostly dead for us1 even as
 are ,jonson's moderns1 because they are
 the expression of a psychic faculty    
which could neither rightly perceive    
reality1 nor rightly express what it did
 perceive4 ,he represents industry in   
art without inspiration4 ,the two       
contrasted pictures1 of ,jonson writing 
out his harangues in prose in order to  
turn them into verse1 and of ,shakspere 
giving his lines unblotted to the       
actors--speaking in verse1 in the white 
heat of his cerebration1 as             
spontaneously as he breathed--these     
historic data1 which happen to be among 
the most perfectly certified that we    
possess concerning the two men1 give us 
at once half the secret of one and all  
the secret of the other4 ,jonson had the
 passion for book knowledge1 the        

patience for hard study1 the faculty for
 plot-invention2 and withal he produced 
dramatic work which gives little or no  
permanent pleasure4 ,shakspere had none 
of these characteristics2 and yet1 being
 the organism he was1 it only needed the
 culture which fortuitously reached him 
in his own tongue to make him           
successively the greatest dramatic      
master of eloquence1 mirth1 charm1      
tenderness1 passion1 pathos1 pessimism1 
and philosophic serenity that literature
 can show1 recognisably so even though  
his work be almost constantly hampered  
by the framework of other men's         
enterprises1 which he was so singularly 
content to develop or improve4 ,hence   
the critical importance of following up 
the culture which evolved him1 and above
 all1 that which finally touched him to 
his most memorable performance4     ,v4 
,it is to ,montaigne1 then1 that we now 
come1 in terms of our preliminary       
statement of evidence4 ,when ,florio's  
translation was published1 in #afjc1    

,shakspere was thirty-seven years old1  
and he had written or refashioned ,,king
 ,,john1 ,,henry ,,iv41 ,,the ,,merchant
 ,,of ,,venice1 ,a ,,midsummer          
,,night',s ,,dream1 ,,richard ,,ii41    
,,twelfth ,,night1 ,,as ,,you ,,like    
,,it1 ,,henry ,v41 ,,romeo ,,and        
,,juliet1 ,,the ,,merry ,,wives ,,of    
,,windsor1 and ,,julius ,,caesar4 ,it is
 very likely that he knew ,florio1 being
 intimate with ,jonson1 who was         
,florio's friend and admirer2 and the   
translation1 long on the stocks1 must   
have been discussed in his hearing4     
,hence1 presumably1 his immediate       
perusal of it4 ,portions of it he may   
very well have seen or heard of before  
it was fully printed 7necessarily a long
 task in the then state of the          
handicraft72 but in the book itself1 we 
have seen abundant reason to believe1 he
 read largely in #afjc-d4  ,having      
inductively proved the reading1 and at  
the same time the fact of the impression
 it made1 we may next seek to realise   

deductively what kind of impression it  
was fitted to make4 ,we can readily see 
what ,north's ,plutarch could be and was
 to the sympathetic and                 
slightly-cultured playwright2 it was    
nothing short of a new world of human   
knowledge2 a living vision of two great 
civilisations1 giving to his universe a 
vista of illustrious realities beside   
which the charmed gardens of            
,renaissance romance and the bustling   
fields of ,english chronicle-history    
were as pleasant dreams or noisy        
interludes4 ,he had done wonders with   
the chronicles2 but in presence of the  
long muster-rolls of ,greece and ,rome  
he must have felt their insularity2 and 
he never returned to them in the old    
spirit4 ,but if ,plutarch could do so   
much for him1 still greater could be the
 service rendered by ,montaigne4 ,the   
difference1 broadly speaking1 is very   
much as the difference in philosophic   
reach between ,,julius ,,caesar and     
,,hamlet1 between ,,coriolanus and      

,,lear4  ,for what was in its nett      
significance ,montaigne's manifold book1
 coming thus suddenly1 in a complete and
 vigorous translation1 into ,english    
life and into ,shakspere's ken8 ,simply 
the most living book then existing in   
,europe4 ,this is not the place1 nor am 
,i the person1 to attempt a systematic  
estimate of the most enduring of ,french
 writers1 who has stirred to their best 
efforts the ablest of ,french critics2  
but ,i must needs try to indicate       
briefly1 as ,i see it1 his significance 
in general ,european culture4 ,and ,i   
would put it that ,montaigne is really1 
for the civilised world at this day1    
what ,petrarch has been too             
enthusiastically declared to be--the    
first of the moderns4 ,he is so as      
against even the great ,rabelais1       
because ,rabelais misses directness1    
misses universality1 misses lucidity1 in
 his gigantic mirth2 he is so as against
 ,petrarch1 because he is emphatically  
an impressionist where ,petrarch is a   

framer of studied compositions2 he is so
 against ,erasmus1 because ,erasmus also
 is a framer of artificial compositions 
in a dead language1 where ,montaigne    
writes with absolute spontaneity in a   
language not only living but growing4   
,only ,chaucer1 and he only in the      
,canterbury ,tales1 can be thought of as
 a true modern before ,montaigne2 and   
,chaucer is there too ,english to be    
significant for all ,europe4 ,the high  
figure of ,dante is decisively          
mediaeval3 it is the central point in   
mediaeval literature4 ,montaigne was not
 only a new literary phenomenon in his  
own day3 he remains so still2 for his   
impressionism1 which he carried to such 
lengths in originating it1 is the most  
modern of literary inspirations2 and all
 our successive literary and artistic   
developments are either phases of the   
same inspiration or transient reactions 
against it4 ,where literature in the    
mass has taken centuries to come within 
sight of the secret that the most       

intimate form of truth is the most      
interesting1 he went1 in his one        
collection of essays1 so far towards    
absolute self-expression that our       
practice is still in the rear of his1   
which is quite too unflinching for      
contemporary nerves4 ,our bonne foi is  
still sophisticated in comparison with  
that of the great ,gascon4 ,of all      
essayists who have yet written1 he is   
the most transparent1 the most sincere  
even in his stratagems1 the most        
discursive1 the most free-tongued1 and  
therefore the most alive4 ,a classic    
commonplace becomes in his hands a new  
intimacy of feeling3 where verbal       
commonplaces have1 as it were1 glazed   
over the surface of our sense1 he goes  
behind them to rouse anew the living    
nerve4 ,and there is no theme on which  
he does not some time or other dart his 
sudden and searching glance4 ,it is     
truly said of him by ,emerson that there
 have been men with deeper insight2 but1
 one would say1 never a man with such   

abundance of thoughts3 he is never dull1
 never insincere1 and has the genius to 
make the reader care for all that he    
cares for4 ,cut these words and they    
bleed2 they are vascular and alive4     
,such a voice1 speaking at ,shakspere's 
ear in an ,english nearly as racy and   
nervous as the incomparable old-new     
,french of the original1 was in itself a
 revelation4  ,i have said above that we
 seem to see passing from ,montaigne to 
,shakspere a vibration of style as well 
as of thought2 and it would be difficult
 to overstate the importance of such an 
influence4 ,a writer affects us often   
more by the pulse and pressure of his   
speech than by his matter4 ,such an     
action is indeed the secret of all great
 literary reputations2 and in no author 
of any age are the cadence of phrases   
and the beat of words more provocative  
of attention than in ,montaigne4 ,they  
must have affected ,shakspere as they   
have done so many others2 and in point  
of fact his work1 from ,,hamlet forth1  

shows a gain in nervous tension and     
pith1 fairly attributable to the        
stirring impact of the style of         
,montaigne1 with its incessancy of      
stroke1 its opulence of colour1 its     
hardy freshness of figure and epithet1  
its swift1 unflagging stride4 ,seek in  
any of ,shakspere's plays for such a    
strenuous rush of idea and rhythm as    
pulses through the soliloquy3   ,how all
 occasions do inform against me1  and   
you will gather that there has been a   
technical change wrought1 no less than a
 moral and an intellectual4 ,the poet's 
nerves have caught a new vibration4     
,but it was not merely a congenial      
felicity and energy of utterance that   
,montaigne brought to bear on his       
,english reader1 though the more we     
consider this quality of spontaneity in 
the essayist the more we shall realise  
its perennial fascination4 ,the         
culture-content of ,montaigne's book is 
more than even the self-revelation of an
 extremely vivacious and reflective     

intelligence2 it is the living          
quintessence of all ,latin criticism of 
life1 and of a large part of ,greek2 a  
quintessence as fresh and pungent as the
 essayist's expression of his special   
individuality4 ,for ,montaigne stands   
out among all the humanists of the      
epochs of the ,renaissance and the      
,reformation in respect of the peculiar 
directness of his contact with ,latin   
literature4 ,other men must have come to
 know ,latin as well as he2 and hundreds
 could write it with an accuracy and    
facility which1 if he were ever capable 
of it1 he must1 by his own confession1  
have lost before middle life1#aej though
 he read it perfectly to the last4 ,but 
he is the only modern man whom we know  
to have learned ,latin as a mother      
tongue2 and this fact was probably just 
as important in psychology as was the   
similar fact1 in ,shakspere's case1 of  
his whole adult culture being acquired  
in his own language4 ,it seems to me1 at
 least1 that there is something         

significant in the facts3 7#a7 that the 
man who most vividly brought the spirit 
or outcome of classic culture into touch
 with the general ,european             
intelligence1 in the age when the modern
 languages first decisively asserted    
their birthright1 learned his ,latin as 
a living and not as a dead tongue1 and  
knew ,greek literature almost solely by 
translation2 7#b7 that the dramatist who
 of all of his craft has put most of    
breathing vitality into his pictures of 
ancient history1 despite endless        
inaccuracies of detail1 read his        
authorities only in his own language2   
and 7#c7 that the ,english poet who in  
our own century has most intensely and  
delightedly sympathised with the ,greek 
spirit--,i mean ,keats--read his ,homer 
only in an ,english translation4 ,as    
regards ,montaigne1 the full importance 
of the fact does not seem to me to have 
been appreciated by the critics4        
,villemain1 indeed1 who perhaps could   
best realise it1 remarked in his        

youthful eloge that the fashion in which
 the elder ,montaigne had his child     
taught ,latin would bring the boy to the
 reading of the classics with an eager  
interest where others had been already  
fatigued by the toil of grammar2 but    
beyond this the peculiarity of the case 
has not been much considered4           
,montaigne1 however1 gives us details   
which seem full of suggestion to        
scientific educationists4 ,without art1 
without book1 without grammar or        
precept1 without whipping1 without      
tears1 ,i learned a ,latin as pure as my
 master could give2 and his first       
exercises were to turn bad ,latin into  
good4#aea ,so he read his ,ovid's       
,metamorphoses at seven or eight1 where 
other forward boys had the native fairy 
tales2 and a wise teacher led him later 
through ,virgil and ,terence and        
,plautus and the ,italian poets in the  
same freedom of spirit4 ,withal1 he     
never acquired any facility in          
,greek1#aeb and1 refusing to play the   

apprentice where he was accustomed to be
 master1#aec he declined to construe in 
a difficult tongue2 read his ,plutarch  
in ,amyot2 and his ,plato1 doubtless1 in
 the ,latin version4 ,it all goes with  
the peculiar spontaneity of his mind1   
his reactions1 his style2 and it was in 
virtue of this undulled spontaneity that
 he was fitted to be for ,shakspere1 as 
he has since been for so many other     
great writers1 an intellectual stimulus 
unique in kind and in potency4  ,this   
fact of ,montaigne's peculiar influence 
on other spirits1 comparatively         
considered1 may make it easier for some 
to conceive that his influence on       
,shakspere could be so potent as has    
been above asserted4 ,among those whom  
we know him to have acted upon in the   
highest degree--setting aside the       
disputed case of ,bacon--are ,pascal1   
,montesquieu1 ,rousseau1 ,flaubert1     
,emerson1 and ,thoreau4 ,in the case of 
,pascal1 despite his uneasy assumption  
that his philosophy was contrary to     

,montaigne's1 the influence went so far 
that the ,pensees again and again set   
forth ,pascal's doctrine in passages    
taken almost literally from the         
,,essays4 ,stung by the lack of all     
positive ,christian credence in         
,montaigne1 ,pascal represents him as   
putting all things in doubt2 whereas it 
is just by first putting all things in  
doubt that ,pascal justifies his own    
credence4 ,the only difference is that  
where ,montaigne1 disparaging the powers
 of reason by the use of that very      
reason1 used his doubt to defend himself
 alike against the atheists and the     
orthodox ,christians1 ,catholic or      
,protestant1 himself standing simply to 
the classic theism of antiquity1 ,pascal
 seeks to demolish the theists with the 
atheists1 falling back on the ,christian
 faith after denying the capacity of the
 human reason to judge for itself4 ,the 
two procedures were of course alike     
fallacious2 but though ,pascal1 the more
 austere thinker of the two1 readily saw

 the invalidity of ,montaigne's as a    
defence of theism1 he could do no more  
for himself than repeat the process1    
disparaging reason in the very language 
of the essayist1 and setting up in his  
turn his private predilection in        
,montaigne's manner4 ,in sum1 his       
philosophy is just ,montaigne's1 turned 
to the needs of a broken spirit instead 
of a confident one--to the purposes of a
 chagrined and exhausted convertite     
instead of a theist of the stately      
school of ,cicero and ,seneca and       
,plutarch4 ,without ,montaigne1 one     
feels1 the ,pensees might never have    
been written3 they represent to-day1 for
 all vigilant readers1 rather the       
painful struggles of a wounded          
intelligence to fight down the doubts it
 has caught from contact with other     
men's thought than any coherent or      
durable philosophic construction4  ,it  
would be little more difficult to show  
the debt of the ,esprit des ,lois to    
,montaigne's inspiration1 even if we had

 not ,montesquieu's avowal that ,in most
 authors ,i see the man who writes3 in  
,montaigne1 the man who thinks4#aed     
,that is precisely ,montaigne's         
significance1 in sociology as in        
philosophy4 ,his whole activity is a    
seeking for causes2 and in the very act 
of undertaking to humble reason he      
proceeds to instruct and re-edify it by 
endless corrective comparison of facts4 
,to be sure1 he departed so far from his
 normal bonne foi as to affect to think 
there could be no certainties while     
parading a hundred of his own1 and with 
these some which were but pretences2 and
 his pet doctrine of daimonic fortune is
 not ostensibly favourable to social    
science2 but in the concrete1 he is more
 of a seeker after rational law than any
 humanist of his day4 ,in discussing    
sumptuary laws1 he anticipates the      
economics of the eighteenth and         
nineteenth centuries1 as in discussing  
ecclesiastical law he anticipates the   
age of tolerance2 in discussing criminal

 law1 the work of ,beccaria2 in         
discussing a priori science1 the protest
 of ,bacon2 and in discussing education1
 many of the ideas of to-day4 ,and it   
would be difficult to cite1 in humanist 
literature before our own century1 a    
more comprehensive expression of the    
idea of natural law than this paragraph 
of the ,,apology3    ,if nature enclose 
within the limits of her ordinary       
progress1 as all other things1 so the   
beliefs1 the   judgments1 the opinions  
of men1 if they have their              
revolutions1 their seasons1 their birth1
 and their death1   even as cabbages2 if
 heaven doth move1 agitate1 and roll    
them at his pleasure1 what powerful and 
permanent authority   do we ascribe unto
 them4 ,if1 by uncontrolled experience1 
we   palpably touch orig4 ,si par       
experience nous touchons a la   main1   
i4e41 nous maintenons1 nous pretendons3 
an idiom   which ,florio has not        
understood that the form of our being   
depends of the air1 of the climate1 and 

of the soil wherein   we are born1 and  
not only the hair1 the stature1 the     
complexion1 and the countenance1 but    
also the soul's   faculties 444 in such 
manner that as fruits and beasts do     
spring up diverse and different1 so men 
are born1 either   more or less         
war-like1 martial1 just1 temperate1 and 
docile2   here subject to wine1 there to
 theft and whoredom1 here   inclined to 
superstition1 there addicted to         
misbelieving4444   ,if sometimes we see 
one art to flourish1 or a belief1 and   
sometimes another1 by some heavenly     
influence2 444 men's   spirits one while
 flourishing1 another while barren1 even
 as   fields are seen to be1 what become
 of all those goodly   prerogatives     
wherewith we still flatter              
ourselves8#aee  ,all this1 of course1   
has a further bearing than ,montaigne   
gives it in the context1 and affects his
 own professed theology as it does the  
opinions he attacks2 but none the less1 
the passage strikes at the dogmatists   

and the pragmatists of all the preceding
 schools1 and hardily clears the ground 
for a new inductive system4 ,and in the 
last essay of all he makes a campaign   
against bad laws1 which unsays many of  
his previous sayings on the blessedness 
of custom4  ,in tracing his influence   
elsewhere1 it would be hard to point to 
an eminent ,french prose-writer who has 
not been affected by him4 ,sainte-,beuve
 finds#aef that ,la ,bruyere at bottom  
is close to ,montaigne1 in respect not  
only of his style and his skilfully     
inconsequent method1 but of his way of  
judging men and life2 and the literary  
heredity from ,montaigne to ,rousseau is
 recognised by all who have looked into 
the matter4 ,the temperaments are       
profoundly different2 yet the style of  
,montaigne had evidently taken as deep a
 hold of the artistic consciousness of  
,rousseau as had the doctrines of the   
later writers on whom he drew for his   
polemic4 ,but indeed he found in the    
essay on the ,cannibals the very theme  

of his first paradox2 in ,montaigne's   
emphatic denunciations#aeg of laws more 
criminal than the crimes they dealt     
with1 he had a deeper inspiration still2
 in the essay on the training of        
children he had his starting-points for 
the argumentation of ,emile2 and in the 
whole unabashed self-portraiture of the 
,,essays he had his great exemplar for  
the ,confessions4 ,even in the very     
different case of ,voltaire1 we may go  
at least as far as ,villemain and say   
that the essayist must have helped to   
shape the thought of the great          
freethinker2 whose ,philosophe ,ignorant
 may indeed be connected with the       
,,apology without any of the hesitation 
with which ,villemain suggests his      
general parallel4 ,in fine1 ,montaigne  
has scattered his pollen over all the   
literature of ,france4 ,the most typical
 thought of ,la ,rochefoucauld is thrown
 out#aeh in the essay#aei ,de l'utile et
 de l'honneste2 and the most            
modern-seeming currents of thought1 as  

,m4 ,stapfer remarks1 can be detected in
 the passages of the all-discussing     
,gascon4  ,among ,english-speaking      
writers1 to say nothing of those who1   
like ,sterne and ,lamb1 have been led by
 his example to a similar felicity of   
freedom in style1 we may cite ,emerson  
as one whose whole work is coloured by  
,montaigne's influence1 and ,thoreau as 
one who1 specially developing one side  
of ,emerson's gospel1 may be said to    
have found it all where ,emerson found  
it1 in the ,essay on ,solitude4#afj ,the
 whole doctrine of intellectual         
self-preservation1 the ancient thesis   
flee from the press and dwell in        
soothfastness1 is there set forth in a  
series of ringing sentences1 most of    
which1 set in ,emerson or ,thoreau1     
would seem part of their text and       
thought4 ,that this is no random        
attribution may be learned from the     
lecture on ,montaigne3 the ,sceptic1    
which ,emerson has included in his      
,,representative ,,men4 ,i remember1 he 

says1 telling how in his youth he       
stumbled on ,cotton's translation1 ,i   
remember the delight and wonder in which
 ,i lived with it4 ,it seemed to me as  
if ,i had myself written the book in    
some former life1 so sincerely it spoke 
to my thought and experience4 ,that is  
just what ,montaigne has done for a     
multitude of others1 in virtue of his   
prime quality of spontaneous            
self-expression4 ,as ,sainte-,beuve has 
it1 there is a ,montaigne in all of us4 
,flaubert1 we know1 read him constantly 
for style2 and no less constantly found 
himself in the self-revelation and      
analysis of the essays4  ,after all     
these testimonies to ,montaigne's       
seminal virtue1 and after what we have  
seen of the special dependence of       
,shakspere's genius on culture and      
circumstance1 stimulus and initiative1  
for its evolution1 there can no longer  
seem to an open mind anything of mere   
paradox in the opinion that the essays  
are the source of the greatest expansive

 movement of the poet's mind1 the       
movement which made him--already a      
master of the whole range of passional  
emotion1 of the comedy of mirth and the 
comedy and tragedy of sex--the great    
master of the tragedy of the moral      
intelligence4 ,taking the step from     
,,julius ,,caesar to ,,hamlet as        
corresponding to this movement in his   
mind1 we may say that where the first   
play exhibits the concrete perception of
 the fatality of things1 the riddle of  
the painful earth2 in the second1 in its
 final form1 the perception has emerged 
in philosophic consciousness as a pure  
reflection4 ,the poet has in the interim
 been revealed to himself2 what he had  
perceived he now conceives4 ,and this is
 the secret of the whole transformation 
which the old play of ,,hamlet has      
received at his hands4 ,where he was    
formerly the magical sympathetic plate1 
receiving and rectifying and giving     
forth in inspired speech every          
impression1 however distorted by        

previous instruments1 that is brought   
within the scope of its action1 he is   
now in addition the inward judge of it  
all1 so much so that the secondary      
activity tends to overshadow the        
primary4 ,the old ,,hamlet1 it is clear1
 was a tragedy of blood1 of physical    
horror4 ,the least that ,shakspere1 at  
this age1 could have done with it1 would
 be to overlay and transform the        
physical with moral perception2 and this
 has already been in part done in the   
,first ,quarto form4 ,the mad ,hamlet   
and the mad ,ophelia1 who had been at   
least as much comic as tragic figures in
 the older play1 are already purified of
 that taint of their barbaric birth1    
save in so far as ,hamlet still gibes at
 ,polonius and jests with ,ophelia in   
the primitive fashion of the pretended  
madman seeking his revenge4 ,but the    
sense of the futility of the whole      
heathen plan1 of the vanity of the      
revenge to which the ,christian ghost   
hounds his son1 of the moral void left  

by the initial crime and its            
concomitants1 not to be filled by any   
hecatomb of slain wrongdoers--the sense 
of all this1 which is the essence of the
 tragedy1 though so few critics seem to 
see it1 clearly emerges only in the     
finished play4 ,the dramatist is become 
the chorus to his plot1 and the         
impression it all makes on his newly    
active spirit comes out in soliloquy    
after soliloquy1 which hamper as much as
 they explain the action4 ,in the old   
prose story1 the astute barbarian takes 
a curiously circuitous course to his    
revenge1 but at last attains it4 ,in the
 intermediate tragedy of blood1 the     
circuitous action had been preserved1   
and withal the revenge was attained only
 in the general catastrophe1 by that    
daimonic fortune on which ,montaigne so 
often enlarges4 ,for ,shakspere1 then1  
with his mind newly at work in reverie  
and judgment1 where before it had been  
but perceptive and reproductive1 the    
theme was one of human impotence1       

failure of will1 weariness of spirit in 
presence of over-mastering fate1 recoil 
from the immeasurable evil of the world4
 ,hamlet becomes the mouthpiece of the  
all-sympathetic spirit which has put    
itself in his place1 as it had done with
 a hundred suggested types before1 but  
with a new inwardness of comprehension1 
a self-consciousness added to the       
myriad-sided consciousness of the past4 
,hence an involution rather than an     
elucidation of the play4 ,there can be  
no doubt that ,shakspere1 in heightening
 and deepening the theme1 has obscured  
it1 making the scheming barbarian into a
 musing pessimist1 who yet waywardly    
plays the mock-madman as of old1 and    
kills the rat behind the arras2 doubts  
the ,ghost while acting on his message2 
philosophises with ,montaigne and yet   
delays his revenge in the spirit of the 
,christianised savage1 who fears to send
 the praying murderer to heaven4 ,there 
is no solution of these anomalies3 the  
very state of ,shakspere's              

consciousness1 working in his subjective
 way on the old material1 made          
inevitable a moral anachronism and      
contradiction1 analogous in its kind to 
the narrative anachronisms of his       
historical plays4 ,but none the less1   
this tragedy1 the first of the great    
group which above all his other work    
make him immortal1 remains perpetually  
fascinating1 by virtue even of that pale
 cast of thought which has sicklied it  
o'er in the sense of making it too      
intellectual for dramatic unity and     
strict dramatic success4 ,between these 
undramatic1 brooding soliloquies which  
stand so aloof from the action1 but     
dominate the minds of those who read and
 meditate the text1 and the old         
sensational elements of murder1 ghost1  
fencing and killing1 which hold the     
interest of the crowd--between these    
constituents1 ,,hamlet remains the most 
familiar ,shaksperean play4  ,this very 
pre-eminence and permanence1 no doubt1  
will make many students still demur to  

the notion that a determining factor in 
the framing of the play was the poet's  
perusal of ,montaigne's essays4 ,and it 
would be easy to overstate that thesis  
in such a way as to make it untrue4     
,indeed1 ,m4 ,chasles has1 to my        
thinking1 so overstated it4 ,had ,i come
 to his main proposition before         
realising the infusion of ,montaigne's  
ideas in ,,hamlet1 ,i think ,i should   
have felt it to be as excessive in the  
opposite direction as the proposition of
 ,mr4 ,feis4 ,says ,m4 ,chasles3#afa--  
,this date of #afjc 7publication of     
,florio's translation7 is   instructive2
 the change in ,shakspere's style dates 
from this   very year4 ,before #afjc1   
imitation of ,petrarch1 of ,ariosto1    
and of ,spenser is evident in his work3 
after #afjc1 this   coquettish copying  
of ,italy has disappeared2 no more      
crossing rhymes1 no more sonnets and    
concetti4 ,all is   reformed at once4   
,shakspere1 who had hitherto studied the
   ancients only in the fashion of the  

fine writers of modern   ,italy1 444 now
 seriously studies ,plutarch and        
,sallust1 and   seeks of them those     
great teachings on human life with which
   the chapters of ,michael ,montaigne  
are filled4 ,is it not   surprising to  
see ,julius ,caesar and ,coriolanus     
suddenly taken   up by the man who has  
just 7tout a l'heure7 been describing   
in thirty-six stanzas1 like ,marini1 the
 doves of the car of   ,venus8 ,and does
 not one see that he comes fresh from   
the   reading of ,montaigne1 who never  
ceased to translate1   comment1 and     
recommend the ancients 4448 ,the dates  
of   ,shakspere's ,,coriolanus1         
,,cleopatra1 and ,,julius ,,caesar are  
incontestable4 ,these dramas follow on  
from #afjf to #afjh1   with a rapidity  
which proves the fecund heat of an      
imagination still moved4  ,all this must
 be revised in the light of a more      
correct chronology4 ,shakspere's        
,,julius ,,caesar dates1 not from #afjd 
but from #afjj or #afja1 being referred 

to in ,weever's ,,mirror ,,of ,,martyrs1
 published in #afja1 to say nothing of  
the reference in the third ,act of      
,,hamlet itself1 where ,polonius speaks 
of such a play4 ,and1 even if it had    
been written in #afjd1 it would still be
 a straining of the evidence to ascribe 
its production1 with that of            
,,coriolanus and ,,antony ,,and         
,,cleopatra1 to the influence of        
,montaigne1 when every one of these     
themes was sufficiently obtruded on the 
,elizabethan theatre by ,north's        
translation of ,amyot's ,,plutarch4 ,any
 one who will compare ,,coriolanus with 
the translation in ,north will see that 
,shakspere has followed the text down to
 the most minute and supererogatory     
details1 even to the making of blunders 
by putting the biographer's remarks in  
the mouths of the characters4 ,the      
comparison throws a flood of light on   
,shakspere's mode of procedure2 but it  
tells us nothing of his perusal of      
,montaigne4 ,rather it suggests a return

 from the method of the revised         
,,hamlet1 with its play of reverie1 to  
the more strictly dramatic method of the
 chronicle histories1 though with a new 
energy and concision of presentment4    
,the real clue to ,montaigne's influence
 on ,shakspere beyond ,,hamlet1 as we   
have seen1 lies not in the ,roman plays1
 but in ,,measure ,,for ,,measure4      
,there is a misconception involved1     
again1 in ,m4 ,chasles' picture of an   
abrupt transition from ,shakspere's     
fantastic youthful method to that of    
,,hamlet and the ,roman plays4 ,he      
overlooks the intermediate stages       
represented by such plays as ,,romeo    
,,and ,,juliet1 ,,henry ,,iv41 ,,king   
,,john1 the ,,merchant ,,of ,,venice1   
and ,,as ,,you ,,like ,,it1 all of which
 exhibit a great advance on the methods 
of ,,love',s ,,labour ,,lost1 with its  
rhymes and sonnets and concetti4 ,the   
leap suggested by ,m4 ,chasles is       
exorbitant2 such a headlong development 
would be unintelligible4 ,shakspere had 

first to come practically into touch    
with the realities of life and character
 before he could receive from ,montaigne
 the full stimulus he actually did      
undergo4 ,plastic as he was1 he none the
 less underwent a normal evolution2 and 
his early concreteness and verbalism and
 externality had to be gradually        
transmuted into a more inward knowledge 
of life and art before there could be   
superimposed on that the mood of the    
thinker1 reflectively aware of the      
totality of what he had passed through4 
,finally1 the most remarkable aspect of 
,shakspere's mind is not that presented 
by ,,coriolanus and ,,antony ,,and      
,,cleopatra1 which with all their       
intense vitality represent rather his   
marvellous power of reproducing         
impressions than the play of his own    
criticism on the general problem of     
life4 ,for the full revelation of this  
we must look rather in the great        
tragedies1 notably in ,,lear1 and       
thereafter in the subsiding movement of 

the later serious plays4 ,there it is   
that we learn to give exactitude to our 
conception of the influence exerted upon
 him by ,montaigne1 and to see that1    
even as in the cases of ,pascal and     
,montesquieu1 ,rousseau and ,emerson1   
what happened was not a mere            
transference or imposition of opinions1 
but a living stimulus1 a germination of 
fresh intellectual life1 which developed
 under new forms4 ,it would be strange  
if the most receptive and responsive of 
all the intelligences which ,montaigne  
has touched should not have gone on     
differentiating itself from his4        
,,vi4   ,what then is the general1 and  
what the final relation of ,shakspere's 
thought to that of ,montaigne8 ,how far 
did the younger man approve and         
assimilate the ideas of the elder1 how  
far did he reject them1 how far modify  
them8 ,in some respects this is the most
 difficult part of our inquiry1 were it 
only because ,shakspere is firstly and  
lastly a dramatic writer4 ,but he is not

 only that3 he is at once the most      
subjective1 the most sympathetic1 and   
the most self-witholding of dramatic    
writers4 ,conceiving all situations1 all
 epochs1 in terms of his own psychology1
 he is yet the furthest removed from all
 dogmatic design on the opinions of his 
listeners2 and it is only after a most  
vigilant process of moral logic that we 
can ever be justified in attributing to 
him this or that thesis of any one of   
his personages1 apart from the general  
ethical sympathies which must be taken  
for granted4 ,much facile propaganda has
 been made by the device of crediting   
him in person with every religious      
utterance found in his plays--even in   
the portions which analytical criticism 
proves to have come from other hands4   
,obviously we must look to his general  
handling of the themes with which the   
current religion deals1 in order to     
surmise his attitude to that religion4  
,and in the same way we must compare his
 general handling of tragic and moral   

issues1 in order to gather his general  
attitude to the doctrine of ,montaigne4 
,at the very outset1 we must make a     
clean sweep of the strange proposition  
of ,mr4 ,jacob ,feis--that ,shakspere   
deeply disliked the philosophy of       
,montaigne1 and wrote ,,hamlet to       
discredit it4 ,it is hard to realise how
 such a hopeless misconception can ever 
have arisen in the mind of anyone       
capable of making the historic research 
on which ,mr4 ,feis seeks to found his  
assertion4 ,if there were no other      
argument against it1 the bare fact that 
the tragedy of ,,hamlet existed before  
,shakspere1 and that he was1 as usual1  
simply working over a play already on   
the boards1 should serve to dismiss such
 a wild hypothesis4 ,and from every     
other point of view1 the notion is      
equally preposterous4  ,no human being  
in ,shakspere's day could have gathered 
from ,,hamlet such a criticism of       
,montaigne as ,mr4 ,feis reads into it  
by means of violences of interpretation 

which might almost startle ,mr4         
,donnelly4 ,even if they blamed ,hamlet 
for delaying his revenge1 in the manner 
of the ordinary critical moralist1 they 
could not possibly regard that delay as 
a kind of vice arising from the         
absorption of ,montaignesque opinions4  
,in the very year of the appearance of  
,florio's folio1 it was a trifle too    
soon to make the assumption that        
,montaigne was demoralising mankind1    
even if we assume ,shakspere to have    
ever been capable of such a judgment4   
,and that assumption is just as         
impossible as the other4 ,according to  
,mr4 ,feis1 ,shakspere detested such a  
creed and such conduct as ,hamlet's1 and
 made him die by poison in order to show
 his abhorrence of them--this1 when we  
know ,hamlet to have died by the        
poisoned foil in the earlier play4 ,on  
that view1 ,cordelia died by hanging in 
order to show ,shakspere's conviction   
that she was a malefactor2 and          
,desdemona by stifling as a fitting     

punishment for adultery4 ,the idea is   
outside of serious discussion4 ,barely  
to assume that ,shakspere held ,hamlet  
for a pitiable weakling is a            
sufficiently shallow interpretation of  
the play2 but to assume that he made him
 die by way of condign punishment for   
his opinions is merely ridiculous4 ,once
 for all1 there is absolutely nothing in
 ,hamlet's creed or conduct which       
,shakspere was in a position to regard  
as open to his denunciation4 ,the one   
intelligible idea which ,mr4 ,feis can  
suggest as connecting ,hamlet's conduct 
with ,montaigne's philosophy is that    
,montaigne was a quietest1 preaching and
 practising withdrawal from public      
broils4 ,but ,shakspere's own practice  
was on all fours with this4 ,he         
sedulously held aloof from all meddling 
in public affairs2 and as soon as he had
 gained a competence he retired1 at the 
age of forty-seven1 to                  
,stratford-on-,avon4 ,mr4 ,feis's       
argument brings us to the very crudest  

form of the good old ,christian verdict 
that if ,hamlet had been a good and     
resolute man he would have killed his   
uncle out of hand1 whether at prayers or
 anywhere else1 and would then have     
married ,ophelia1 put his mother in a   
nunnery1 and lived happily ever         
after4#afb ,and to that edifying        
assumption1 ,mr4 ,feis adds the fantasy 
that ,shakspere dreaded the influence of
 ,montaigne as a deterrent from the     
retributive slaughter of guilty uncles  
by wronged nephews4  ,in the hands of   
,herr ,stedefeld1 who in #ahga          
anticipated ,mr4 ,feis's view of        
,,hamlet as a sermon against ,montaigne1
 the thesis is not a whit more          
plausible4 ,herr ,stedefeld entitles his
 book#afc3 ,hamlet3 a                   
,drama-with-a-purpose 7,,tendenzdrama7  
opposing the sceptical and cosmopolitan 
view of things taken by ,michael de     
,montaigne2 and his general position is 
that ,shakspere wrote the play as the   
apotheosis of a practical ,christianity1

 by way of showing how any one like     
,hamlet1 lacking in ,christian piety1   
and devoid of faith1 love1 and hope1    
must needs come to a bad end1 even in a 
good cause4 ,we are not entitled to     
charge ,herr ,stedefeld's thesis to the 
account of religious bias1 seeing that  
,mr4 ,feis in his turn writes from the  
standpoint of a kind of ,protestant     
freethinker1 who sees in ,shakspere a   
champion of free inquiry against the    
,catholic conformist policy of          
,montaigne2 while strictly orthodox     
,christians have found in ,hamlet's     
various allusions to deity1 and in his  
as for me1 ,i will go pray1 a proof     
alike of his and of ,shakspere's        
steadfast piety4 ,against all such      
superficialities of exegesis alike our  
safeguard must be a broad common-sense  
induction4  ,we are entitled to say at  
the outset1 then1 only this1 that       
,shakspere at the time of working over  
,,hamlet and ,,measure ,,for ,,measure  
in #afjc-afjd had in his mind a great   

deal of the reasoning in ,montaigne's   
,essays2 and that a number of the       
speeches in the two plays reproduce     
portions of what he had read4 ,we are   
not entitled to assume that these       
portions are selected as being in       
agreement with ,shakspere's own views3  
we are here limited to saying that he   
put certain of ,montaigne's ideas or    
statements in the mouths of his         
characters where they would be          
appropriate4 ,it does not follow that he
 shared the feelings of ,claudio as to  
the possible life of the soul after     
death4 ,and when ,hamlet says to        
,horatio1 on the strangeness of the     
scene with the ,ghost3   ,and therefore 
as a stranger give it welcome6   ,there 
are more things in heaven and earth1    
,horatio1   ,than are dreamt of in our  
philosophy--  though this may be said to
 be a summary of the whole drift of     
,montaigne's essay1#afd ,,that ,,it ,,is
 ,,folly ,,to ,,refer ,,truth ,,or      
,,falsehood ,,to ,,our ,,sufficiency2   

and though we are entitled to believe   
that ,shakspere had that essay or its   
thesis in his mind1 there is no reason  
to suppose that the lines express       
,shakspere's own belief in ghosts4      
,montaigne had indicated his doubts on  
that head even in protesting against    
sundry denials of strange allegations3  
and it is dramatically fitting that     
,hamlet in the circumstances should say 
what he does4 ,on the other hand1 when  
the ,duke in ,,measure ,,for ,,measure1 
playing the part of a friar preparing a 
criminal for death1 gives ,claudio a    
consolation which does not contain a    
word of ,christian doctrine1 not a      
syllable of sacrificial salvation and   
sacramental forgiveness1 we are entitled
 to infer from such a singular negative 
phenomenon1 if not that ,shakspere      
rejected the ,christian theory of       
things1 at least that it formed no part 
of his habitual thinking4 ,it was the   
special business of the ,duke1 playing  
in such a character1 to speak to        

,claudio of sin and salvation1 of       
forgiveness and absolution4 ,such a     
singular omission must at least imply   
disregard on the part of the dramatist4 
,it is true that ,isabella1 pleading to 
,angelo in the second ,act1 speaks as a 
believing ,christian on the point of    
forgiveness for sins2 and the           
versification here is quite             
,shaksperean4 ,but a solution of the    
anomaly is to be found here as elsewhere
 in the fact that ,shakspere was working
 over an existing play2#afe and that in 
ordinary course he would1 if need were1 
put the religious pleading of ,isabella 
into his own magistral verse just as he 
would touch up the soliloquy of ,hamlet 
on the question of killing his uncle at 
prayers--a soliloquy which we know to   
have existed in the earlier forms of the
 play4 ,the writer who first made       
,isabella plead religiously with ,angelo
 would have made the ,duke counsel      
,claudio religiously4 ,the ,duke's      
speech1 then1 is to be regarded as      

,shakspere's special insertion2 and it  
is to be taken as negatively exhibiting 
his opinions4  ,in the same way1 the    
express withdrawal of the religious note
 at the close of ,,hamlet--where in the 
,second ,quarto we have ,shakspere      
making the dying prince say the rest is 
silence instead of heaven receive my    
soul1 as in the ,first ,quarto--may     
reasonably be taken to express the same 
agnosticism on the subject of a future  
life as is implied in the ,duke's speech
 to ,claudio4 ,it cannot reasonably be  
taken to suggest a purpose of holding   
,hamlet up to blame as an unbeliever1   
because ,hamlet is made repeatedly to   
express himself1 in talk and in         
soliloquy1 as a believer in deity1 in   
prayer1 in hell1 and in heaven4 ,these  
speeches are mostly reproductions of the
 old play1 the new matter being in the  
nature of the pagan allusion to the     
divinity that shapes our ends4 ,what is 
definitely ,shaksperean is just the     
agnostic conclusion4  ,did ,shakspere1  

then1 derive this agnosticism from      
,montaigne8 ,what were really           
,montaigne's religious and philosophic  
opinions8 ,we must consider this point  
also with more circumspection than has  
been shown by most of ,montaigne's      
critics4 ,the habit of calling him      
sceptic1 a habit initiated by the       
,catholic priests who denounced his     
heathenish use of the term ,fortune1 and
 strengthened by various writers from   
,pascal to ,emerson1 is a hindrance to  
an exact notion of the facts1 inasmuch  
as the word sceptic has passed through  
two phases of significance1 and may     
still have either4 ,in the original     
sense of the term1 ,montaigne is a good 
deal of a sceptic1 because the main     
purport of the ,,apology ,,of ,,raymond 
,,sebonde appears to be the discrediting
 of human reason all round1 and the     
consequent shaking of all certainty4    
,and this method strikes not only       
indirectly but directly at the current  
religious beliefs2 for ,montaigne       

indicates a lack of belief in           
immortality1#aff besides repeatedly     
ignoring the common faith where he would
 naturally be expected to endorse it1 as
 in the nineteenth and fortieth essays  
hereinbefore cited1 and in his          
discussion of the ,apology of ,socrates4
 ,as is complained by ,dean ,church3#afg
 ,his views1 both of life and death1 are
 absolutely and entirely unaffected by  
the fact of his profession to believe   
the ,gospel4 ,that profession1 indeed1  
partakes rather obviously of the nature 
of his other formal salutes#afh to the  
,church1 which are such as ,descartes   
felt it prudent to make in a later      
generation4 ,his profession of fidelity 
to ,catholicism1 again1 is rather his   
way of showing that he saw no           
superiority of reasonableness in        
,protestantism1 than the expression of  
any real conformity to ,catholic ideals2
 for he indicates alike his aversion to 
heretic-hunting and his sense of the    
folly of insisting on the whole body of 

dogma4 ,when fanatical ,protestants1    
uncritical of their own creed1 affected 
to doubt the sincerity of any man who   
held by ,catholicism1 he was naturally  
piqued4 ,but he was more deeply piqued1 
as ,naigeon has suggested1 when the few 
but keen freethinkers of the time       
treated the ,,theologia ,,naturalis of  
,sebonde1 which ,montaigne had          
translated at his father's wish1 as a   
feeble and inconclusive piece of        
argumentation2 and it was primarily to  
retaliate on such critics--who on their 
part no doubt exhibited some ill-founded
 convictions while attacking            
others--that he penned the ,,apology1   
which assails atheism in the familiar   
sophistical fashion1 but with a most    
unfamiliar energy and splendour of      
style1 as a manifestation of the foolish
 pride of a frail and perpetually erring
 reason4 ,for himself1 he was1 as we    
have said1 a classic theist1 of the     
school of ,cicero and ,seneca2 and as   
regards that side of his own thought he 

is not at all sceptical1 save in so far 
as he nominally protested against all   
attempts to bring deity down to human   
conceptions1 while himself doing that   
very thing1 as every theist needs must4 
,shakspere1 then1 could find in         
,montaigne the traditional deism of the 
pagan and ,christian world1 without any 
colour of specifically ,christian faith1
 and with a direct lead to unbelief in a
 future state4 ,but1 whether we suppose 
,shakspere to have been already led1 as 
he might be by the initiative of his    
colleague ,marlowe1 an avowed atheist1  
to agnostic views on immortality1 or    
whether we suppose him to have had his  
first serious lead to such thought from 
,montaigne1 we find him to all          
appearance carrying further the initial 
impetus1 and proceeding from the serene 
semi-,stoicism of the essayist to a     
deeper and sterner conception of things4
 ,it lay1 indeed1 in the nature of      
,shakspere's psychosis1 so abnormally   
alive to all impressions1 that when he  

fully faced the darker sides of         
universal drama1 with his reflective    
powers at work1 he must utter a         
pessimism commensurate with the theme4  
,this is part1 if not the whole1 of the 
answer to the question ,why did         
,shakspere write tragedies8#afi ,the    
whole answer can hardly be either ,mr4  
,spedding's1 that the poet wrote his    
darkest tragedies in a state of         
philosophic serenity1#agj or ,dr4       
,furnivall's1 that he described hell    
because he had felt hell4#aga ,but when 
we find ,shakspere writing a series of  
tragedies1 including an extremely sombre
 comedy 7,,measure ,,for ,,measure71    
after having produced mainly comedies   
and history-plays1 we must conclude that
 the change was made of his own choice1 
and that whereas formerly his theatre   
took its comedies mostly from him1 and  
its tragedies mostly from others1 it now
 took its comedies mostly from others   
and its tragedies from him4 ,further1 we
 must assume that the gloomy cast of    

thought so pervadingly given to the new 
tragedies is partly a reflex of his own 
experience1 but also in large part an   
expression of the philosophy to which he
 had been led by his reading1 as well as
 by his life4 ,for we must finally avow 
that the pervading thought in the       
tragedies outgoes the simple artistic   
needs of the case4 ,in ,,othello we have
 indeed a very strictly dramatic array  
of the forces of wrong--weakness1 blind 
passion1 and pitiless egoism2 but there 
is already a full suggestion of the     
overwhelming energy of the element of   
evil2 and in ,,lear the conception is   
worked out with a desperate insistence  
which carries us far indeed from the    
sunny cynicism and prudent scepticism of
 ,montaigne4 ,nowhere in the essays do  
we find such a note of gloom as is      
struck in the lines3   ,as flies to     
wanton boys are we to the ,gods3   ,they
 kill us for their sport4  ,and since   
there is no pretence of balancing that  
mordant saying with any decorous        

platitude of ,christian ,deism1 we are  
led finally to the admission that       
,shakspere sounded a further depth of   
philosophy than ,montaigne's            
unembittered cosmopolitan view of       
things4 ,instead of reacting against    
,montaigne's scepticism1 as ,herr       
,stedefeld supposes1 he produced yet    
other tragedies in which the wrongdoers 
and the wronged alike exhibit less and  
not more of ,christian faith than       
,hamlet1#agb and in which there is no   
hint of any such faith on the part of   
the dramatist1 but1 on the contrary1 a  
sombre persistence in the presentment of
 unrelieved evil4 ,the utterly wicked   
,iago has as much of religion in his    
talk as anyone else in ,,othello1 using 
the phrases ,christian and heathen1 ,god
 bless the mark1 ,heaven is my judge1   
,you are one of those that will not     
serve ,god1 if the devil bid you1 the   
little godliness ,i have1 ,god's will1  
and so forth2 the utterly wicked ,edmund
 in ,,lear1 as we have seen1 is made to 

echo ,montaigne's sceptical passage on  
the subject of stellar influences1      
spoken with a moral purpose1 rather than
 the quite contrary utterance in the    
,,apology1 in which the essayist1       
theistically bent on abasing human      
pretensions1 gives to his scepticism the
 colour of a belief in those very       
influences4#agc ,there is here1 clearly1
 no pro-religious thesis4 ,the whole    
drift of the play shows that ,shakspere 
shares the disbelief in stellar control1
 though he puts the expression of the   
disbelief in the mouth of a villain2    
though he makes the honest ,kent1 on the
 other hand1 declare that it is the     
stars 444 that govern our               
conditions2#agd and though he had       
previously made ,romeo speak of the yoke
 of inauspicious stars1 and the ,duke   
describe mankind as servile to all the  
skiey influences1 and was later to make 
,prospero1 in the ,,tempest#age express 
his belief in a most auspicious star4   
,in the case of ,montaigne1 who goes on 

yet again to contradict himself in the  
,,apology itself1 satirising afresh the 
habit of associating deity with all     
human concerns1 we are driven to surmise
 an actual variation of opinion--the    
vivacious intelligence springing this   
way or that according as it is reacting 
against the atheists or against the     
dogmatists4 ,montaigne1 of course1 is   
not a coherent philosopher2 the way to  
systematic philosophic truth is a path  
too steep to be climbed by such an      
undisciplined spirit as his1 sworn enemy
 to obligation1 to assiduity1 to        
constancy2#agf and the net result of his
 ,apology for ,raimond ,sebonde is to   
upset the system of that sober          
theologian as well as all others4       
,whether ,shakspere1 on the other hand1 
could or did detect all the             
inconsistencies of ,montaigne's         
reasoning1 is a point on which we are   
not entitled to more than a surmise2 but
 we do find that on certain issues on   
which ,montaigne dogmatises very much as

 did his predecessors1 ,shakspere       
applies a more penetrating logic1 and   
explicitly reverses the essayist's      
verdicts4 ,montaigne1 for instance1     
carried away by his master doctrine that
 we should live according to nature1 is 
given to talking of art and nature in   
the ordinary manner1 carrying the       
primitive commonplace indeed to the     
length of a paradox4 ,thus in the essay 
on the ,cannibals1#agg speaking of      
savages1 he protests that    ,they are  
even savage1 as we call those fruits    
wild which   nature of herself and of   
her ordinary progress hath   produced1  
whereas indeed they are those which     
ourselves have   altered by our         
artificial devices1 and diverted from   
their   common order1 we should rather  
call savage4 ,in those are the   true   
and more profitable virtues and natural 
properties most   lively and            
vigorous2#agh  deciding with ,plato that
    all things are produced either by   
nature1 by fortune1 or by   art2 the    

greatest and fairest by one or other of 
the two   first2 the least and imperfect
 by this last4  ,and in the             
,,apology1#agi after citing some as     
arguing that    ,nature by a maternal   
gentleness accompanies and guides the   
lower animals1 as if by the hand1 to all
 the actions and   commodities of their 
life1 while1 as for us1 she abandons    
us to hazard and fortune1 and to seek by
 art the things   necessary to our      
conservation1  though he proceeds to    
insist on the contrary that nature has  
universally embraced all her creatures1 
man as well as the rest1 and to argue   
that man is as much a creature of nature
 as the rest--since even speech1 if not 
natural1 is necessary--he never seems to
 come within sight of the solution that 
art1 on his own showing1 is just nature 
in a new phase4 ,but to that point      
,shakspere proceeds at a stride in the  
,,winter',s ,,tale1 one of the latest   
plays 78 #afaa71 written about the time 
when we know him to have been reading or

 re-reading the essay on the ,cannibals4
 ,when ,perdita refuses to plant        
gillyflowers in her garden1             
,for ,i have heard it said   ,there is  
an art which in their piedness shares   
,with great creating nature1  the old   
king answers3                           
,say there be3   ,yet nature is made    
better by no mean1   ,but nature makes  
that mean2 so o'er that art   ,which you
 say adds to nature1 is an art   ,that  
nature makes4 ,you see1 sweet maid1 we  
marry   ,a gentle scion to the wildest  
stock   ,and make conceive a bark of    
baser kind   ,by bud of nobler race3    
,this is an art   ,which does mend      
nature--change it rather2 but   ,the art
 itself is nature4#ahj  ,it is an       
analysis1 a criticism1 a philosophic    
demonstration2 and the subtle poet      
smilingly lets us see immediately that  
he had tried the argument on the        
fanatics of nature1 fair or other1 and  
knew them impervious to it4 ,i'll not   
put1 says ,puritan ,perdita1 after      

demurely granting that so it is--       
,i'll not put   ,the dibble in earth to 
set one slip of them4  ,the mind which  
could thus easily pierce below the      
inveterate fallacy of three thousand    
years of conventional speech may well be
 presumed capable of rounding           
,montaigne's philosophy wherever it     
collapses1 and of setting it aside      
wherever it is arbitrary4 ,certain it is
 that we can never convict ,shakspere of
 bad reasoning in person2 and in his    
later plays we never seem to touch      
bottom in his thought4 ,the poet of     
,,venus ,,and ,,adonis seems to have    
deepened beyond the plummet-reach even  
of the deep-striking intelligence that  
first stirred him to philosophise4  ,and
 yet1 supposing this to be so1 there is 
none the less a lasting community of    
thought between the two spirits1 a      
lasting debt from the younger to the    
elder4 ,indeed1 we cannot say that at   
all points ,shakspere outwent his guide4
 ,it is a curious reflection that they  

had probably one foible in common2 for  
we know ,montaigne's little weakness of 
desiring his family to be thought       
ancient1 of suppressing the fact of its 
recent establishment by commerce2 and we
 have evidence which seems to show that 
,shakspere sought zealously1#aha despite
 rebuffs1 the formal constitution of a  
coat-of-arms for his family4 ,on the    
other hand1 there is nothing in         
,shakspere's work--the nature of the    
case indeed forbade it--to compare in   
democratic outspokenness with           
,montaigne's essay#ahb ,,of ,,the       
,,inequality ,,among ,,us4 ,the         
,frenchman's hardy saying#ahc that the  
souls of emperors and cobblers are all  
cast in one same mould could not well be
 echoed in ,elizabethan drama2 and      
indeed we cannot well be sure that      
,shakspere would have endorsed it1 with 
his fixed habit of taking kings and     
princes and generals and rich ones for  
his personages4 ,but then1 on the other 
hand1 we cannot be sure that this was   

anything more than a part of his        
deliberate life's work of producing for 
the ,english multitude what that        
multitude cared to see1 and catching    
,london with that bait of royalty which 
commonly attracted it4 ,it remains a    
fine question whether his extravagant   
idealisation and justification of ,henry
 ,v4--which1 though it gives so little  
pause to some of our ,english critics1  
entitled ,m4 ,guizot to call him a mere 
,john ,bull in his ideas of             
international politics--it remains      
disputable whether this was exactly an  
expression of his own thought4 ,it is   
notable that he never again strikes the 
note of blatant patriotism4 ,and the    
poets of that time1 further1 seem to    
have had their tongues very much in     
their cheeks with regard to their       
,virgin ,queen2 so that we cannot be    
sure that ,shakspere1 paying her his    
fanciful compliment1#ahd was any more   
sincere about it than ,ben ,jonson1 who 
would do as much while privately        

accepting the grossest scandal          
concerning her4#ahe ,it is certainly a  
remarkable fact that ,shakspere         
abstained from joining in the poetic    
out-cry over her death1 incurring       
reproof by his silence4#ahf  ,however   
all that may have been1 we find         
,shakspere1 after his period of         
pessimism1 viewing life in a spirit     
which could be expressed in terms of    
,montaigne's philosophy4 ,he certainly  
shaped his latter years in accordance   
with the essayist's ideal4 ,we can      
conceive of no other man in ,shakspere's
 theatrical group deliberately turning  
his back1 as he did1 on the             
many-coloured ,london life when he had  
means to enjoy it at leisure1 and       
seeking to possess his own soul in      
,stratford-on-,avon1 in the circle of a 
family which had already lived so long  
without him4 ,but that retirement1      
rounding with peace the career of       
manifold and intense experience1 is a   
main fact in ,shakspere's life1 and one 

of our main clues to his innermost      
character4 ,emerson1 never quite        
delivered from ,puritan prepossessions1 
avowed his perplexity over the fact that
 this man of men1 he who gave to the    
science of mind a new and larger subject
 than had ever existed1 and planted the 
standard of humanity some furlongs      
forward into ,chaos--that he should not 
be wise for himself3 it must even go    
into the world's history that the best  
poet led an obscure 767 and profane     
life1 using his genius for the public   
amusement4 ,if this were fundamentally  
so strange a thing1 one might have      
supposed that the transcendentalist     
would therefore as a stranger give it   
welcome4 ,approaching it on another     
plane1 one finds nothing specially      
perplexing in the matter4 ,shakspere's  
personality was an uncommon combination2
 but was not that what should have been 
looked for8 ,and where1 after all1 is   
the evidence that he was not wise for   
himself8#ahg ,did he not make his       

fortune where most of his rivals failed8
 ,if he was obscure1 how otherwise could
 he have been less so8 ,how could the   
bankrupt tradesman's son otherwise rise 
to fame8 ,should he have sought1 at all 
costs1 to become a lawyer1 and rise     
perchance to the seat of ,bacon1 and the
 opportunity of eking out his stipend by
 bribes8 ,if it be conceded that he must
 needs try literature1 and such         
literature as a man could live by2 and  
if it be further conceded that his      
plays1 being so marvellous in their     
content1 were well worth the writing1   
where enters the profanity of having    
written them1 or of having acted in     
them1 for the public amusement8 ,even   
wise men seem to run special risks when 
they discourse on ,shakspere3 ,emerson's
 essay has its own anomaly4  ,it is     
indeed fair to say that ,shakspere must 
have drunk a bitter cup in his life as  
an actor4 ,it is true that that calling 
is apt to be more humiliating than      
another to a man's self-respect1 if his 

judgment remain sane and sensitive4 ,we 
have the expression of it all in the    
,sonnets3#ahh   ,alas6 'tis true1 ,i    
have gone here and there1   ,and made   
myself a motley to the view1  ,gored    
mine own thoughts1 sold cheap what is   
most dear1  ,made old offences of       
affections new4  ,it is impossible to   
put into fewer and fuller words the     
story1 many a year long1 of sordid      
compulsion laid on an artistic nature to
 turn its own inner life into matter for
 the stage4 ,but he who can read        
,shakspere might be expected to divine  
that it needed1 among other things1 even
 some such discipline as that to give   
his spirit its strange universality of  
outlook4 ,and he who could esteem both  
,shakspere and ,montaigne might have    
been expected to note how they drew     
together at that very point of the final
 retirement1 the dramatic caterer       
finally winning1 out of his earnings1   
the peace and self-possession that the  
essayist had inherited without toil4 ,he

 must1 one thinks1 have repeated to     
himself ,montaigne's very words#ahi3 ,my
 design is to pass quietly1 and not     
laboriously1 what remains to me of life2
 there is nothing for which ,i am minded
 to make a strain3 not knowledge1 of    
whatever great price it be4 ,and when he
 at length took himself away to the     
quiet village of his birth1 it could    
hardly be that he had not in mind those 
words of the essay#aij on ,,solitude3   
,we should reserve a storehouse for     
ourselves 444 altogether   ours1 and    
wholly free1 wherein we may hoard up and
 establish   our true liberty1 the      
principal retreat and solitariness1     
wherein we must go alone to             
ourselves4444 ,we have lived long       
enough for others1 live we the remainder
 of all life unto   ourselves4444 ,shake
 we off these violent hold-fasts which  
elsewhere engage us1 and estrange us    
from ourselves4 ,the   greatest thing of
 the world is for a man to know how to  
be   his own4 ,it is high time to shake 

off society1 since we can   bring       
nothing to it4444  ,a kindred note is   
actually struck in the #adfth           
,sonnet1#aia which tells of revolt at   
the expenditure of inner life on the    
outward garniture1 and exhorts the soul 
to live aright3      ,then soul live    
thou upon thy servant's loss1   ,and let
 that live to aggravate thy store2      
,buy terms divine in selling hours of   
dross2   ,within be fed2 without be rich
 no more3     ,so shalt thou feed on    
death that feeds on men1     ,and death 
once dead1 there's no more dying then-- 
an echo of much of ,montaigne's         
discourse1 herein before cited4#aib  ,in
 perfect keeping with all this movement 
towards peace and contemplation1 and in 
final keeping1 too1 with the deeper     
doctrine of ,montaigne1 is the musing   
philosophy which lights1 as with a      
wondrous sunset1 the play which one     
would fain believe the last of all4 ,at 
the end1 as at the beginning1 we find   
the poet working on a pre-existing      

basis1 re-making an old play2 and at the
 end1 as at the beginning1 we find him  
picturing1 with an incomparable         
delicacy1 new ideal types of womanhood1 
who stand out with a fugitive radiance  
from the surroundings of mere humanity2 
but over all alike1 in the ,,tempest1   
there is the fusing spell of philosophic
 reverie4 ,years before1 in ,,hamlet1 he
 had dramatically caught the force of   
,montaigne's frequent thought that      
daylight life might be taken as a       
nightmare1 and the dream life as the    
real4 ,it was the kind of thought to    
recur to the dramatist above all men1   
even were it not pressed upon him by the
 essayist's reiterations3    ,those     
which have compared our life unto a     
dream1 have   happily had more reason so
 to do than they were aware4 ,when   we 
dream1 our soul liveth1 worketh1 and    
exerciseth all her   faculties1 even and
 as much as when it waketh4444 ,we wake 
sleeping1 and sleep waking4 ,in my sleep
 ,i see not so clear1   yet can ,i never

 find my waking clear enough1 or without
   dimness4444 ,why make we not a doubt 
whether our thinking   and our working  
be another dreaming1 and our waking some
   kind of sleeping8#aic    ,let me     
think of building castles in ,spain1 my 
imagination   will forge me commodities 
and afford means and delights           
wherewith my mind is really tickled and 
essentially gladded4   ,how often do we 
pester our spirits with anger or sadness
 by   such shadows1 and entangle        
ourselves into fantastical   passions   
which alter both our mind and body8444  
,enquire of   yourself1 where is the    
object of this alteration8 ,is there    
anything but us in nature1 except       
subsisting nullity8 over   whom it hath 
any power8444 ,aristodemus1 king of the 
,messenians1 killed himself upon a      
conceit he took of some   ill presage by
 ,i know not what howling of dogs4444   
,it is the   right way to prize one's   
life at the right worth of it1 to       
forego it for a dream4#aid     444 ,our 

reasons do often anticipate the effect  
and have   the extension of their       
jurisdiction so infinite1 that they     
judge and exercise themselves in        
inanity1 and to a not   being4 ,besides 
the flexibility of our invention1 to    
frame   reasons unto all manner of      
dreams2 our imagination is   likewise   
found easy to receive impressions from  
falsehood1   by very frivolous          
appearances4#aie  ,again and again does 
the essayist return to this note of     
mysticism1 so distinct from the daylight
 practicality of his normal utterance4  
,and it was surely with these musings in
 his mind that the poet makes ,prospero 
pronounce upon the phantasmagoria that  
the spirits have performed at his       
behest4 ,we know1 indeed1 that the      
speech proceeds upon a reminiscence of  
four lines in the ,earl of ,stirling's  
,,darius 7#afjd71 lines in themselves   
very tolerable1 alike in cadence and    
sonority1 but destined to be remembered 
by reason of the way in which the       

master1 casting them into his           
all-transmuting alembic1 has remade them
 in the fine gold of his subtler        
measure4 ,the ,earl's lines run3   ,let 
greatness of her glassy scepters vaunt2 
,not scepters1 no1 but reeds1 soon      
bruised1 soon broken2   ,and let this   
worldly pomp our wits enchant2     ,all 
fades1 and scarcely leaves behind a     
token4   ,those golden palaces1 those   
gorgeous halls1     ,with furniture     
superfluously fair2   ,those stately    
courts1 those sky-encountering walls1   
,evanish all like vapours in the air4   
,the sonorities of the rhymed verse seem
 to have vibrated in the poet's brain   
amid the memories of the prose which had
 suggested to him so much2 and the verse
 and prose alike are raised to an       
immortal movement in the great lines of 
,prospero3                      ,these  
our actors1   ,as ,i foretold you1 are  
all spirits1 and   ,are melted into air1
 into thin air4   ,and like the baseless
 fabric of this vision1   ,the          

cloud-capped towers1 the gorgeous       
palaces1   ,the solemn temples1 the     
great globe itself1   ,yea1 all which it
 inherits1 shall dissolve   ,and1 like  
this unsubstantial pageant faded1       
,leave not a wrack behind4 ,we are such 
stuff   ,as dreams are made on1 and our 
little life   ,is rounded with a sleep4 
,in the face of that vast philosophy1 it
 seems an irrelevance to reason1 as some
 do1 that in the earlier scene in which 
,gonzalo expounds his ,utopia of        
incivilisation1 ,shakspere so arranges  
the dialogue as to express his own      
ridicule of the conception4 ,the        
interlocutors1 it will be remembered1   
are ,sebastian and ,antonio1 two of the 
villains of the piece1 and ,alonso1 the 
wrecked usurper4 ,the kind ,gonzalo     
talks of the ideal community to distract
 ,alonso's troubled thoughts2 ,sebastian
 and ,antonio jeer at him2 and ,alonso  
finally cries1 ,pr'ythee1 no more1 thou 
dost talk nothing to me4 ,herr ,gervinus
 is quite sure that this was meant to   

state ,shakspere's prophetic derision   
for all communisms and socialisms and   
peace congresses1 ,shakspere being the  
fore-ordained oracle of the political   
gospel of his ,german commentators1 on  
the principle of ,gott mit uns4 ,and it 
may well have been that ,shakspere1     
looking on the society of his age1 had  
no faith in any ,utopia1 and that he    
humorously put what he felt to be a     
valid criticism of ,montaigne's in the  
mouth of a surly rascal--he has done as 
much elsewhere4 ,but he was surely the  
last man to have missed seeing that     
,montaigne's ,utopia was no more        
,montaigne's personal political counsel 
to his age than ,,as ,,you ,,like ,,it  
was his own2 and1 as regards the main   
purpose of ,montaigne's essay1 which was
 to show that civilisation was no       
unmixed gain as contrasted with some    
forms of barbarism1 the author of       
,,cymbeline was hardly the man to repugn
 it1 even if he amused himself by       
putting forward ,caliban#aif as the real

 cannibal1 in contrast to ,montaigne's4 
,he had given his impression of certain 
aspects of civilisation in ,,hamlet1    
,measure for ,measure1 and ,,king       
,,lear4 ,as his closing plays show1     
however1 he had reached the knowledge   
that for the general as for the private 
wrong1 the sane man must cease to       
cherish indignation4 ,that teaching1    
which he could not didactically impose1 
for such a world as his1 on the old     
tragedy of revenge which he recoloured  
with ,montaigne's thought1 he found     
didactically enough set down in the     
essay on ,diversion3#aig    ,revenge is 
a sweet pleasing passion1 of a great and
 natural   impression3 ,i perceive it   
well1 albeit ,i have made no trial   of 
it4 ,to divert of late a young prince   
from it1 ,i told him   not he was to    
offer the one side of his cheek to him  
who had   struck him on the other in    
regard of charity2 nor displayed   ,i   
unto him the tragical events poesy      
bestoweth upon that   passion4 ,there ,i

 left him and strove to make him taste  
the   beauty of a contrary image2 the   
honour1 the favour1 and the   goodwill  
he should acquire by gentleness and     
goodness2 ,i   diverted him to ambition4
  ,and now it is didactically uttered by
 the wronged magician in the drama3--   
,though with their high wrongs ,i am    
struck to the quick1   ,yet with my     
nobler reason1 'gainst my fury   ,do ,i 
take part2 the rarer action is   ,in    
virtue than in vengeance4444  ,the      
principle now pervades the whole of     
,prospero's society2 even the cursed and
 cursing ,caliban is recognised#aih as a
 necessary member of it3--   ,we cannot 
miss him2 he does make our fire1        
,fetch in our wood2 and serves in       
offices   ,that profit us4  ,it is      
surely not unwarrantable to pronounce1  
then1 finally1 that the poet who thus   
watchfully lit his action from the two  
sides of passion and sympathy was in the
 end at one with his guide1 philosopher1
 and friend1 who in that time of        

universal strife and separateness could 
of his own accord renew the spirit of   
,socrates1 and say3#aii ,i esteem all   
men my compatriots1 and embrace a ,pole 
even as a ,frenchman1 subordinating this
 national tie to the common and         
universal4 ,here1 too1 was not          
,montaigne the first of the moderns8    
#a ,preface to ,eng4 trans4 of ,simrock 
on ,the ,plots of   ,shakespere's       
,plays1 #ahej4    #b ,lady ,politick    
,would-be4 ,all our ,english writers1   
,i mean such as are happy in the        
,italian1       ,will deign to steal out
 of this author ,pastor ,fido mainly    
,almost as much as from ,montaignie2    
,he has so modern and facile a vein1    
,fitting the time1 and catching the     
court ear4                              
--,act iii4 sc4 #b4    #c ,london and   
,westminster ,review1 ,july1 #ahch1 p4  
#cba4    #d ,article in ,journal des    
,debats1 #g ,november1 #ahdf1           
reprinted in ,l',angleterre au ,seizieme
 ,siecle1 ed4 #ahgi1 p4   #acf4    #e   

,montaigne 7,serie des ,grands          
,ecrivains ,francais71   #ahie1 p4 #aje4
    #f ,moliere et ,shakspere4    #g    
,shakspere and ,classical ,antiquity1   
,eng4 tr4 p4 #big4    #h ,see this point
 discussed in the ,free ,review of      
,july1   #ahie3 and compare the lately  
published essay of ,mr4 ,john   ,corbin1
 on ,the ,elizabethan ,hamlet1 7,elkin  
,matthews1 #ahie74    #i ,hamlet1 ,act  
,v1 scene #b4    #aj ,book ,i1 ,essay   
#cc4    #aa ,advice in ,florio4    #ab  
,b4 ,,iii1 ,ch4 #h4 ,of the art of      
conferring4    #ac ,b4 ,,iii1 ,ch4 #ab4 
#ad ,act ,,ii1 ,sc4 #a1 #add4    #ae    
,book ,i1 ch4 ,,ii1 end4    #af ,book   
,i1 ch4 #bc4    #ag ,ibid4    #ah ,some 
slip of the pen seems to have occurred  
in this   confused line4 ,the original  
,et male consultis pretium est3         
prudentia fallax--is sufficiently close 
to ,shakspere's   phrase4    #ai ,o     
heaven6 a beast that wants discourse of 
reason 7,act   ,i1 ,scene #b47    #bj   
,act ,,ii1 ,sc4 #b4    #ba ,act ,,iv1   

,scene #b4    #bb ,act ,,iv1 ,scene #d4 
#bc ,see ,furniss's ,variorum edition of
 ,hamlet1 in loc4    #bd ,b4 ,i1 ,chap4 
#ai2 ,edit4 ,firmin-,didot1 vol4 i1 p4  
#fh4    #be ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #d2 ,ed4   
cited1 p4 #chb4    #bf ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 
#ab2 ,ibid1 p4 #dei4    #bg ,b4 ,,ii1   
,chap4 #cc4    #bh ,shakespere and      
,montaigne1 #ahhd1 p4 #hh4    #bi ,b4   
,,iii1 ,chap4 #ab4    #cj ,act ,,iii1   
,scene #c4    #ca ,b4 ,i1 ch4 #bb4      
#cb ,act ,,ii1 ,scene #b4    #cc        
,othello1 ,act ,,ii1 ,scene #c4    #cd  
,b4 ,i1 ch4 #dj1 ,that the taste of     
goods or evils doth   greatly depend on 
the opinion we have of them4    #ce ,b4 
,i1 ch4 #ej4    #cf ,b4 ,i1 ch4 #bb4    
#cg ,b4 ,,iii1 ch4 #aj4    #ch ,act ,v1 
,scene #d4    #ci ,on reverting to ,mr4 
,feis's book ,i find that in #ahhd he   
had noted this and others of the above  
parallels1 which ,i   had not observed  
when writing on the subject in #ahhc4   
,in   view of some other parallels and  
clues drawn by him1 our   agreements    

leave me a little uneasy4 ,he decides1  
for   instance 7p4 #ic7 that ,hamlet's  
phrase foul as ,vulcan's   stithy is a  
sly thrust at ,florio who in his preface
 calls   himself ,montaigne's ,vulcan2  
that the ,queen's phrase   thunders in  
the index is a reference to the ,index  
of the   ,holy ,see and its thunders2   
and that ,hamlet's lines ,why let   the 
stricken deer go weep are clearly a     
satire against   ,montaigne1 who fights 
shy of action4 ,mr4 ,feis's book        
contains so many propositions of this   
order that it is   difficult to feel    
sure that he is ever judicious4 ,still1 
,i   find myself in agreement with him  
on some four or five   points of textual
 coincidence in the two authors4    #dj 
,act ,i1 ,scene #d4    #da ,b4 ,,ii1    
,chap4 #cc4    #db ,it is further       
relevant to note that in the essay ,of  
,drunkenness 7ii4 #b7 ,montaigne        
observes that drunkenness   amongst     
others appeareth to me a gross and      
brutish vice1   that the worst estate of

 man is where he loseth the   knowledge 
and government of himself1 and that the 
grossest   and rudest nation that liveth
 amongst us at this day1 is   only that 
which keepeth it in credit4 ,the        
reference is to   ,germany3 but         
,shakspere in ,othello 7,act ,,ii1 ,sc4 
#c7 makes   ,iago pronounce the ,english
 harder drinkers than either the        
,danes or the ,hollanders2 and the      
lines3     ,this heavy-headed revel1    
east and west1     ,makes us traduced   
and taxed of other nations2     ,they   
clepe us drunkards1 and with swinish    
phrase1     ,soil our addition4    might
 also be reminiscent of ,montaigne1     
though of course   there is nothing     
peculiar in such a coincidence4    #dc  
,b4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #g4    #dd ,b4 ,,iii1 
,chap4 #d4    #de ,b4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #aj4
    #df ,b4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #b4    #dg ,b4
 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #ac4    #dh ,b4 ,i1      
,chap4 #ch4    #di ,b4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #d4
    #ej ,b4 ,i1 ,chap4 #dj4    #ea ,b4  
,,ii1 ,chap4 #h4    #eb ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4

 #ah4    #ec ,de ,officus i1 #d3 cf4    
#cj4    #ed #aecd1 #aeeh1 #aehc1 #afjj4 
,see also the compilation   entitled ,a 
,treatise of ,morall ,philosophie by ,w4
 ,baudwin1   #dth enlargement by ,t4    
,paulfreyman4 #afjj1 pp4 #dd-df1 where  
there is a closely parallel passage from
 ,zeno as well as   that of ,cicero4    
#ee ,mr4 ,feis makes this attribution4  
#ef ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #a4    #eg ,this   
may fairly be argued1 perhaps1 even of  
the   somewhat close parallel1 noted by 
,mr4 ,feis1 between ,laertes'   lines   
7,i1 #c73     ,for nature1 crescent1    
does not grow alone     ,in thews and   
bulk1 but as this temple waxes     ,the 
inward service of the mind and soul     
,grows wide withal1    and ,florio's    
rendering of an extract from ,lucretius 
in the   ,apology     ,the mind is with 
the body bred1 we do behold4     ,it    
jointly grows with it1 it waxeth old4   
,only the slight coincidence of the use 
of the 7then   familiar7 verb wax in    
both passages could suggest   imitation 

in the case of such a well-worn         
commonplace4    #eh ,see some cited at  
the close of this essay in another      
connection4    #ei ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #ab4
    #fj ,act ,,iv1 ,scene #c4    #fa ,le
 monde est un branloire perenne 7,book  
,,iii1 ,essay   #b74 ,florio translates 
that particular sentence3 ,the world    
runs all on wheels a bad rendering4     
#fb ,b4 ,,iii1 ,chap4 #c4    #fc ,b4    
,,ii1 ,chap4 #ag4    #fd ,it may fairly 
be laid down as practically certain1    
from   what we know of the habit of     
circulating works in manuscript   at    
that period1 and from what ,florio tells
 us in his   preface1 that translations 
of some of the essays had been   passed 
about before ,florio's folio was        
printed4 #fe ,varia   ,historia1 ,,xii1 
#bc4    #ff ,the story certainly had a  
wide vogue1 being found in   ,aristotle1
 ,eudemian ,ethics1 iii1 #a1 and in     
,nicolas of   ,damascus2 while ,strabo  
7vii1 ii4 ,sec4 #a7 gives it further    
currency by contradicting it as regards 

the ,cimbri4    #fg ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #e4
    #fh ,b4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #c4    #fi     
,richard ,,iii1 ,i1 #d2 ,v1 #c4    #gj  
,the ,influence of ,seneca on           
,elizabethan ,tragedy1 #ahic1   p4      
#hj-e4    #ga ,actus ,,iii1 #hfe-hff4   
#gb ,actus ,,iv1 #aebf-g4    #gc ,this  
in turn is an echo from the ,greek4 ,see
 note in   ,doering's edition4    #gd   
,see ,boswell's edition of ,malone's    
,shakspere1 in loc4    #ge ,yet again1  
in ,marston's ,insatiate ,countess1 the 
commentators have noticed the same      
sentiment4    ,death1 ,from whose stern 
cave none tracks a backward path4    ,it
 was in fact a poetic commonplace4      
#gf ,act #e1 ,scene #f4    #gg ,act v1  
sc4 #a4    #gh ,i1 #bb4    #gi #b ,h4   
,,iv1 iv4 #c    #hj ii1 #b    #ha ii1   
#aj4    #hb ,so far as ,i remember1 the 
idea of suicide as a   desertion of     
one's post without the deity's          
permission is   first found1 in ,english
 literature1 in ,sidney1 and he would   
find it in ,montaigne's essay on the    

,custom of the ,isle of   ,cea 7edit4   
,firmin-,didot1 i4 #cfg74    #hc ,when  
this is compared with the shorter speech
 of   similar drift in the anonymous    
play of ,edward ,,iii4 7,to   die is all
 as common as to live etc41 ,act iv41   
sc4 #d7 it   will be seen that the      
querying form as well as the            
elaboration constitutes a special       
resemblance between the   speech in     
,shakspere and the passages in          
,montaigne    #hd ,,apology ,,of        
,,raymond ,,sebonde4    #he ii1 #f1 ,of 
,exercise or ,practice4    #hf ,apology4
    #hg ,ibid41 near end4    #hh ,on    
,isis and ,osiris1 c4 #bf4    #hi ,canto
 v4    #ij ,canto xxxii4    #ia ,it     
would seem to be from those early       
monkish legends   that the mediaeval    
,inferno was built up4 ,the torture of  
cold   was the northern contribution to 
the scheme4 ,compare ,warton1   ,history
 of ,english ,poetry1 sec4 #di1 and     
,wright's ,saint   ,patrick's           
,purgatory1 #ahdd1 p4 #ah4    #ib       

,paradise ,lost1 ,b4 ,,ii1 #ehg-fjc4    
#ic ,edit4 ,firmin-,didot4 i1 #eig-eih4 
#id ,ibid4 p4 #fba4    #ie ,act iv1 sc4 
#e4    #if iii1 #c4    #ig ,b4 v1 cc4   
#h1 #i1 #aj4 ,cf4 vi1 #b1 #c4    #ih ,b4
 v1 cc4 #bb-be4    #ii ii1 #cb4    #ajj 
,the arguments of ,dr4 ,karl ,elze1 in  
his ,essays on   ,shakspere 7,eng4 tr41 
p4 #ae71 to show that the ,tempest was  
written about #afjd1 seem to me to      
possess no weight   whatever4 ,he goes  
so far as to assume that the speech of  
,prospero in which ,shakspere transmutes
 four lines of the   ,earl of           
,stirling's ,darius must have been      
written   immediately after the         
publication of that work4 ,the argument 
is 7#a7 that ,shakspere must have seen  
,darius when it came   out1 and 7#b7    
that he would imitate the passage then  
or   never4    #aja ,act v1 sc4 #c4     
#ajb i1 #ca4    #ajc ii1 #ac4    #ajd   
,act i1 sc4 #b4    #aje ,act iv1 sc4 #c4
    #ajf i1 #b4    #ajg ,hippolytus1    
#fae 7#fjg74    #ajh ,see the ,prologue 

to ,every ,man in ,his ,humour1 first   
ed41 preserved by ,gifford4    #aji ,the
 #bith4    #aaj ,see his                
,characteristics of ,english ,poets1    
#bnd4 ed4   p4 #bbb4    #aaa ,the most  
elaborate and energetic attempt to prove
   ,shakspere classically learned is    
that made in the ,critital              
,observations on ,shakspere 7#agdf7 of  
the ,rev4 ,john ,upton1 a   man of great
 erudition and much random acuteness    
7shown   particularly in bold attempts  
to excise interpolations from   the     
,gospels71 but as devoid of the higher  
critical wisdom as   was ,bentley1 whom 
he congenially criticised4 ,to a reader 
of   to-day1 his arguments from         
,shakspere's diction and syntax   are   
peculiarly unconvincing4    #aab ,it may
 not be out of place here to say a word 
for   ,farmer in passing1 as against the
 strictures of ,m4 ,stapfer1   who1     
after recognising the general pertinence
 of his   remarks1 proceeds to say      
7,shakspere and ,classical   ,antiquity1

 ,eng4 trans1 p4 #hc7 that ,farmer fell 
into the   egregious folly of speaking  
in a strain of impertinent   conceit3 it
 is as if the little man for little he  
must   assuredly have been--was eaten up
 with vanity4 ,this is in   its way as  
unjust as the abuse of ,knight4 ,m4     
,stapfer has   misunderstood ,farmer's  
tone1 which is one of banter against1   
not ,shakspere1 but those critics who   
blunderingly ascribed   to him a wide   
and close knowledge of the classics4    
,towards   ,shakspere1 ,farmer was      
admiringly appreciative--and in the     
preface to the second edition of his    
essay he wrote3   ,shakspere wanted not 
the stilts of languages to raise him    
above all other men4    #aac ,ch4 iv1 of
 vol4 cited4    #aad ,the ,influence of 
,seneca on ,elizabethan ,tragedy1 pp4   
#ff-fg4    #aae ,hercules ,furens1 ad   
fin4 7#acbd-acbi474    #aaf ,hippolytus1
 ,act4 ,,ii1 #gae-gah 7#gbc-gbf47       
#aag ,choephori1 #fc-fe4    #aah ,carm4 
lxxxviii1 ,in ,gellium4 ,see the note in

   ,doering's edition4    #aai          
,gerusalemme1 xviii1 #h4    #abj ,the   
,insatiate ,countess1 published in      
#afac4    #aba ,hamlet1 ,act iv1 sc4 #c4
    #abb ,agamemnon1 #aeb-aec4    #abc  
ii1 #c 7near beginning47    #abd        
,hercules ,furens1 ,act4 ,v4 #abfa-b4   
#abe ,act iv1 ,sc4 #c4    #abf ,hercules
 ,furens1 #abeh-fa4    #abg ,macbeth1   
,act v1 ,sc4 #b4    #abh ,ibid4 ,act iv1
 ,sc4 #b4    #abi ,ibid4 ,act i1 sc4 #g4
    #acj ,b4 ii1 ch4 #aj4    #aca       
,tschischwitz1 ,shakspere-,forschungen1 
i4 #ahfh1 ,s4 #eb4    #acb ,es ist      
ubrigens nicht zu bedauern dass         
,shakspere   ,brunos ,komodie nicht     
durchweg zum ,muster genommen1 den sie  
enthaelt so masslose ,obscoenitaten1    
dass ,shakspere an seinen   staerksten  
,stellen daneben fast jungfraeulich     
erscheint 7,work   cited1 ,s4 #eb74     
#acc ,work cited1 ,s4 #eg4 ,i follow    
,dr4 ,tschischwitz's   translation1 so  
far as syntax permits4    #acd ,act i1  
,sc4 #d4    #ace ,work cited1 ,sc4 #ei4 

#acf ,see ,frith's ,life of ,giordano   
,bruno1 #ahhi1 pp4   #aba-abh4    #acg  
,act v4 ,sc4 #a4    #ach ,cited by      
,noack1 art4 ,bruno1 in                 
,philosophie-geschichtliches ,lexikon4  
#aci ,act i1 ,sc4 #b4    #adj ,work     
cited1 p4 #ij4    #ada ,it would be     
unjust to omit to acknowledge that ,dr4 
,furnivall seeks to frame an inductive  
notion of ,shakspere1   even when       
rejecting good evidence and proceeding  
on   deductive lines2 that in the works 
of ,professor ,dowden on   ,shakspere   
there is always an effort towards a     
judicial   method1 though he refuses to 
take some of the most necessary   steps2
 and that the work of ,mr4 ,appleton    
,morgan1 ,president   of the ,new ,york 
,shakspere ,society1 entitled ,shakspere
 in   ,fact and ,criticism 7,new ,york1 
#ahhh71 is certainly not open   to the  
criticism ,i have passed4 ,mr4 ,morgan's
 essentially   rationalistic attitude is
 indicated in a sentence of his         
preface3 ,my own idea has been that     

,william ,shakspere was a   man of like 
passions with ourselves1 whose moods and
 veins   were influenced1 just as are   
ours1 by his surroundings1              
employments1 vocations 444 and that1    
great as he was1 and   oceanic as was   
his genius1 we can read him all the     
better   because he was1 after all1 a   
man4444 ,in recognising the   good sense
 of ,mr4 ,morgan's general attitude1 ,i 
must not be   understood to endorse his 
rejection of the metrical tests   of    
,mr4 ,fleay and other ,english critics4 
,these seem to me to   be about the most
 important ,english contribution to the 
scientific comprehension of ,shakspere4 
,on the other hand1 it   may be said    
that the naturalistic conception of     
,shakspere as   an organism in an       
environment was first closely approached
   in the present century by ,french    
critics1 as ,guizot and   ,chasles      
7,taine's picture of the ,elizabethan   
theatre1 adopted   by ,green1 having    
been founded on a study by ,chasles72   

that   the naturalistic comprehension of
 ,hamlet1 as an incoherent   whole      
resulting from the putting of new cloth 
into an old   garment1 was first reached
 by the ,german ,ruemelin 7,shakspere   
,studien72 and that the structural      
anomalies of ,hamlet as   an acting play
 were first clearly put by the ,german  
,benedix   7,die ,shakspereomanie7 these
 two critics thus making amends   for   
much vain discussion of ,hamlet by their
 countrymen   before and since2 while   
the naturalistic conception of the   man
 ,shakspere is being best developed at  
present in ,america4   ,the admirable   
work of ,messrs4 ,clarke and ,wright and
 ,fleay in   the analysis of the text   
and the revelation of its               
non-,shaksperean elements1 seems to make
 little impression on   ,english        
culture2 while such a luminous manual as
 ,mr4 ,barrett   ,wendell's ,william    
,shakspere3 a ,study in ,elizabethan    
,literature 7,new ,york1 #ahid71 with   
its freshness of outlook   and          

appreciation1 points to decided progress
 in rational   ,shakspere-study in the  
,states1 though1 like the ,shakspere    
,primer of ,professor ,dowden1 it is not
 consistently   scientific throughout4  
#adb ,life of ,shakspere1 #ahhf1 p4     
#abh4    #adc ,see ,mr4 ,appleton       
,morgan's ,shakspere's ,venus and       
,adonis3 a ,study in ,warwickshire      
,dialect4    #add ,professor ,dowden    
notes in his ,shakspere ,primer 7p4     
#ab7 that before #afjj the prices paid  
for plays1 by ,henslowe1   the          
theatrical lessee1 vary from ,l#d to    
,l#h1 and not till   later did it rise  
as high as ,l#bj for a play by a popular
   dramatist4    #ade ,compare the #ghth
 ,sonnet1 which ends2--      ,but thou  
art all my art1 and dost advance     ,as
 high as learning my rude ignorance4    
#adf ,life of ,shakspere1 pp4 #bi1 #abh4
    #adg ,see it in his ,life of        
,shakspere1 pp4 #abj-abd4 ,mr4          
,fleay's theory1 though perhaps the best
 documented of all1   has received      

little attention in comparison with ,mr4
   ,tyler's1 which has the attraction of
 fuller detail4    #adh ,only in        
,chaucer 7e4g41 ,the ,book of the       
,duchess7 do   we find before his time  
the successful expression of the   same 
perception2 and ,chaucer counted for    
almost nothing in   ,elizabethan        
letters4    #adi ,see ,fleay's ,life of 
,shakspere1 pp4 #acj-a4    #aej ,cp4 the
 ,essays1 ii1 #ag3 iii1 #b4 7,edit4     
cited1 vol4   ii1 pp4 #dj1 #bca47       
#aea ,essays1 i1 #be2 cf4 i1 #dh4       
7,edit4 cited1 vol4 i1   pp4 #cjd1      
#dbi47    #aeb ii1 #d4 7,edit4 cited1 i1
 #chj47    #aec ii1 #aj4 7,edit4 cited1 
i1 #dbi47    #aed ,pensees ,diverses4   
,less satisfying is the further   pensee
 in the same collection3--,les quatre   
grand poetes1   ,platon1 ,malebranche1  
,shaftesbury1 ,montaigne4    #aee       
,edition cited1 i1 #fbb-fbc4    #aef    
,port ,royal1 #d;ieme edit41 ii4 #djj1  
note4    #aeg ,b4 iii1 ,chap4 #ac4      
#aeh ,in the midst of our compassion1 we

 feel within ,i know   not what bitter  
sweet touch of malign pleasure in seeing
   others suffer4 7,comp4 ,la           
,rochefoucauld1 ,pensee #ajd47    #aei  
,b4 iii1 ,chap4 #a4    #afj i1 ,chap4   
#ch4    #afa ,l',angleterre au ,seizieme
 ,siecle1 p4 #acc4    #afb ,this seems  
to be the ideal implied in the          
criticisms   even of ,mr4 ,lowell and   
,mr4 ,dowden4    #afc ,hamlet3 ein      
,tendenzdrama ,sheakspere's sic         
throughout book gegen die skeptische und
 cosmopolitische   ,weltanschanung des  
,michael de ,montaigne1 von ,g4 ,f4     
,stedefeld1 ,kreisgerichtsrath1 ,berlin4
 #ahga4    #afd ,b4 i1 ,chap4 #bf4      
#afe ,it is not disputed that the plot  
existed beforehand in   ,whetstone's    
,promos and ,cassandra2 and there was   
probably   an intermediate drama4       
#aff ,edit4 ,firmin-,didot1 i1 #eij4    
#afg ,oxford ,essays1 p4 #bgi4          
,sterling1 from his                     
,christian-,carlylese point of view1    
declared of ,montaigne   that ,all that 

we find in him of ,christianity would be
   suitable to apes and dogs rather than
 to rational and moral   beings 7,london
 and ,westminster ,review1 ,july1 #ahch1
 p4   #cdj47    #afh ,sainte-,beuve has 
noted how in the essay on ,prayer he    
added many safeguarding clauses in the  
later editions4    #afi ,see ,mr4       
,spedding's essay1 so entitled1 in the  
,cornhill ,magazine1 ,august1 #ahhj4    
#agj ,art4 cited1 end4    #aga ,note    
cited by ,mr4 ,spedding4 ,cp4 ,introd4  
to ,leopold   ,shakspere p4 lxxxvii4    
#agb ,lear once 7iii4 #d7 says he will  
pray2 but his religion   goes no        
further4    #agc ,see the passage cited 
above in section iii in   connection    
with ,measure for ,measure4    #agd ,act
 iv1 ,sc4 #b4    #age ,act i1 ,sc4 #b4  
#agf ,b4 i1 ,chap4 #bj4    #agg ,b4 i1  
,chap4 #cj4    #agh ,edit4              
,firmin-,didot1 i1 #bjb4    #agi ,ibid41
 pp4 #dgg-dgh4    #ahj ,here1 it may be 
said1 there is a trace of the           
influence of ,bruno's philosophy2 and it

 may well be that   ,shakspere did not  
spontaneously strike out the thought for
   himself4 ,but ,i am not aware that   
any parallel passage has   been cited4  
#aha ,fleay's ,life1 pp4 #ach1 c4       
#ahb ,b4 i1 ,chap4 #db4    #ahc ,b4 ii1 
,chap4 #ab4 7,edit4 cited1 i4 #eja47    
#ahd ,midsummer ,nights ,dream1 ,act ii4
 ,sc4 #b4    #ahe ,see his              
,conversations with ,drummond of        
,hawthornden    #ahf                    
,halliwell-,phillipps1 ,outlines of the 
,life of   ,shakspere1 #eth ed41 p4     
#age4    #ahg ,i find even ,mr4         
,appleton ,morgan creating a needless   
difficulty on this head4 ,in his        
,shakspere in ,fact and   ,criticism1   
already cited1 he writes 7p4 #caf73 ,i  
find him   444 living and dying so      
utterly unsuspicious that he had   done 
anything of which his children might    
care to hear1 that   he never even      
troubled himself to preserve the        
manuscript of   or the literary property
 in a single one of the plays which     

had raised him to affluence4 ,as ,i have
 already pointed out1   there is no     
reason to suppose that ,shakspere could 
retain   the ownership of his plays any 
more than did the other   writers who   
supplied his theatre4 ,they belonged to 
the   partnership4 ,besides1 he could   
not possibly have published   as his the
 existing mass1 so largely made up of   
other   men's work4 ,his fellow-players 
did so without scruple after   his      
death1 being simply bent on making      
money4    #ahh ,sonnet #aaj4 ,compare   
the next4    #ahi ,b4 ii1 ,chap4 #aj4   
#aij ,b4 i1 ,chap4 #ch4    #aia ,this   
may be presumed to have been written    
between #afjc   and #afji1 the date of  
the publication of the ,sonnets4 ,as    
,mr4   ,minto argues1 the only sonnet of
 really indisputable date   is the      
#ajgth1 containing the reference to the 
death of   ,elizabeth 7,characteristics1
 as cited1 p4 #bbj74 ,as the   first    
#abf sonnets make a series1 it is       
reasonable to take   those remaining as 

of later date4    #aib ,it more         
particularly echoes1 however1 two       
passages in   the nineteenth essay3     
,there is no evil in life for him that  
hath well conceived1 how the privation  
of life is no evil4   ,to know how to   
die1 doth free us from all subjection   
and   constraint4 ,no man did ever      
prepare himself to quit the   world more
 simply and fully 444 than ,i am fully  
assured ,i   shall do4 ,the deadest     
deaths are the best    #aic ii1 #ab4    
#aid iii1 #aa4    #aie iii1 #d4    #aif 
,in all probability this character      
existed in the   previous play1 the name
 being originally1 as was suggested     
last century by ,dr4 ,farmer1 a mere    
variant of ,canibal4    #aig iii1 #d4   
#aih ,act ii1 ,sc4 #b4    #aii iii1 #i4 
,,by ,,the ,,same ,,author4  ,,buckle   
,,and ,,his ,,critics3 ,a ,study in     
,sociology4  ,,the ,,saxon ,,and ,,the  
,,celt3 ,a ,study in ,sociology4        
,,essays ,,towards ,a ,,critical        
,,method3 ,new ,series4  ,,modern       

,,humanists4  ,,the ,,fallacy ,,of      
,,saving3 ,a ,study in ,economics4      
,,the ,,eight ,,hours ,,question3 ,a    
,study in ,economics4  ,,christ ,,and   
,,krishna3 ,a ,study in ,mythology4     
,etc4 ,etc4  ,,the ,,university ,,press1
 ,,limited1  #af1 ,john ,street1        
,bedford ,row1 ,london1 ,w4,c4  ,now    
,ready #bs4 #f;d4 net4  ,,the ,,blight  
,,of ,,respectability4  ,an ,anatomy of 
the ,disease and a ,theory of ,curative 
,treatment4  ,,by ,,geoffrey ,,mortimer4
   ,,press ,,opinions4  ,pall ,mall     
,gazette1 ,,may #ca1 #ahig3   444 ,that1
 of a surety1 is an unpleasant          
indictment2 and1 having thus genially   
introduced himself to his reader1 the   
author goes bald-headed for ,mrs4       
,grundy1 ,mr4 ,podsnap1 and public      
opinion as voiced according to the      
oracles of ,mrs4 ,smith and ,brown1 of  
,little ,muddleton ,road1 and for all   
the cherished fetishes of ,suburbia4    
,lloyd's ,weekly ,newspaper1 ,,may #cj1 
#ahig3  ,to persons who like hard       

hitting1 vigorous ,english levelled at  
the cant of ,grundyism1 this book will  
come as a great treat4  ,weekly ,times  
and ,echo1 ,,may #cj1 #ahig3  ',the     
,blight of ,respectability1' by         
,geoffrey ,mortimer1 is well worth      
reading1 and by more of us1 perhaps1    
than imagine it4 ,the shoddy god has    
votaries in ,england1 where one would   
least expect to find them4  ,,the       
,,university ,,press1 ,,limited1  #af4  
,john ,street1 ,bedford ,row1 ,london1  
,w4,c4  ,now ,ready4 #hs4 net1  ,,the   
,,saxon ,,and ,,the ,,celt4  ,,by ,,john
 ,m4 ,,robertson4   ,,press ,,opinions4 
,daily ,chronicle3  ,although the title 
of this book defines its scope1 it does 
not indicate its main purpose4 ,that is 
to show that the ,celtic race has been  
misrepresented by a number of           
historians1 from ,mommsen to ,froude1 as
 incapable of self-government2 and to   
prove1 by inference1 its fitness for    
,home ,rule4444 ,the major argument is  
based by ,mommsen and his school on the 

assumption of permanent distinctions    
among races2 and therefore ,mr4         
,robertson applies himself1 with a large
 measure of success1 to the task of     
showing that the theory of innate       
persistent qualities marking off one    
people from another has no ethnological 
justification4444 ,mr4 ,robertson is    
able to make short and easy work of the 
loose writing which sums up those       
7imaginary7 characters in epithet or    
epigram4444 ,mr4 ,robertson's lively    
style and happy allusiveness keep the   
reader interested to the end4444  ,,the 
,,university ,,press1 ,,limited1  #af1  
,john ,street1 ,bedford ,row1 ,london1  
,w4,c4  ,just published1 #ajs4 net1     
,,pseudo-,,philosophy  ,,at ,,the ,,end 
,,of ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century4  ,by 
,,hugh ,,mortimer ,,cecil4   ,,press    
,,opinions4  ,the ,sun1 ,,march #ca1    
#ahig3  ,the author of                  
,pseudo-,philosophy handles his weapons 
well1 and seems to us in many instances 
to occupy positions which1 with our     

present human intelligence1 are almost  
unassailable4 ,on the other hand1 of    
course1 champions of orthodoxy1 as a    
rule1 frankly admit that some of their  
tenets and the justice of certain       
aspects of the divine policy cannot be  
comprehended by the natural man4 ,but   
,mr4 ,cecil's strong feelings           
occasionally carry him too far1 as when 
in the preface he seems to use religious
 obscurantism as a synonym for religion 
generally4 ,the former may have been    
opposed to social progress1 as he says4 
,to contend that the same charge will   
stand against the latter is only to     
ignore the fact1 if not indeed the law1 
that the great social awakenings have   
almost invariably followed hard upon the
 great religious revivals4