Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/371

 9'1-S. II. Nov. V08.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

363

Shakespeare, unfortunately, in his sketch of ( 'hristopher Sly prefixed to 'Tho Taming of the Shrew,' wish which it has nothing to do, lias simply given UH half the story, and all the most sordid part of it. Hut hear the oilier side.

"Tin; lanl half of thin prelude," says A. W. Schlegel in his 'Dramatic Literature' (Hohn's edition, |>. .'WJj, "that in which the tinker in In :

in w .static a^ain drinks himself out of his SCH.SC.M anil

ia transformed in liis deep into hi* former condition!

is, from some accident or other, lost. It ought to have followed at the end of the larger piece.

A little further on he adds : " Tim prelude is more remarkable than the play

itself Here, as well an everywhere else, Shake-

s|oare has proved himself a great. j (0( .t ; the whole is merely a slight sketch, but in elegance and deli- cate propriety it will hardly ever bo excelled."

Murh as I respect the opinion of this dis- tinguished critic, I must reluctantly dissent from him in this instance. His enthusiasm has carried him too far. He was evidently but partly acquainted with the story, and altogether ignorant of Caldoron's superb comedy dealing with the same subject. No doubt the two scenes of which the " Induc- tion " to 'The Taming of the Shrew ' consists are admirably written ; but, after all, "Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of liurton- heath, by birth a pedlar, by education a card -maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker," remains a clown and a nrute, and it is diffi- cult to conjecture how the poet could, had he completed the piece, have evolved any good lesson from I, he Ix-haviour of so sensual, gross, and uncouth a character. Therefore I am inclined to think that Shakespeare for that very reason left the piece in its un- finished state, because it failed to satisfy his artistic sense.

The subject-matter of Caldoron's 'Life is a Dream' is altogether founded, it is safe to suppose, on the above story, but the poet has transfigured it with a beauty and power all his own, and adorned it with the graces and treasures of his own vivid imagination. Sifjismund, the hero of the piece, is a mag- nificent creation for which the illustrious author is indebted to no one but his own great genius. A high poetic treatment dominates the comedy from the first page to the last. The plot is simple. A king's son, Sigismund is, on a< count of hi.s father's forebodings, induced by the predictions of astrologers, brought up from infancy in a dreadful solitude, but not in ignorance. At length, by means of a sleeping draught, he is conveyed to the king's palace, where he awakes in the midst of regal splendour. The

experiment turns out badly, for he conducts himself so savagely that he is again consigned to his rock-surrounded prison without, so fat- as one can see, any possible chance of release. All this he looks upon as a dream. I'.ul, "it is the unexpected that always happens." Tho army, becoming aware of liis existence, and knowing that ho is the rightful heir to the throne, takes up his cause ; ho is victor, arid his enemies are at his mercy. It is I hen that, warned by his former outburst of pas- sion in what he still considers a dream, ho is transfigured into the glorious character described in the comedy, lord of himself, chaste, merciful, and just. It is a most en- nobling lesson, taught by a master of one of the grandest languages ever given to the tongue of man to utter in perhaps the greatest of his works. " Under every con- dition and circumstance," says Frederick Schlegel ('Lectures on the History of Litera- ture, &c.,' Bohn, 1859), "Calderon is, of all dramatic poets, the most Christian, and for that reason the most romantic " (p. 267).* JOHN T. CURRY.

ST. LEONARDS AND HOLUNGTON.

(Sue S"' S. xii. 240, 410, 490; 9 lh S. ii. 190.) IF the writer of the note which appeared ante, p. 196, entitled 'Dedication of lioll ing- ton Church,' had confined his attention to his original subject, viz., the dedication, I cannot but think ho would have been wiser arid more considerate. He lias gone out of his way to remark on my note on St. Leonards and Ho) ling ton (8 th S. xii. 490), and that without having (so far as I can see) consulted any one of the authorities for the parochial history of these parishes.

I referred in my note to a volume of the 'Sussex Archaeological Collections,' con- taining an article entitled "Contributions towards a Parochial History of Hollington, by S. Arnott, Rector, with Additional Con- tributions towards, <xc., by W. D. Cooper, Esq., F.S.A." No one ought to have remarked on my note unless he had either referred to the volume of the ' Sussex Archaeo- logical Collections' for the year 1869 or was previously acquainted with the fact that an Act of Parliament was passed just at that time, viz., in the year 1868, relating to the

9 et Her/., for a fuller analysis of 'La Vida es Sueno.' Dry aim cold as it is, it will be found useful to those not acquainted with Spanish. It is unfortunate that neither Bouterwek, Sismondi, nor the two Schlegels, have given a criticism of this admirable comedy,
 * See Hallam, 'Literature of Europe,' chap, xxjii.