Page:Studies of a Biographer 4.djvu/28

 the rough outlines which are all that I can attempt to indicate.

One remark will be granted. A dramatist is no more able than anybody else to bestow upon his characters talents which he does not himself possess. If—as critics are agreed—Shakespeare's creatures show humour, Shakespeare must have had a sense of humour himself. When Mercutio indulges in the wonderful tirade upon Queen Mab, or Jaques moralises in the forest, we learn that their creator had certain powers of mind just as clearly as if we were reading a report of one of the wit combats at the 'Mermaid.' It is harder to define those qualities precisely than to say what is implied by Johnson's talk at the 'Mitre' but the idiosyncrasy is at least as strongly impressed upon such characteristic mental displays. If we were to ask any critic whether such passages could be attributed to Marlowe or Ben Jonson, he would inquire whether we took him for a fool. If, indeed, we were considering a bit of scientific exposition, the inference to character would not exist. A mathematician, I suppose, could tell me that the demonstration of some astronomical theorem was in Newton's manner, and the remark would not show whether Newton was amiable or