Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/844

 818 SHAKESPEARE large and symmetrical. Many other portraits, some on canvas, two in bust form, and even lately one in the shape of a plaster mask, have been brought forward as representations of Shakespeare ; but, whatever their pretensions, all of them fail just where the pedigree of the so-called Ohandos portrait fails, in a direct connection with the poet. Such brief criticism as could be here passed upon his works would be superfluous, almost impertinent. By the voice of the whole civilized world his name is "the first in all literature ;" in imagination, in fancy, in knowledge of man, in wisdom, in wit, in humor, in pathos, in strength, in versa- tility, in felicity of language, in the music of his verse, and in that mysterious power which fuses all these separate powers into one, and makes them a single means to a single end, he stands unapproached, and seemingly unap- proachable. According to the custom of his time, his dramas were founded upon others, the subjects of which were favorites with the public, or upon popular tales, or passages in history. But in the interweaving of two stories into one plot (as in " The Merchant of Venice "), and in the elaboration of a bald and barren subject, he exhibited a constructive faculty not inferior to his other gifts. He did not hesitate to avail himself of the very lan- guage of the chronicler or novelist to whom he went for incidents ; but in passing through his mind it was transformed from perishable prose into imperishable poetry. His chief ex- cellence is in the unity and consistent action of his characters. He gave each one an indi- vidual soul; they speak their own thoughts and feelings, not his. In this respect his pow- er seems almost supernatural. Unlike Dante, unlike Milton, unlike Goethe, unlike the great poets and tragedians of Greece and Rome, Shakespeare left no trace upon the political or even the social life of his era. Among his contemporaries and countrymen were Raleigh, Sidney, Spenser, Bacon, Coke, Oamden, Ce- cil, Hooker, Drake, and Inigo Jones ; and yet there is no evidence, even traditionary, that he had any acquaintance with either of these men, or with any others of less note among the statesmen, scholars, soldiers, or artists of his day. In making his will Shakespeare left his wife (who survived him seven years), by an interlined bequest, only his " second best bed with the furniture." This looks like a slight ; but his wife was amply provided for by her dower right, and the knowledge of this might very probably cause him to pass over her at first unnamed. Yet in a will containing so many small bequests, the interlineation of a wife's name cannot but be regarded as evidence of some lack of consideration. His family be- came extinct in the third generation. His son Hamnet died in 1596 at the age of 11 years. His elder daughter married a physician, Dr. John Hall, to whom she bore one daughter, who married Thomas Nash, and after his eleath Sir John Barnard, and died childless (1670). His second daughter, Judith, married Thomas Quiney, and had three children, who all died without issue. Upon the death of Lady Bar- nard, New Place was sold. It passed again into the hands of a Sir Hugh Clopton, and finally became the property of the Rev. Fran- cis Gastrell, who in 1759, having quarrelled with the town magistrates about assessments, razed the building to the ground, after having in 1756 cut down the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare, because he was annoyed by the pilgrims who came to visit it. The house in Henley street has at last been purchased by an association which has had it restored as far as possible, and placed it in the hands of proper keepers. Of Shakespeare's 87 plays, 17 were printed separately in quartos, in almost every instance, it would appear, without his coop- eration, and in many instances from copies surreptitiously obtained. The text of most of these quarto copies is very corrupt and imper- fect. In 1623 two of his fellow actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, superintended the publication of the first collected edition of his " Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," from which however "Pericles" was omitted. This volume, known as the first folio, contains the only authentic text of Shakespeare's plays. But its authority is grievously impaired by the careless manner in which it was printed, and by the fact that in some cases it was put in type from the surreptitious and imperfect quar- tos which it was intended to supersede, and the errors of which it not infrequently perpet- uates ; but it corrects vastly more errors than it makes and repeats, and it supplies serious deficiencies, although it leaves some to be sup- plied. Plainly, too, most of the quarto copies from which it was printed had been used as stage copies by Shakespeare's company, and thus received many corrections which were at least quasi authoritative. Of the text of 20 of the plays it is the only source. In 1632 a second edition of the collected plays appeared. It corrected the text of its predecessor in a few passages, corrupted it in many, and modernized it in some. It is of no authority. A third edition appeared in 1664 (some copies are dated 1668), which is chiefly noticeable from its con- taining "Pericles" (as to which see above), and six spurious plays attributed to Shake- speare by booksellers in his lifetime, but re- jected by his friends and fellow actors : " The London Prodigal," " Thomas Lord Cromwell," " Sir John Oldcastle," " The Puritan Widow," "A Yorkshire Tragedy," and "Locrine." A fourth folio was published in 1685. Original copies of the folio of 1623 are eagerly sought at very high prices by Shakespearian students and collectors. They are rare, and the condi- tion and recent history of each one is known and recorded. The last three sales (down to 1875) of fine copies were for 525, 585, and 716 respectively.. But even these were not absolutely perfect according to bibliographic standard. Should a copy be found in that