Chapter XXII Man's Relations to the Supernatural as shown 'ag«

IN Midsummer Night* s Dream ^ Hamlet, and The Tempest . 252
As already found, the tunes, rhythms, and colours of verse are all due to diverse vibrations or oppositions of forces — Shakspere's progress as a verse artist is towards a more artistic management of oppositions of the esthetic demands of the ear — now to show through the three plays above that in the same way he advanced in the management of those moral oppositions which make up life — evidence of his growth also in the opposition of character to character, figure against figure, event against event in the dramas — his freedom and emancipation from stifBiess in these matters of the playwright's art shown by contrasting the formality of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the other early plays with the more mature dramas — this again a tendency to variety — Midsum- mer Night* s Dream typical of the youthful Bright Period, as Hamlet is of the Dark Real Period, and The Tempest of the Ideal Forgiveness Period — date of the Dream fixed approximately by Francis Meres' s Wits Treasury — great weight of evidence places
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it at 1595 or earlier — Ham/et phMy falls about 1602, well into the Dark Period — The Tempest is placed by most scholars in 1610 or 1611 — exact years do not matter at all, for over- whelming evidence of every sort has fixed the succession in time of these three plays — they surely represent three distinct epochs in Shakspere's life — every man's life inexorably contains these three epochs: the Dream, the Real, the Ideal — Shaksperc's won- derfiil emergence from the paralysis of the Real in Hamlet to the Ideal in The Tempest — he has learned to balance all the oppo- sitions — in the Midsummer Ntgbt^s Dream man is the sport of Nature — "Nature" there vaguely means the supernatural — this is just the conception of the dreaming youth — chance rules the world in such a conception — no faith or belief in the Dream^ but only imagination — life questions the dreaming poet, and the first result is Hamlet, who answers by asking another question — this lack of belief, combined with the belief of belief, a striking but neglected characteristic of Hamlet — first in the soliloquy he knows nothing of the after-death — then when hesitating to kill the praying king he seems to have the most set- tled convictions as to what will come after death — his "undis- covered country " directly contradicts the whole vital episode of the Ghost — our age characteristically the "Hamlet age" — story of the Indian who tried to kill his friend as illustrating perfect belief — in Hamlet imn's attitude toward the supernatural is a doubt underlying a belief that he believes — when we reach The Tempest, in 16 10, we find a Providence indeed — and in- stead of the vengeful Ghost of Hamlet the Providence now comes to compass forgiveness and reconciliation — Shakspere has found moral exaltation to be the secret of managing life's oppositions — so it runs: first, man the sport of chance; second, doubting man urged to revenge, but even this uncertain; third, "repentance, forgiveness, and Providence rise like stars out of the dark oi' Ham- let '^ — the supernatural has changed from Oberon to a ghost, to a man in God's image controlling the pucks and ghosts — The Tempest fairy-tale, Ariel against Puck, is but an ideal reconstruction of the youthful dream — Bulwer's essay on the different appearances of things accompanying changes in our powers of sight — we see the film or dreamy covering of things as a beautiful fiice — the repulsiveness of being able to see the muscles, nerves, veins, and bones: the real just below the surface — analogy of this to the Hamlet period, where " the for- bidding network of death and murder and revenge and sin and suffering starts out from underneath the smooth exterior of life ' ' — the infinite beauty to which this would change if we could see the purpose and reason and function of each thing along with the thing itself — the perfect analogy of all this to Shakspere — the significance of the epilogues to these plays — at the end of the Dream we have nothing: a fit ending; the epilogue to Hamlet is
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really a sullen peal of guns, like inarticulate cries from beyond the grave; while The Tempest closes with a passionate human appeal from the master to his fellow-men.