Chapter XXIV Man's Relations to Nature as Shown iN

Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Tempest, AND Conclusion . . . . . . .297
Embarrassment of riches as great here as in the last lecture — to choose again a special phase for comparison in the plays — simi- larity of the Theseus and Hippolyta hunt to the hunt in Chaucer's
CONTENTS XV
Knighfs Tale — extracts from the Knigbfs Tale — Shakspcrc makes the forest alive — the fiiiry scenes of Midsummer Night's Dream — the King and Queen hunt with their hounds '*bred out of the Spartan kind," amid this world of busy life, of cowslips and dew and frolic and love — as Nature was riotous with life in the Dream y so is she riotous with death in the Real in Hamlet — parallels to the Hamlet nature teaching in The Origin of Species and in Chaucer — triumphant rise of Shakspere in The Tempest to a balanced view of Nature as both life and death — the hunt from The Tempest — the poet's increase of sympathy with Na- ture and all lower creatures finely shown in these two hunts — one is a barbarian enmity against brute beasts, the other aims at the reformation of a fellow-creature — our own time has advanced even beyond Shakspere in his matter of Nature love — this evi- denced by the rise of physical science, modem Nature poetry, and modem landscape-painting — summing up of the last five lectures — the moral problem of life just like the artistic problem — de- tailed summary of the whole course of lectures — specific analysis of lines from the Dream and The Tempest to show the technical superiority of the latter — the same genius which could so har- moniously adjust the esthetic antagonisms of verse will with tem- perance and self-control arrange life's moral antagonisms — there is a point of technic beyond which the merely clever artist can never reach — Shakspere, in the music of his verse, in the height of his moral ideals, in the temperance and control of his life, is *'a whole heaven above" Greene, Marlowe, Nash, and his other contemporaries — in short, even in technic only moral great- ness can reach beyond a certain point — man himself is like one of these tone-colours, tunes, or rhythmic elements — man's relation to his fellows and to the main form of life illustrated by the gnat swarm — ludicrous attempts in sixteenth century to make rhythm visible to the eye by typography — Poe's vast simile of *' the beating of the Heart of God" — it is the poet who must gaze on the gnats from the distance of the ideal to find out for man the figure — conclusion.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Chandos Portrait of Shakspere Frontispiece
King David, surrounded by Musicians and a Juggler ... 4
J-rvM a lenth-ctntury A/S. A Fourtcemh-century Representation of Violin-playing . 6
A Seventeenth-century Concert 8
Fnnn Ike painting by Dominiqiiin
Musical Instruments of Shakspere's Time 10
An Ecclesiastical Concert 12
From tht paialing by Giorgiene
A Lute Accompaniment of Shakspere's Time 14
Engraved by Andouin from tkt painting by Netieher piri
A Seventeenth-century Mandolin-player 20
Engraved by Audeuin from the painting by Gerard Terburg
Pope Gregory the Great, with his Father and Mother . . 28 From an eld engraving
St. Ambrose 30
From au engraving in " Vies dcs Ilommes Illustrts "
Facsimile of the " Cuckoo Song " 34
From the original AfS. in the British JSfuseiim
Clement Marot 40
Frmn an old engraving
Theodore Beza 42
Title-page of Dowland's " First Booke of Songes "... 52
Sir John Davies 54
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Anne Hathaway 's Cottage 62
The Church at Stratford-on-Avon 64
Charlecote 66
Drawn and engrmttd by T, Radclyffe
Shakspere's House at Stratford 74
Queen Elizabeth 80
From the pictnre formerly in the royal collection at St. James Palace
The Earl of Leicester 82
A Royal Progress of Queen Elizabeth 88
From a painting
Gate-house, Kenilworth Castle 90
From an engraving
George Gascoigne 94
Artificial Lake and Festivities in Honour of Queen Eliza- beth's Visit 96
Old Inn showing Courtyard in which Plays were Performed 98
John Heywood 100
A Potecary and a Pardoner 102
Stage Directions for a Morality 104
From the ** Coventry Afysteries^^
A View of the Pit's Mouth 106
From the " Coventry Mysteries "
The Idea of Hell found in the Mystery Plays 108
From the ** Coventry Mysteries "
The Locked Door no
Frofn an engraving in the ** Coventry Mysteries "
A Soul in Torment 112
From the ** Coventry Mysteries'*^
Mummers and Strolling Players of the Middle Ages in England 114
William Prynne 116
The Swan Theatre in 1614 118
The most westerly of the playhouses on the Bankside
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix
FACING PAGE
Morris-dancers I20
The Globe and the Bear Garden 122
Preaching before the King at Paul's Cross in 1620 . . .126
Fivm a rare engraving
Bishop Latimer 132
Richard Tarleton, an Actor in Shakspere's Plays . . 144
The Stage in the Red Bull Playhouse 146
Title-page of Ben Jonson's "Tragedies and Comedies" . . 148
Sackville 166
A Tragedy of the Period : Marlowe's " Edward II " . . .168
Dr. Thomas Linacre 198
From an engraving by H, Cook
William Harvey, and Chart of Circulation of the Blood . . 200
Title-page of First Folio 210
John Fletcher 236
First page of Original Edition of " Hamlet " 264
The Only Known Portrait of Thomas Nash 282
Puck 302
From an engraving by Charles Marr of the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds
SHAKSPERE AND HIS FORERUNNERS