The Osceola times., 1880-10-09
why Did Shakespeare Write Tragedies
C.rRhill ,iaEazlne.

In early youth the affections are COM
monty divided between frce and deep
tragedy. As the mind expands End
ripens, the broader humOrs Of farce and
the -implar horrors u tragedy lose their
attraction, and give place 10 the richer
chaster aud more delicate num1r- Of
high comedy, and the deeper mysteries
Of tragic passion. A. advancing years
cool the blood the decreasing activity
makes the pleasures Of quiet lie more
attractive than those Of stirring one; it
i. probable that the taste will incline 10
the calmer and more soothing kind ol
p3tb0s, 10 which tue feeling i too pro-
fOGni and tender for what j. called
comedy, aud yet the final impression D.
too peaceful Tor WHIST j. called tragedy
Tastes ~ changing would. 10 doubt, in
duce changes both IN the choice Of sub
iec's and the treatment Of them, and if
We take shaEspeare's plays in the order
Of their dates. as determined upon ind--
pendent grounds, we shah find that the
differences IN choice and treatment suit
very naturally with the natural changes
in a mans mind az be grows older, and
that the whole series divides very vel
into four groups. Between twenty-iOur
and thirty he had q Young mans tastes
both in the hight and the heavy lIue-a
taste for merrment and absurdity, and
ingenious conceits, and slang and loose
iests in the light line, and for love, in
the "sighing.like furnace ana bowl.
and dagger stage, in the serious. After
thirty he lost his relish for these pucril-
ities, aimed a higher order Of Wit and
humor in comedy, and higher moral
standard altogether, while for the true
elements Of human tragedy he turned t.
history. Five or six years Of such work
led him upward into a still higher
region. In comedy. though the vein
was as rich az ever, and a. full Of enjoy
ment, yet the pathetic element spring
ing from the tender and serious feeling
with which he had come to regard all
human things become more and more
predominant, and 50 prevailed over the
other in the general elect that hIs later
works which end haDnily are hardly to
be called comedies | suppose nobody
ever thought Of Measure for Measure
as q comedy, though everybody in il eX-
cept Lucio is happily disposed OF, and
the effect Of his sentence is rather comic
than otherwise. "All's Well" is allied
to tragedy rather than comedy, by the
pity and SERIOUS interest with which We
f0llog the fortunes Of the heroine; and
"T Selfth Night" in spite Of the number
and perfection Of the comic scenes, and
The wonderful liveliness and rapidly
and variety Of incident and action. is
nevertheless to me one Of tue most pa
thetic plays | know, and would draw
tears far sooner than Romeo and Juliet"
SHAKESPEARE may be said. therefore, to
have taken leave Of comedy proper in
the "Merry Wives" and to have grown
out Of it before he was forty years old.
In the meantime his exercises in tragedy
proper had led hint into the region Of
the great passions which disclose the
heights and depths Of humanity
region which was destined to become
and remain his own. These passions
for the benefit Of the theatre, the
glory Of Burbage, the amusement and
instruction of the play-going public, and
partly it may be for the satisfaction and
relief OF his own geuius-he brought Ibv
means OF such stories as he could find,
suitable for showing them IN actiOnj up
on the stage. And 10 this we owe
"Hamiet, Macbeth, ""OthcllO," "Lear"
and the rest, which occupied what Mr..
Furniyall calls "the unhappy third pc
nod" The fourth group follows natHral-
ly enough. He was fOrly-lOuT years old;
lie had made money enough; he had re-
tired from business; he had passed the
period when III. mind takes pleasure in
violent agitations, and he employed him
self upon such subjects as suited-0r
treated such subjects as he found so as
10 make them sut-thc autumnal days;
witness the Winters Tale" and the
Tempest