The herald., 1894-01-07

tion to suit it and its person
ages to bis own TEMPER and
walks out of the play unchanged save
in 80 far as circumstances have changed.
1t is to this second perioi Of Shakes
peare's humor that those glorious ras-
Gals Poins, Bardolph and MIN belong,
that staggering rascal, the Ancient
Pistol, those liberal rsscals Mrs. Quickly
and Dele, and that immortal rascally
knight. Sir John Falstaff-to this period
belong Justice Silence and Justice Shall
low, and Slender, his cousin, and the
noble recruits Mouldy and Shadow,
Wart, Feeble and Bullcalf. To this
period, too. the conventionally typical
Evans and DIR. Caius. But though
Caius and Evans, Mouldy and Shadow.
Silence and Slender. the ancient Pistol,
are all types which other dramatists
would have thoroughly conventional
lied. They are even now more
than types to Shakespeare. He
eympathizes, too weary with hu-
manity to see but one as
pect OF any specimen OF it. And
though there is fatty agglomeration of
all that is laughter making and laughter
having in Falstaff, he is more than
mere type of those who by jocosity think
to avoid the issues of lie. He has
heart to be "'pacted and corroborate"
by the bad humor OF King Harry V, who
will not know him. and when he is
gathered to Arthur's bosom our manly
hearts yearn for him, as did Pistols.
Not even in his humors is he narrow or
illiberal.
In Falstatf. in Prince Hal, in sweet
Anne Page, in Petruchio, and the sweet
Kate OF the shrewish temper, there ia
/ io
| of Shakespeare's higher power of char
scter drawing-drawinR the spirit to the
llfe-an anticipation of his third period
of comedy i'll free and full development.
Even in the second stage, however, in
cident still occasionally asserts itself as
amusing and fantastic. The wit of the
! situation and of the intellect are, in
deed, fairly subserved in that of the
general action, but the action is still
frequently dictated by the dramatist
with comic intent, not precipitated by
the natural reaction of voluntary char
acters and ''ingenuous" surroundings.
But in its third stage the SShakes-
pearean comedy-inspired with true
dynamic humor-burHts into the Joy of
living, of feeling. of loving, of laughing.
with consciousness of ease, OF self
control, of perfect freedom. 1t is no
longer mere incident and accident, wit
and repartee, carefully exaggerated type
or surprise of plot that amuse; it is life,
because real life - not dramatically
licensed life-real life has the materials
OF fun on every counter for the fun-lover
70 70 buy Under every stcae ter the tnn-
seeker to kick over. This is Shakss-
peare's period Of pure fun. 1t
10 10 longer Shakespeare that
| kL1A 90 id
| Celia and Pheby that laugh
Of their own free selves, and Shakes
peare who created them, and we who
recreate them join in the joyous, harm
less, living laughter. 1t is Jaques and
Touchstone; Beatrice, Benedick, Dog
berry, OF whom we must not forget TO
specify that he is an ass. and Verges !, it
ia Viola and Maria, Sir Toby Belch, the
valorouH Sir Andrew and the pious NAL
volio-they all laugh or are laughed at,
and we laugh with them. Here is wit
of action and of speech. to be sure, but
all incorporate with dynamic
humor, humorous sympathy, which
laughs not to iDjure, nay, not to ridi-
cule, but to enjoy The comic for its own
sake-that is, the humorous-and
artistic. The comic with an arriere-
pensie, with purpose and for an effect
that is wit, and it is more like hsndi-
craft than art; made by hand or by
machine, it is made; humor is born, it
is spiritual, it grows and aspires.
But even in these comedies OF charac-
ter we find traces of the typical comic
parsonage of the second stage; we find
Sir Oliver Martext and lie Beau. Michol
Newlande. Novelty Fashion. But it is
| great advance that this comedy of
character humor is always on back
ground of the serious. that it walks side
by aide with the pathos OF Hero, the
tender love of Viola, the cruel cunning
OF Don John, the picturesque melan-
choly OF Jacques, the faithessnees of
Ma s7ret,the treason Of Duke Frederick.
The comic is here act off and matched
by the serious, and interpenetrated with
the sentimental and poetic. but it is not
pet suffused with the poetic and tragic.
1t is in his great tragedies Lear,
Hamlet, Othello, which, from the tran
\ sition from the third to the fourth comic
periods, that we first find tragic and
comic in one character; sardonic
humor, as in Iago; desperate ironny,
as in Hamlet; gruesome jest. aa in the
Gravediggef demoniac laughter, aH in
Poor Tom and Lear and the Fool, in
sanity in three guises.
Then comes the fourth period OF
Shakespearean comedy-a sunset after
storm-pesce, serene, sympathetic,
tender; reconciliation, full, pathetic,
smiling fraught with memories, once
bitter, now moderated by lapse of time
and passion. Such drama can hardly
be called comedy. 1t is the drama OF
life-where tragic, pathetic and sublime
have played themselves almost to the
verge of destruction, but the
angel OF mercy has averted the
disaster. A conflicting ethical
force has been removed from the tragic
realm to the poetic; instead of retribu-
tion there is compensation instead OF
catastrophy mediation; instead OF death
reconciliation with the purposes and the
beauty OF life. What room for the
comic here? Much room but for a
comic that is deeper tnan ridicule, that
is Ioftier than amusement; deeper than
ridicule--the laughter of one that has
known the root of evil; loftier than
amusement, that gees no being pure
ly laughable-but more than laughable
divine. That supreme mastery OF
humor, suffused with the ideal, that
produces Perdita and Hermione and
Florzel; Miranda, who never has
seen man save Prospero and Caliban.
and the Ferdinand whom che sees and
| loves even while we smile at her