New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-04-28

Pa xix. Isl Macmillan < Co.
THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE FOn NI1FD ON
LITERARY FORMS by Henry o. hoss1gS' i HT
ISL" Pr Vi 700 Houghton Mitliin CO.
ESSAYS AND STUDIES BY John Chrr'on collins
PIP tx $50 Macmillan 4 Co
The great poet in point Of time PROCEEDS ~"
great philosopher For the poet Is creator Wflle
the philosopher Is essentially critic ms Is me
indirect lesson Of Aristotes essay on poetry. and
:, Is pertinent u the consideration o. the elaDoF-
ate work Of Mr. Ruggles, VINO seeks to place the
Raconian theory respecting the plays OF Shahe-
srooro on q hasjs different from the one 50 We'll
known. Aristotle does indeed discuss 'ne Idcl Oh
Imitation in poetry. but Dr Butcher in the essays
amended 20 his admirable edition of the "Poeues
shows that the philosopher had no thought Of lit
oral and servile copying. He accepted the phrase
IN common use ana adapted it to his purpose.
The term fine art was not known to the Greeks
and they would not have cared much for dis
tinction between the beautiful and the useful
that seemingly makes the one aristocratic and the
other plehean pr. Butcher. however credits
Plato with a tendency to this separation between
the ideal and the real while on the other hahd
he insists that Aristotle taking the popular ldea
of imitation as he found It, deepened ana en-
riched It's signifcatiCn. II would be Impossible
from the modern point Of view to speak OF lnllldl-
ing things as they not. But TO the Greeks TINS
was as natural as to speak of initiating Things as
they are Sophocles illustrated this when ne Sald
that Tur,pidos depicted men as they We're wh'ie
he himself showed them. not as they WERE pui
as they ought to be. There may be moderhs VINO
attempt TO do as Sophoces did. bat they would
hardly be willing. as he was. to describe 'her
manner Of work as initiative. They would nope 10
ha looked on as in 2 very definite sense creators.
s,,1. III nal n
which show even more emphaJ ally how wide
the meaning Of the word imitation or its equiVa-
lent was t. the Greeks. lie says that the paint
er Polygnotus depicted men as nobler in appear
ance than they were, while Pauson made them
loss noble and Donysius drew them 70 the Life.
Homer. too. he says, made men better than they
,vere CleoDhon initiated them exactly in the
modern sense Of the term. while Hegemon the III
ycntor Of parodies. ana Nicocharcs. the author OF
the "Deliod." sunk their characters below the true
level Of humanity. Imitation, then. in the sense
meant by Aristotle. was not an external matter
Its objects were. as he thought OF three KINDS
characteristic moral qualities. the permanent
dispositions Of the mind which reveal certain
condition OF the will" passing emotions. ana &c
tons in the sense Of psYchical energy WORKING
outward. Ii was TO interpret these permanent oi
transtory states or movements of the nina mat
dee,.s incidents, events. situations. were con-
trived by the poet; and these outward things were
Judged not in themselves, but by their fitness TO
the mental conditions they must be supposed 10
represent
Men in action are the objects initiated by the
poet said Aristotle. The poet must then be con-
ceived as living in his characters. so that their
whole course of conduct may be just the true re-
sult of their personality Those who look on must
be made TO feel that the thoughts and acts pre-
scented to them are such as they themselves would
perhapes be capable OF under given conditions The
great poet then who gives shape and body ana
activity and reality to what were mere ideas can
have no time for continuing or adapting any phllo-
sophical system He thinks in the concrete not in
the abstract; with pictures. not with formulas
His poem may illustrate the highest truths If
philosophy. but the discovery that il does this
is a laborious afterthought. Here is Just the
place where Mr.. Ruggles seems 10 have reversed
the order OF things. He does not maintain that
Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays On the con-
trarv. ba speaks Of the dramatist quite in the
orthodox manner. But he imagines that he can
discover the whole philosophy Of Bacon underlying
the Shakespearan dramas He supports his
opinion by vast number of quotations from the
philosophical works Of the one and the poetical
works OF the other Some of the parallels
extremely apt-others less 50: but all Of them to-
, gether prove az the best only that here might
have been communication between the two men.
A large proportion Of the citations from Bacon
are from books printed after Shakespeare's time
or after the date of the plays which they
brought in TO illustrate The natural inference
would be that if there was Indebtedness in such
cases 1t was not on the side Of Shakespeare. But
Mr. Ruggles infers that Bacon's system was 50
complete in his own mind long before he had put
it on paper that he could talk it over with Shake
speare and fill the poets mind full Of ideas about
inductive logic and the advancement Of learning.
While one must feel respect for the ingenuity and
the laborious skill that have been expended in de-
veloping these ideas it is impossible to shut ones
eyes TO their perversity. There are negative sides
Of the argument which the author does not touch.
In order 20 exalt Bacon, it would have to be
proved that Shakespeare could by accident
have obtained certain suggestions except from
him. 1t would have 10 be shown that Shakespeare
could not have contrived certain plays nor even
conceived them without philosophical stimulus;
that, In short, he could not have got learning or
inspiration except at Bacons side In order to
prove these negatives Il would have TO be shown
that Bacon was the only man Of learning in his
time and that his ideas had never occurred 70 any
body before him. Shakespcare's Indebtedness to
both the fixed and floating learning OF his time
cannot be doubted. The mass ~ this very
great. and it was not excluded from ordinary
conversation. but formed the very staple of talk
wherever men Of intelligence were gathered The
Bible and the classics were almost fresh TO the
minds of of that age as II they had
just been written In the midst Of
a general mental activity directed In the
case Of all men on nearly the same lines, It was
impossible for Bacons learning to have been ex-
elusive. His was. moreover far from being an
original mind in the highest sense 81 the term.
Mr.. Ruggles certainly exaggerates Bacon's merits
In this particular. The popularity of the inductve
method at the present day has led 10 minute in
vestigaton Of its history, and this has been found
to go far back into the youth Of the world. Ba-
cons namesake. Roger Bacon, was as convinced