The San Francisco call., 1899-10-30


taken as an express
sion of the authors genius: 80 wonder
fUl, most wonderful, wonderful and yet
again wonderful and after that out of all
whooping." Shakespeare grew as any
other man does-in his own character, in
the mastery of his art and in his knowl-
edge of human life. Furnivall in his ex-
cellent preface of the Leopold edition of
Shakespeare gives a good suggestion as TO
the study Of the plays:
The first necessity is to regard Shakespeare
as a whole; his work a living organism,
each a member OF one created unit. the whole
4 tree of healing and of comfort to the nations.
growth from small beginnings to mighty
ends the successive shoots of one great mind,
which can never be seen in its full glory Of
leaf and blossom and fruit unless 1t be viewed
in its oneness.
If nineteenth-century scholarship has
somewhat modified the enthusiasm Of the
earlier writer's on Shakespeare, We % not
admire his art less; we known him better
and understand his work more intelh
gently. In such a play as the Comedy
of Errors" we see him in the workshop,
and the earnest student of Shakespeare
will be interested in studying him there,
for he will notice first those defects
which the dramatist outgrew and then
the elements of genius that prophesy well
his later development in dramatic art.
And, first, let us study the play, nOtic-
ing its imperfections. Destructive criti-
cism does not always foster the proper
attitude Of mind toward a work Of art,
but when combined with constructive
criticism ii is an Indispensable part of all
literary study. One cannot appreciate The
highest excellence in any field of work
unless he recognizes that that is not ex-
cellent. A student Of "Othello,' for
instance, is the more appreciattve of that
play for having felt the defects Of the
COMEDY of Errors"
We note in this play an absence of
Shakespeare's sure mastery of verse. He
is at this time making use of the dog
gerel verse so generally employed by his
contemporaries, especially the loose AL
exandrine which was introduced in early
Elzabethan literature to express serious
moods, but which later tended to produce
humorous effects, as in this play. 1t is
the natural language of the Dromios
Was there ever any man thus beaten out of
season
When in the why and wherefore is neither
rhyme nor reason.
In nearly the entire second scene of act
III this doggerel verse is used, and we
can but feel frequently that 1t is with
out rhyme or reason Besides doggerel
verse. we note the frequent use of the
rhymed iambic pentameter, especially in
the conversations between Luciano and
Adriana, noticeable also in the use of the
alternate rhymes in the conversations of
Luciano and Antipholus of Syracuse.
Now rhyme is not capable of the high
est dramatic use, and the reader should
see how In this play it is an obstacle to
the dramatic dialogue. Even when the
poet uses blank verse, as in the first and
last acts. it lacks the freedom of the
of tic 111at work. there
are comparatively no "run-on lines" in
the play, the voice coming to a pause
at the end of every line. Furnivall makes
the proportion Of run-on lines in the
Comedy of Errors as l to 1856, while in
Hamlet it is as l to 15. Then we find
few extra syllabeS showing that the
dramatist is meterbound and has not the
freedom that the true master of dra-
matte blank verse needs. Not to COM
ment on this point further, we refer the
reader to an excellent discussion of
Shakespeare's progress in the use of
blank verse by DR.. Corson in his Intro
duction to Shakespeare" where many ex
amples are given from this and other
plays to illustrate the poets early limi
tations as compared with the remarkable
power shown in his later plays.
Although this play is pre-eminently
humorous one we easily detect the lack
Of the highest humor; as already sug-
gested. puns and conceits are numerous.
Not that Shakespeare ever ceased to
make use of these, but there is by no
means such an abundance of them, nor
such dependence on them, in his later
plavs. Compare, for instance, the puns
of the Dromios with those OF the grave
dtggers in Hamlet" or of the fool in
.'J[ing Lear" Aside from the frequent
nuns we find that wit and imagery are
drawn out to the point OF exhaustion in
the studied words of Dromio of Ephesus
or the more spontaneous words of his
brother. We feel that in this play there
is q lack of that great wisdom that makes
the humor of his later comedies and trag-
edies so significant.
More vital than the points already sug-
gested. perhaps. is the artificial grouping
of characteristic mathematical sym
metry of the play. This arises from the
dramatist's use of stage conventions.
Barrett Wendell in his recent book on
Shakespeare has made an admirable
study of Shakespeare's adherence to the
conventional laws of the stage in his early
plays and to his gradual deliverance from
them In the Comedy of Errors" we
have the two Antipholuses, the Dromios.
the two sisters, Adriana and Luciano
and Aegeon and Aemlia.
One can readily see that the effect of
the play largely depends on the grouping
of characters. All this Is but to saw that
we miss individual characterization. It
is true If one studies the play as care