Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-22

though almost every phrase in the play read
it is Shakespeare's, and though the conception of
the chief characters is also his there is hardly an
incident in the structure that is taken from the
older drama.
LAS You Like 1t" affords an excellent example
of his method in the comedies. The germ of this
story is old and widespread folk -tale-the
theme of the illtreated younger brother who finally
trumphs over his tyrannical elder and comes to
high estate. 1t is the male counterpart of Gin
derella, and it is fundamentally the story of Joseph
and his brethren As finds it in English in the
Middle Ages it is practically void of love interest
and the hero is notable chiefly for his physical
proves. In Shakespeare's time, Thomas
Lodge turned it into novel in the affected style of
the day. added the love affairs with Rosalnd and
Celia, the forest life of the banshed Duke and his
lords, and the minor plot of the shepherd and
shepherdess. Thus before Shakespeare touched it,
the plot as we know it was almost fully developed.
Fixing Up AS You Like 1t
Vet the contrast between Lodges Rosalynde2
and Shakespeares "As You Like 1t is that
beings. The dramatist cut down the earlier scenes
depicting Orandos somewhat rowdy feats in resisting
his brothers tyranny, and left only the wrestling
scene as trace of the muscular hero of the earlier
romance. For of sentimental passionng
he Substituted sparkling repartee; and out of
group of purely conventional romantic figures he
created the brilliant and witty society that makes
the Forest of Arden of the most delightful
localities in imaginative literature. Of the charac
William and LIE Beau Thus we have here a
clear case of the dramatizing of contemporary
novel; rank plagiarism, II you to call it so, but
at the time abundant imaginative originality
of the most precious kind.
But the most startling instances of Shakespeare's
borrowing occur in the Roman plays. From
point of view, all he seems to have done in these
dramas to have taken Norths translation of
Plutarch's Lives of Julius Cesar, Cassius, Brutus,
Antony, and Coriolanus, divided them into scenes
and thrown the prose narrative into blank-verse
dialogue. For here the quality of his material was
much higher than in the English histories and in
most of the romantic comedies. Putarch was a
skilled biographer, with keen sense of character
and quick eye for the salient and the picturesque.
In Holnshed, Shakespeare found great mass of
but rough chronological arrangement, and without
any selection emphasizing of the really significant
In Plutarch he had with passionate recog-
milton OF the heroic and artists skill in choosing
what telling and characteristic In dealing
with material already thus highly refined he had
clearly different task, and his way of undertaking
it noteworthy. He showed self-important
eagerness to make changes for their sake to
give the stamp OF his own powers What of finished
and complete characterization or expression North's
Plutarch offered he accepted thankfully, altering
and modifying only as far as the difference of
literary form between biography and drama made
it necessary. Thus the general view of the three
crises in Roman history which he portrayed is to be
found in its main outlines in his predecessor.
Yet the difference between Plutarch and Shakes
peare is immense; and the comparison between
them is most fruitful in revealing only the skill
of Shakespeare's craftsmanship, but almost the
very secret of imaginative art The fact that the
rough hewing had already been done by Plutarch
forces to the observation of the finer and more
subtly poetical elements in the Shakespearean drama
Take first . Juus Caesar" In Plutarch we have
ful-length portraits of the four chief characters
Cesar Brutus Cassius, and Mark Antony The
fa of HOrfa of ~