ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show, by an analysis of the character of Shakespeare, that a desire of action was the ruling impulse of his mind; and consequently a sense of existence its permanent state. There is a desire of mental activity felt by such a mind as Shakespeare’s corresponding with that impulse to physical action felt by all men. Since Shakespeare accomplished so great results without any apparent object, and since the strains of the bard are ever so welcome to the general ear, it has been inferred that his motive was to please. Each of the characters that Shakespeare has left us, on the contrary, was his own; the impulse by which he moved was so universal that it rendered his being coincident with that of all. He actually lived what he represented. Shakespeare acted, like his own Falstaff, “on instinct:” no ligament save that of existence bound him to any particular mode of action.
