ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an extract from an article published in The Critic, August 14, 1886, which was reprinted in November Boughs, Philadelphia, 1888. The inward and outward characteristics of Shakspere are his vast and rich variety of persons and themes, with his wondrous delineation of each and all. Poetry, largely consider’d, is an evolution, sending out improved and ever-expanded types—in one sense, the past, even the best of it, necessarily giving place, and dying out. The low characters, mechanics, even the loyal henchmen—all in themselves nothing—serve as capital foils to aristocracy. The comedies bringing in admirably portray’d common characters, have the unmistakable hue of plays, portraits, made for the divertisement only of the élite of the castle, and from its point of view.
