Theories and Theorists

If William Shakespeare the dramatist had not been such a supreme genius, and if what was known of William Shakspere the actor had not been so little and that little had not sometimes seemed incompatible with what the conventional mind usually associates with greatness, there would in all probability never have been a Shakespeare problem. Other obscure men have risen to greatness, and even less is known about many of the great Elizabethans, as we shall see later, than is known about the Stratford actor, ¹ while great men, whatever their origin, have often displayed in private characteristics completely at variance with their public reputation. But the three things coming together were bound sooner or later to raise doubts in minds cast in the conventional mould whether the man distinguished by the first could be identical with the man distinguished by the other two. It is perhaps more surprising that these doubts were so long delayed than that they eventually became vocal.