ABSTRACT
That world which Shakespeare lived in, during his half-century on earth, seems in human remembrance like some vast storm, of passions furious and confused. Europe was reborn, and Shakespeare’s half-century marks the closing phase of the Renaissance. The main flood of Islam had already spent its force against half-deluged Europe. In 1584, Shakespeare being then twenty years of age, Ivan died, and with his death the Russian wave collapsed. It was in this age of despots that there arose among the Iroquois tribes, surrounding Lake Ontario, a group of pure republics, with women in their senates, municipal police, a medical practice far in advance of Europe, and a beautiful ideal of putting an end to war. For ages the world’s main commerce had centred in the Mediterranean Sea, known as the Thalassic trade, receiving the produce from the overland caravans out of Asia, and distributing to Europe.
