resources as a dramatic artist and by sheer force of craftsmanship he produced a masterpiece. In the realm of romantic comedy he could produce more but he could hardly go higher. What remained for him now was “fate, free will, and foreknowledge absolute."

32. Plays of Third Period.—In the third period of his dramatic activity Shakespeare rose to his greatest heights as a literary artist, and in his search for the deeper motives that govern human life he naturally emphasized tragedy. Before we consider the representative productions of this period, however, it is well to remark three so-called comedies, Troilus and Cressida, All's Well that Ends Well, and Measure for Measure, that do not in every case by a year or two precede Julius Caesar and Hamlet, but that in one way or another are characterized by a peculiarly gloomy, serious, and even bitter cast of thought, and that together form an easy transition from the greatest comedies to the greatest tragedies. When one looks into the nature of these three plays, however, it is easy to see why they are among the least popular of the dramatist's productions. Each one is in its own way a study in disillusion.

Troilus and Cressida (1601), in small part at least (and especially as regards the fifth act), has been thought to be by another hand than Shakespeare's. The great dramatist himself, however, was undoubtedly mainly responsible for the work. The play deals with the famous story of Troilus and Cressida, to which Shakespeare had already made passing reference in The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, and which Chaucer had used in his masterly character study, Troilus and Criseyde. It is well to keep in mind Shakespeare's two previous references. In the first (M. of V., V, 1) he referred to the lovers

at the height of their romance; in the second (T. N., III, 1) he makes mention of Cressida's being a beggar, such a state being the reward of her unfaithfulness." In the present play Troilus learns of Cressida's later conduct and unsuccessfully attempts to take revenge on Diomedes. The love story is surpassed in interest, however, by the portrayal of conditions in the Greek and Trojan camps at the siege of Troy. Especially graphic is the sketch of the sulking of Achilles. This on one hand gives occasion for the sage advice of Ulysses (note "Time hath, by lord, a wallet at his back ") and on the other for the railing of Thersites, a character taken from Homer whose possibilities as developed by Shakespeare have generally been only dimly realized. Achilles finally slays Hector, however, and Troilus resolves to avenge his brother's death.

The source of All's Well that Ends Well (1602) was a story in the Decameron that came to Shakespeare by way of Painter's Palace of Pleasure. The story is a strange one of a noble-minded young woman who falls in love with a man hardly worthy of her, who is insulted by this man, who places herself in a dangerous and compromising situation in order to win his loyalty, and who at length wins him, having satisfied even the hard conditions that he placed on her. The dramatist has so ennobled the character of the heroine, Helena, as to make her one of the truest and most famous women in his plays. The scene in which she confesses her love to the sympathetic old Countess of Rousillon, the mother of Bertram, is singularly tender and beautiful.

Measure for Measure (1603) has much connection in theme with All's Well that Ends Well, but the idealism of 'Note Robert Henryson's poem, The Testament of Cresseid.

Isabella also betokens connection with Julius Caesar and Hamlet, both of which plays were in the mind of the artist about the same time. Shakespeare borrowed the main story from George Whetstone, author of a play, Promos and Cassandra (1578), who in turn borrowed from Cinthio's Hecatommithi. Measure for Measure is a vivid satire on the evils of society. A young man, Claudio, is guilty under the law of a grave social crime. Angelo, the magistrate, places before Isabella, the sister of Claudio, the dilemma of saving her brother's life by giving herself to him or saving her honor and permitting her brother to be led to execution. Claudio would save his life at the expense of his sister's honor, so that in a sordid world Isabella is forced to find her way to the light alone. Having clearly presented his problem, Shakespeare ends the play with Isabella's losing neither her brother nor her honor; but the atmosphere is gloomy throughout. Singularly enough, however, Measure for Measure is relieved by many touches of the highest poetry.

8

Julius Caesar (1599?) was once termed by a great scholar "Shakespeare's best play of the second class." What is meant is obvious, that in this production the strong points are the surface merits of brilliant rhetoric and declamation, qualities quite different from the high poetry and the more searching characterization of the great plays immediately following. Marcus Brutus, the central figure of the drama, is a forerunner of Hamlet as a study of the scholarly and idealistic temperament face to face with the realities of the world; and throughout the play runs the irony of fate. Brutus is drawn into a conspiracy by his friend Cassius, a practical man of affairs, and by the

F. J. Child.

sheer force of his dignity and unquestioned honor dominates everything within reach. In rapid succession he makes three mistakes: he refuses to bind the conspirators by an oath (and somebody divulges the plan); he rejects the power of oratory as represented in Cicero (which same power as used by Antony later overcomes him), and he refuses to kill Antony along with Caesar (Antony later becoming the concrete instrument in his overthrow). The dramatist was especially skilful in handling the fourth act, always a difficult one for an Elizabethan playwright. When after Antony's oration the action seemed to be hastening to its conclusion too rapidly, he introduced the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius, and the ghost scene. The first of these episodes has been considered extraneous and the second mere dramaturgy; but a practical dramatist was working for theatrical effectiveness, and there can be no doubt as to the success of his achievement. Again and again lines taken almost bodily from North's Plutarch, touched by the magic of the master, leap into being; and after three hundred years of changing taste Julius Caesar still remains one of Shakespeare's most popular plays.

Hamlet (1602, second version 1604) is a supreme achievement in dramaturgy, but with such insight into nature did the artist work that at the same time that he satisfied the popular taste of his day he also produced a world masterpiece. The play is eminently a "tragedy of blood" and accordingly has affinity with such productions as Titus Andronicus and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. With the latter play in fact its connections are especially close, Kyd's tragedy dealing with the revenge of a father for the death of a son, and Shakespeare's reversing this

theme. In such things as this motive of revenge, and the use of the ghost, the dumb-show, the play within a play, and madness as a dramatic motive, Shakespeare was simply employing old material; but there is nothing trite about his finished product. By its magnificent phrase and rich poetry, its deep insight into human passion, and its deliberate interplay of character (as in the placing of the old pedant Polonius by the side of Hamlet), the play continues to attract and baffle. By reason also of the unnumbered linguistic, artistic, and ethical problems which it has awakened, Hamlet has gathered unto itself a vast literature of its own. The finished production is at once the admiration and the despair of students of the drama the world over.

Othello (1604) is Shakespeare's supreme achievement in dramatic technique. For the story he was ultimately indebted to the seventh novel of the third decade of Cinthio's Hecatommithi, of which a French translation was made in 1583-4; but he greatly improved on the original, especially as regards characterization, taste, and workmanship. The play is a domestic tragedy, singularly modern in tone, and has the advantage of holding attention on one definite group of characters. The first act in masterly fashion strikes the keynote of an emotional drama; the second, emphasizing the fact that we are concerned not with public but domestic affairs, shows Iago not only disgracing Cassio but beginning to use him in his larger design against Othello and Desdemona; the third act shows Shakespeare's greatest villain working with all the re

For a brief statement of his improvement see Neilson: Shakespeare's Complete Works, 934, Hudson's Introduction to the play, Parrott's Introduction, etc.