218 SHAKSPEARE*S WRITINGS. 



been administered. Commentators, instead of ex- 

 pending their sagacity upon siips of the pen and the 

 blunders of the printer's devil, will be engaged in the 

 study of his subtleties, and occupied in the propaga- 

 tion of his moral philosophy. The more we consider 

 him, the more we are astonished, till, at length, we 

 look upon his mind as almost superhuman. Of low 

 birth, uneducated (comparatively) accidently urged 

 to write, careless of fame, and, as it appears, per- 

 fectly unconscious of his talents, it is, at least, won- 

 derful he should have done well as a mere playwright. 

 Burns seems to have gone as far as genius, unas- 

 sisted by sublunary circumstances, could go : but we 

 must regard Shakspeare as having done what is beyond 

 the ordinary course of human power. His life was 

 short — his knowledge beyond ordinary computation 

 both as to extent and variety ; and, indeed, it is his 

 versatility which more particularly impresses us with 

 a sense of his exti*aordinary powers. Yet, his versa- 

 tility were nothing, were it shewn only in the descrip- 

 tion of character, however nicely the external features 

 of individuality might be remarked upon. In fact, 

 w^E can describe what he moulded in the form and 

 invested with the feeling of truth. The painter, or 

 the writer, can depict or describe King Lear and 

 Hamlet, which had been only suitable masks and 

 dresses in the hands of an ordinary good poet ; but 

 who, in Shakspeare's page are men — men above us 

 in the calibre of their minds, but allied to us in res- 

 pect to the weaknessess and inconsistencies of per- 

 vading nature, men, from whom we can learn, because 

 with them we can sympathize. It has been well 

 observed of Shakspeare, that he does not so much 

 speak the language of Nature, as that Nature speaks 

 through him. It is, as if she had selected him from 

 among her many admirers, admitted him to her most 

 secret haunts, confessed to him the passions, preju- 

 dices, virtues and vices, which, in their turns actuate 

 her, and made him acquainted with every original 

 spring by which they are set in motion. Thus, at 



