86 



their respective criticisms, these two critics proceed en- 

 tirely, from these very different positions, making their 

 arguments as far as possible conform with their premises. 

 The one natm-ally appears to seek for evidence of supe- 

 rior motives and designs, the other brings a microscopic 

 investigation to bear on all possible or conditional defects 

 merely. As one endeavours to illustrate the exalted 

 genius of the poet, exhibited in his writings, the other 

 attempts to debase and degrade him by all means in his 

 power ; and this may be defined as a broad instance Of 

 the difference between the English and German spirit of 

 criticism, and of the inevitable differences which must 

 result from such opposite modes of procedure. M. 

 Ulrici treats Shakspere as a poet — the Revieio as a 

 vicious and worldly speculator. 



Judging by such tests of observation and experience 

 as must immediately occur to us, it is perhaps not unrea- 

 sonable to suppose that Shakspere would have written 

 to attract an. audience, and please them when attracted. 

 That his purpose was more directly to fill his treasury 

 than furnish moral edification. It is a base supposition to 

 believe that it stopped at this point — that his ideas 

 were limited by the " Little 0" of the Globe Theatre. No 

 impediment existed to his combining the elegant and 

 the useful, pecuniary advantage with artistic superiority. 

 If there were, or if any of the later plays afforded a pre- 

 text for such a belief, in their incompleteness or defects, 

 or from principle having been sacrificed to expediency, 

 any argument of a moral design would be considerably 

 impaired. It is asserted that as manager and actor, he 

 was compromised to please his audience. But it may be 

 asserted equally of any artist, or of almost every artist, 

 certainly of every artist who has an end to achieve, that he 

 works to please. He would say or do precisely the same 

 thing in the same way, perhaps if there were no audience 



