SHAKESPEARE. 61 



Even Tennyson uses the egotistic pronoun 

 with an emphasis not to be misunderstood. 



Shakespeare was lucky in many ways, as 

 genius always is, and he has had better ,luck 

 since he died than he had while living : an- 

 other franchise of the children of glory. As 

 the years have rolled by publishers have in- 

 creased, and what publisher ever died with- 

 out issuing his special edition of Shakespeare? 

 As the leaves of the forests have authors in- 

 creased ; what scribbler ever goes hungry to 

 his grave without having written his essay 

 on the Bard of Avon ? Headers have become 

 as countless as the sands of the sea, and all 

 have read or are just going to read Hamlet 

 and the rest. We are born with an heredi 

 tary Shakespeare bias, and we go toward his 

 works as the young snapping-turtle goes 

 toward water, as if the act were an instinctive 

 one. 



There are "men who, if they dared, would 

 burn at the stake any human being who in 

 his sincerity should admit that he found As 

 You Like It a very dull affair. Once in the 

 hospitable home of the late Paul H. Hayne I 

 said that I did not regard some of Shakes- 

 peare's works as of any great value, when lo ! 

 the gracious and kindly Southern poet leaped 

 to his feet and poured forth upon my devoted 

 head a flood of eloquent and indignant protest 

 the like of which I never have heard else- 

 where. Indeed, one does not dare be inde- 

 pendent in the matter of discussing the old 

 master. Not worship Shakespeare ! one might 

 as well deny the attraction of gravitation, or 

 suggest a new theory of politeness which 

 would ignore the swallow-tailed coat. Some 

 things are true because it is death to deny 

 them. Snobbery is kept alive and fat all over 



