62 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



the world because it is safer to be a snob than 

 to be a sincere and independent man. The 

 lords and kings and princes have said that a 

 swallow-tailed coat is just the thing, and even 

 the hotel waiter cannot cheapen it. So the 

 Moguls of criticism have said : "Shakespeare 

 is incomparable," and how shall any clod 

 gainsay it ? They used to say something 

 pretty about Homer, too, but Greek is no 

 longer fashionable. It proves something, how- 

 ever, this firm hold that the old English bard 

 keeps on the moulders of public opinion. It 

 requires extraordinary genius to live up to 

 the standard these intolerant worshippers 

 have set for their god, and so far Shakespeare 

 has lost little ground, if we may judge by the 

 increased number of editions he is subjected 

 to by enthusiastic editors and hopeful pub- 

 lishers every year. 



This matter of editing Shakespeare, as it is 

 called, has a broad tinge of humor as I view 

 it. All this hair-splitting over doubtful read- 

 ings is ludicrous, if one dared say so. In the 

 old bard's own manner there is very little to 

 set an example of carping or higgling about a 

 word or the turn of a phrase. He put things 

 forth with a direct stroke of his pen, as Turner 

 after him did with the brush, giving not the 

 slightest heed to the infinitesimals about which 

 the wise little commentators pretend to know 

 so much. A Shakespearian scholar reminds 

 me always of an expert in fossil bryozoans 

 he is so dry and narrow, so fretful and pig- 

 headed when he finds a man standing before 

 him who dares to have a soul of his own that 

 he would like to unburden. This reading, 

 that edition, the other commentary, some- 

 body's interpolation what's the difference so 

 that I get the broad wash of ibhought, the in- 



