SHAKESPEARE. 63 



comparable impressions the kaleidoscopic 

 views of life and manners. What do I care 

 whether or no the celebrated Professor Nose- 

 mout has given his consent to the edition I 

 am reading ? Nee te senserem. It is Shakes- 

 peare I care for, not the little man with the 

 eye-glasses and the many commentaries and 

 editions. To be particularly sincere, I would 

 not give a straw to be able to read the great 

 cipher of Donnelly. Life is so short and wis- 

 dom is so broad. 



Still, if a young person came to me asking 

 how to get grounded in literary wisdom I 

 should say: Go study Shakespeare, as you 

 would study Nature, not as a specialist, but 

 in a liberal and free way. What edition? 

 Any edition. Whose notes? Nobody's. Make 

 your own notes, insist upon your own inter- 

 pretations, then go hear some good reader 

 like Booth or Lawrence Barrett or Mod jeska ; 

 but at last cling to your own private opinions. 

 Of course these opinions will be modified 

 and specialized as you grow, but you must 

 not let them hybridize and lose the precious 

 elements of your own originality, least of 

 all must you let the little buzzing insects, 

 self-styled commentators and editors, fertilize 

 the fresh flowers of your mind. The pollen 

 they carry is nothing but shelf -dust and book- 

 mould; it will make your brain like an 

 autumn puff-ball. Go into the open air and 

 read your open-type copy of Shakespeare 

 under a tree wherein the birds sing and the 

 wind rustles. You will find his effects 

 broad, like the sky and the sea; narrow, like 

 the brook; tangled and fretted, like the 

 vine-worried groves ; earthy as the earth it- 

 self. As plays, all these works were made 

 for the stage, therefore much of their stuff, is 



