SHAKESPEARE. 65 



mind ; hence the reading of Shakespeare is of 

 prime importance to one who dreams of mak- 

 ing literature some day. Not that writing 

 plays like Shakespeare's ever will be profit- 

 able again; the good will come in what is 

 caught of Shakespeare's contempt of leading- 

 strings and of his love of the ideal. Original- 

 ity in his [works means a Shakespearian use 

 of whatever came to fris hand. He employed 

 no tricks, appealed to no mock-foam or stage- 

 thunder to strengthen a weak passage. Men 

 quarrel to-day over the question of Hamlet's 

 mental condition; but Shakespeare saw no 

 need for any foot-note. There are many 

 very weak places in his plays, but each play 

 makes a distinct and clear-cut impression. 

 It is this impression which constitutes true 

 value in every work of art. No mind can be 

 unenlightened which is full of the spirit ot 

 Shakespeare's works ; but one may ber#sme a 

 mere book-louse by creeping too long among 

 the words and phrases of them. Note well 

 the difference. If you come to the reading 

 of Shakespeare with the cringing soul of a 

 snob in you, the reading will be in vain. 

 Read him, just as you would read Mark 

 Twain, with a feeling of democratic indepen- 

 dence. He was no more a god than you are 

 a god; he was nothing but a large-headed, 

 open-eyed, self-reliant man who was gifted 

 with a talent for writing good plays. He 

 would not thank you for saying that the 

 poorest of his sonnets are better than the 

 best of Keats' : for he would know that you 

 were not sincere. Keats wrote one or two 

 sonnets that are incomparably better than 

 any of Shakespeare's. 



I say this without blinking, for I am writ- 

 ing in a pine woods on the shore of the Mexi- 

 5 



