SHAKESPEARE. 241 



Shallow for the future laughter of the Prince and 

 Poins. An inferior artist to Shakespeare would not 

 have exercised this nice discrimination. 



What I have never heard well explained in the 

 play of ' Julius Caesar ' is the direct denial by Brutus 

 to Messala, the messenger from Eome, of his having 

 heard anything of Portia, when immediately before, in 

 excuse for his angry mood, he had related to Cassius 

 the fact and manner of her death. It is hardly pos- 

 sible to ascribe this to inadvertence. But what, then, 

 is the explanation of it ? 



Gray says of Shakespeare, 'He had, I believe, 

 several souls to his own share ; ' and Coleridge some- 

 where calls him pvpiavovs. The phrase is a happy 

 one, for there is nothing more wonderful than his 

 superiority to all others in so many and such diverse 

 kinds of excellence. 



One of the very few wagers I ever laid was with 

 Lord Nugent (a consummate Shakespearian scholar) 

 upon his assertion that there was not a single passage 

 in Shakespeare commending, directly or indirectly, the 

 moral qualities of the dog. I thought this so unlikely 

 that I took the wager, a year being freely given for 

 its settlement. Though aided by others, I could find 

 no such passage or phrase, and I paid the money, mar- 

 velling that such should be the issue of the wager. 



Of the conjectures as to Shakespeare's religious 

 opinions none that I have seen are very satisfactory. 

 They have chiefly regarded the question of his leaning 

 to the Eomish or the Eeformed Church. He lived in 

 times disturbed and heated by this great change. He 



