SHAKESPEARE. 243 



augmented within my own memory a testimony in 

 itself to the growiDg culture of the age. Putting aside 

 theatrical representation, there is a deeper and more 

 critical study of all that he has written, great labour 

 given to the corrections of the text, a higher appre- 

 ciation of his various powers, and eagerness after every 

 fact that can illustrate in any way the individuality of 

 the man. For something of all this we are ourselves 

 indebted to German writers, Goethe, Schlegel, Tieck, 

 &c., some of whom have pushed their critical analysis 

 beyond any probable conceptions of Shakespeare him- 

 self. I recollect dining with Augustus Schlegel, at 

 Sir J. Mackintosh's, some forty years ago, when he 

 spoke insultingly of the ignorance in England of our 

 greatest author, adding that Englishmen must come to 

 Germany to study him aright. The excellence of his 

 own translation of Shakespeare gave a certain sort of 

 authority to this comment. 



