40 



DISCOVF.IU' 



them as one of two types of organisation in t-xtra- 

 galactic space — the evidence suggt'sting that the 

 " galactic system now moves as a whole through space, 

 driving the spiral ncbulte before it." Repulsion, not 

 gravitation, appears to be the ruling power so far as 

 the spirals are concerned. " Is it possible," asks 

 Shapley, " that the spirals represent the failure to 

 form stars from the original condensing nebulosity' 

 through the presence of too much material ? " The 

 spirals, he suggests, may be composed of " particles of 

 molecular dimensions peculiarly susceptible to the 

 pressure of such radiation as is emitted by the stars." 

 If this be so, the spirals may be said to represent the 

 waste material of the universe, and to be in a sense 

 analogous to the cometary and meteoric matter within 

 the solar system. 



WTiatever be the status of the spirals— ^whethcr or 

 not they indicate the existence of many systems 

 coequal with the vast sidereal organisation in whicli 

 our sun is but a dwarf star — there can be no doubt 

 that the recent progress of astronomy has enormously 

 widened our mental horizon, having revealed a sidereal 

 system so vast that we are powerless to grasp its 

 immensity — a sidereal system which dwarfs to utter 

 insignificance the tiny globe on which we live and 

 the tiny star round which that globe revolves. " Such," 

 to quote the words of Flammarion forty years ago, 

 but more applicable to-day than when they w^rc 

 written, " is the aspect, grand, splendid, and sublime, 

 of the universe which flies through space before the 

 dazzled and stupefied gaze of the terrestrial astronomer, 

 bom to-day to die to-morrow on a globule lost in the 

 infinite night." 



BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING 



Collected Scientific Papers, by Sir William Herschel. 

 History of Physical Astronomy, by Robert Grant. 

 The Universe of Suns, by R. A. Proctor. 

 The Visible Universe and the Concise Knowledge of Astronomy, 



by J. E. Gore. 

 The Stars, by S. Newcomb. 

 Stellar Motions, by W. W. Campbell. 

 Stellar Movements and the Structure of the Universe, by .'\. S. 



Eddington. 

 Studies based on the Colours and Magnitudes in Stellar Clusters, 



in " Contributions from Mount Wilson Observatory," by 



Harlow Shapley. 



The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama. 



By Berth S. Phillpotts, Litt.D. (Cambridge 



University Press, 2is.) 

 The Groundwork of Modern Geography. By Albert 



WiLMORE, D.Sc. (G. Bell & Sons, bs.) 

 A Dictionary of Scientific Terms. By I. V. ami W. D. 



Henderson. (Oliver & Boyd, i8s.) 



"The Winter's Tale" 

 and its Source 



By Robert Devvar, M.A. 



Professor of linnUsh Literature in University Cotleye, Heading 



The earliest proofs of Shakespeare's popularity as a 

 dramatist date from 1592. And the most convincing, 

 though not the first or the sweetest, was Greene's 

 ill-natured death-bed warning of that year to his 

 fellow-playwrights. " There is." wrote Greene in 

 A Groatsworth of Wit bought icith a Million of Repen- 

 tance, " an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, 

 that with his Tyger's heart wrapped in a player's hide 

 supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke 

 verse as the best of you ; and being an absolute 

 Johannes Factotum is, in his owne conceit, the only 

 Shake-scene in a countrie." Greene's was not a 

 generous nature ; applause was meat and drink to 

 him ; and he loathed the very suspicion of a rival. 

 Least of all could he bear to be put down by a Shake- 

 speare — by a man who had never known a University, 

 a mere pla^'er who dared to emulate his betters. But 

 it is doubtful if others shared Greene's enxy. Before 

 the year was out, Greene's publisher tendered an 

 apology, in which he confessed the young Shake- 

 speare's " demeanour no lesse civill than he excelent 

 in the quahtie he professes," and praised " his upright- 

 nes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his 

 facetious grace in writing that aprooves his art." 



How Shakespeare himself regarded the incident we 

 cannot know for certain. There is nothing to show 

 that he hated Greene in return. Yet some have 

 thought that Shakespeare felt the attack keenly and 

 never forgave it, though Greene had died almost as 

 soon as his libel was uttered. Shakespeare took his 

 revenge, they say, in The Winter's Tale — a play 

 written in 1611, some nineteen years later, and prob- 

 ably the last which he made alone. It is a strange 

 coincidence, no doubt, that in the evening of life 

 when he thought to retire from the theatre and all 

 its business, Shakespeare should choose a story of 

 Greene's to supply him with the matter for a last 

 play. But need we infer that there was any spiteful 

 motive in the choice merely from the fact that 

 Shakespeare's version surpasses Greene's ? Other 

 tales by other writers had been borrowed in the same 

 way and been so far improved that the original was 

 quite forgotten. And, after all, Shakespeare has not 

 destroyed Greene's story utterly : one or two passages, 

 and those the best, he has spared untouched. Their 

 preserx'ation may suggest a better motive than 

 malignity on Shakespeare's part. The manner of 



