I IO 



SHAKSPEARE: 



"TESTIMONIED IN HIS OWN 

 BRINGINGSFORTH"* 



" Let him be but testimonied in his own bringingsforth, the very 

 stream of his life and the business he helmed." 



— Measure for Measure. 



1. His Life and Genius. 



It is hard to echo the sorrowful plaints of those 

 who lament the little that is known of Shak- 

 speare's private life, harder still to sympathize 

 with their fanciful conjectures when, naively 

 measuring his thoughts and feelings by those 

 which they imagine they would have had, and 

 him therefore to have had, in his circumstances, 

 they go on to accumulate idle surmises how he 

 must have thought and felt and spoken, he being 

 Shakspeare and they what they are. We cannot, 



* This essay contains the result of a study of Shakspeare's 

 works during a voyage to Australia and back four years ago. It 

 marks the simple endeavour by impartial enquiry to understand 

 and, if perchance successful, render intelligible what he was 

 as " testimonied in his own bringingsforth." One hundred 

 copies were printed at the time, and nearly all distributed 

 privately. 



