His Life and Genius 183 



"cloistered virtue,'' untainted by a debauched 

 atmosphere, cannot realize the low tone and 

 vicious habit of thought and talk prevailing among 

 persons living a licentious life and making " lasci- 

 vious comments on their sport." They innocently 

 overlook two things : first, the inevitably vitiating 

 influence of the bad moral atmosphere emanating 

 from the corrupt medium in which the verses 

 were engendered and their perusal probably 

 enjoyed — habits of thought, feeling and bearing 

 being caught as men take diseases of one another, 

 wherefore, as Falstaff says, u men ought to take 

 heed of their company " ; secondly, the twofold 

 aspect of the man — that of the poet writing 

 divinely in his chamber as an idealist, and that 

 of a companion, yet not compeer, living in un- 

 divine intercourse with mistress and friend and 

 in his real person eating, drinking, and behaving 

 much like any common mortal. 



3. Character. 



It sounds nowadays almost like sacrilege r 

 indeed, a blaspheming of one's mental breed, to 

 hazard the conjecture that Shakspeare possessed 

 a deep fund of still self-love, caring much to 

 acquire property and position in his native town, 

 not caring to let aught else take deep hold of his 

 feelings. Of this strong quality in his nature he 

 at any rate seemed not to have been ignorant — 



