360 A Century of /Science 



advantage to him ; in " Troilus and Cressida " there 

 is a freedom of treatment hardly possible to a pro- 

 fessional scholar. It is because of this freedom 

 that Shakespeare reaches a far wider public of 

 readers and listeners than Milton or Dante, whose 

 vast learning makes them in many places " caviare 

 to the general." Book-lore is a great source of 

 power, but one may easily be hampered by it. 

 What we forever love in Homer is the freshness 

 that comes with lack of it, and in this sort of fresh- 

 ness Shakespeare agrees with Homer far more than 

 with the learned poets. 



It is not for a moment to be denied that Shake- 

 speare's plays exhibit a remarkable wealth of varied 

 knowledge. The writer was one of the keenest 

 observers that ever lived. In the woodland or on 

 the farm, in the printing shop or the alehouse, or 

 up and down the street, not the smallest detail 

 escaped him. Microscopic accuracy, curious inter- 

 est in all things, unlimited power of assimilating 

 knowledge, are everywhere shown in the plays. 

 These are some of the marks of what we call genius, 

 something that we are far from comprehending, 

 but which experience has shown that books and 

 universities cannot impart. All the colleges on 

 earth could not by combined effort make the kind 

 of man we call a genius, but such a man may at 



