SHAKESPEARE AND PSYCHOGNOSIS 229 



molding and fashioning the whole lump of clay, but that was an imso- 

 phisticated effort. 



What we can say of the types of The Tempest is that they are his final 

 and thoroughly experienced and sophisticated effort at a complete 

 Weltanschauung, in which no single, however great, human interest, but 

 the whole human interest, call it what you will, lije, society, ethics, 

 psychology, philosophy, nature, history, wisdom, psychognosis, is the 

 subject more or less consciously portrayed in his concrete dramatic 

 method of expression. Personally I believe that in this period the 

 dramatist was pretty conscious of the philosophic quality of his work; 

 but I do not think this can be proved, and it is hardly in the interest of 

 art, as we find it, to attempt such proof. The difference between this 

 play, however, and such work as Plato's Republic or the Nichomachean 

 Ethics seems to me to be not so great as regards method and attitude as 

 the difference between earHer plays of Shakespeare's and these abstract 

 writings, though I also beheve that Shakespeare was a good deal of a 

 philosopher even when he wrote the Comedy of Errors. 



I. The Ruin Motif. — In the exposition of the types of character, 

 all these types of situation have necessarily been discussed in detail, 

 though indirectly; accordingly it will fortunately be unnecessary to 

 follow the tedious method that has seemed necessary heretofore. 



The shipwreck scene seems to me to be even superior to the celebrated 

 first scene of Macbeth as a keynote of its play. It is a type of all situa- 

 tions which test and try the human soul, and make all masquerading 

 and shuffling impossible. "In the reproof of fortune lies the true proof 

 of men." The shipwreck takes on a symbolic significance, which is one 

 of the trite metaphors of all Hterature. We have read of the "ship of 

 state" (cf. Gray's Bard), and moral writings constantly employ such 

 simiHtudes as haven, harbor, storm, course, breakers, full sail. Ship- 

 wreck of fortune is a common phrase. In private life, the scene suggests 

 bankruptcy, "loss of grip" in a profession, disaster to reputation, scandal 

 and disgrace, as in the story of Faust — any of the grand catastrophes or 

 failures that suggest despair and suicide even to the strong and innocent ; 

 in national fife, overwhelming defeats in war, such as the collapse of 

 France in 1870; the loss of commerce, such as ruined the Itahan cities; 



