Certain Nezv Elucidations of Shakespeare 29 



perhaps no less an instinct than the gift of constructing a per- 

 fectl}^ rounded and artistic nest. But it is an instinct that is not, 

 like the robin's or the wren's, inscrutable. The psychology and 

 the processes of Shakespeare's art can be analyzed and known. 

 It is gratifying to find this truth so plainly postulated. 



But this excellent promise of the author falls considerably short 

 of fulfillment in the present lecture. It opens with sensible ob- 

 servations on the development of Shakespeare's notion of what a 

 play should be, and what his chief expedients were. The first is 

 " the trick of a woman disguised in man's apparel." Another 

 works the plot upon a shipwreck, shown or reported. " The 

 Comedy of Errors and Pericles are pivoted upon shipwreck; by 

 shipwreck Perdita in The Winter's Tale is abandoned on the 

 magical seacoast of Bohemia. Twelfth Alight takes its intrigue 

 from shipwreck, and, for acting purposes, opens with Viola's 

 casting ashore. . . . The Tempest opens in the midst of ship- 

 wreck. In The Comedy of Errors and Tzuelfth Night shipwreck 

 leads on to another trick — that of mistaken identity, as it is 

 called. In The Comedy of Errors (again) and Pericles it leads 

 on to the trick of a long-lost mother, supposed to have perished 

 in shipwreck, revealed as living yet and loving. . . . One might 

 make a long list of these favorite themes ; from Shakespeare's 

 pet one of the jealous husband or lover and the woman foully 

 misjudged (Hero, Desdemona, Hermione), ... to the trick of 

 the commanded murderer whose heart softens (Hubert, Pisanio)," 

 •; — only Pisanio never intended to harm Imogen.^® 



And then, " All young artists in drama are preoccupied with 

 plot or ' construction.' ' Gharacter ' comes later. The plot of 

 Love's Labour's Lost turns on ' confusion of identity,' the 

 Princess and her ladies masking themselves to the perplexity of 

 their masked lovers. . . . The Comedy of Errors is an experi- 

 ment on a different model ; not Lyly now, but Plautus, and Plau- 

 tus out-Plautus'd. Again we have confusion of identity for the 

 motive, but here confusion of identity does not merely turn on 



19 If he did so purpose, why should he bring along a page's doublet, hat, 

 and hose to the place of execution? Were they to serve as burial clothes 

 for Imogen? 



131 



