The "ATiaq Aiyofiz'^a in Shahspere. 171 



the start of the majestic world so far as that, however myriad - 

 minded we may consider him. 



An instinct which would have rendered him aware of each and 

 every individual of five thousand words that he had employed 

 once only would be as inconceivable as that of Falstaff which 

 made him discern at midnight the heir apparent in Prince Hal, 

 when disguised as a highwayman. In short, Shakspere could not 

 be conscious of all the words he had once used more than Brigham 

 Young could recognize all the wives he bad once wedded. 



In the absence of other theories concerning the reasons for the 

 Shaksperian "Atto.^ Xzybfizva being so abundant, I throw out a sug- 

 gestion of my own, which may stand till a better one shall sup- 

 plant it. 



Shakspere's forte lay in diversified characterization, and, in my 

 judgment, when he had sketched each several character, he was 

 never content till he had either found or fabricated the aptest 

 words possible for painting its form and pressure even in all nuances 

 most tiue to l;fe. No two characters being identical in any par- 

 ticular, more than two faces are, no two descriptions as drawn by 

 his genius could repeat many of the self-same words. Each of his 

 vocables thus became like each one of the seven thousand pieces 

 in a locomotive which fits the one niche it was ordained to fill, 

 but is out of place everywhere else, _yes even dislocated. 



The more his ethical differentiations, the more his language was 

 differentiated. His personages were as diversified as have been 

 portrayed by the whole band of Italian painters, but being a wizard 

 in words he resembled the magician in mosaic who can delineate 

 in ptone every feature of those portraits, thanks to his discrimi- 

 nating and imitating shades of color more numberless than even 

 Shakspere's words. 



It is hard to believe that Shakspere's characters were born like 

 Athene from the brain o£ Jove in panoplied perfection. They 

 grew. The play of Troilus was a dozen years in growth. Ac- 

 cording to the best commentators, "internal evidence favors the 

 opinion that Romeo and Juliet was an early work, and that it was 

 subsequently revise 1 and enlarged. Shakspere after having 

 sketched out a play on the fashion of his youthful taste and skill, 



