CHAPTER VI

THE DRAMATIST'S GROWTH IN POWER

The years preceding 1594, besides their dramatic product, saw the printing of the poem Lucrece" dedicated to Southampton, a work of power and originality though upon old lines, and another evidence that Shakespeare was trying his genius in various fields. He seems to have taken the measure of every method of work in turn.

"Titus Andronicus" showed him engaged upon a play of the old type packed full with a student's classic lore; "Henry VI." was the dramatizing of history from old chronicles; "Love's Labor's Lost" was the comedy of verbal cleverness, quick-witted satire, relieved by a talent for dramatic situation and a poetic spirit; the "Comedy of Errors," dramatic throughout, had the

humor of situation and character, just touched with wit in words.

Here is steady advance, and in “Two Gentlemen of Verona " we shall see new territory entered and taken. It should be noted, however, that a critical reading of the last named play might lead to the conclusion that it is either earlier in date than the "Comedy of Errors" or is more carelessly written; for there is much greater skill in the complications of the farcical than in the romantic comedy. The "Two Gentlemen of Verona " shows an advance rather in certain of its characters than in plot and treatment. Proteus and Valentine are wooden enough, but in Sylvia and Julia is more life than in Adriana and Luciana.

The wit of the dramatist, however, takes a finer form. Instead of the word-juggling there is the play of ideas. The talk of Julia with the Host (Act IV., Scene II.), is wit going deeper than conceits of word

ing, and sounding puns; and the long dialogue between Launce and Speed, the clownish serving-men (Act. III., Scene I.), is humorous in better fashion than the similar colloquies of "Love's Labor's Lost."

On the other hand, it would require a Shakespeare idolater to report this play a masterpiece of construction. The creak of the ill-fitted joints cannot be disguised. Such flaws are not to be found in his maturer work. Yet the play is Shakespeare's, yet there are in it evidences of increasing dramatic power. The emotions handled are of finer quality, the range of feeling covered is greater. Hurry and scamped work, though that of a great poet, marks this first romantic drama, which bears comparison best with the story from which it is plainly taken the episode of the shepherdess Felismena, printed very fully in the edition of Henry Morley. It is a lesson in dramatic construction to study the variations Shakespeare has made in the plot.

As to minor objections, such as the going by ship from Verona to Milan, such carelessness or ignorance seems not to have been regarded by the audience of the time, and hence to have been considered not worth a playwright's thought. As an excuse for a string of traditional puns, the ship would be brought in whenever its mention was convenient. Even a play of so late a date as "The Tempest " exhibits the same recklessness in bringing a vessel near to the city of Milan. In similar cases critics have attempted by far fetched reasoning to justify these blunders, but it would be fairer, as already suggested, to accept all such errors and anachronisms as being ignored through lack of critical instinct in both audience and dramatist. Certainly in the days of Queen Elizabeth it could not have been hard to verify elementary geography.

It was a time of travel and exploration, of intense interest in new lands and mariMerchants were opening

time adventure.

the way to the East Indies, and Spain's galleons were nowhere safe from English privateersmen. Gilbert, Frobisher, Drake, John Smith, Davis, Raleigh, were carrying the English flag into every clime, and the story of their exploits was told in every English village.

India, Africa, Greenland, were better known than ever before, and it is not likely that maps were not to be had in London.

It is hard to believe that no long period

intervened between "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." If the first-named play with all its imperfections be of the years 1592-3, it is difficult to date the dainty, imaginative fairy-play as following within a year or two. Instead of the fumbling hand of the talented beginner, we now find the ease of a master. From the very beginning there is a different method. Instead of the longdrawn recitals of the "Comedy of Errors we have in the speech of Egeus, the com