The plays of Shakespeare founded on literary forms

Preface

That the Plays of Shakespeare — or rather the Tragedies and Comedies, for the Histories are not now taken into account — are founded on Literary Forms is a proposition that will, at first glance, appear to many too improbable to be entitled to consideration, and hence it is deemed advisable at the outset to place here in the Preface a brief explanation of the purport and aim of this volume.

It is a commonplace that Shakespeare’s plays are many-sided. They have, in the first place, an Artistic side, in which respect it is believed that they offer good examples of that theory of Art of Bacon’s laid down in his Aphorism on “ Instances of the Wit and Hand of Man ” (Nov. Org. Book II. Aph. 31), which declares that a work of true art must be founded on “ a form The word “ form ” Bacon uses technically, and it is perhaps unfortunate that he did so, as the wide difference between its scholastic or metaphysical sense and its common acceptation is apt to produce confusion. “ A form ” must not in the least be confounded with figure or shape ; it may perhaps be defined, at least for present purposes, as that inward constitutive principle which gives to a thing its specific properties, and is about equivalent to the idea or law of a thing, of which the outward form and sensible properties are the product. When stated in language, it is an axiom or definition ; as, for instance, “ the form ” of History (as a species of writing) is a judgment of men by trial and experience, or “ the form ” of a fable is to convey a knowledge of the world by symbols. For critical purposes, the terms “form” idea , and law may be considered as interchangeable; but as the theory that a “form” is essential to a work of

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art is more particularly explained in the remarks upon The Winter’s Tale (a play which treats of Art), it need not here be enlarged upon.

The plays have also a mwal side, being pictures of human life, which present the old and everlasting contest between the desires and the reason, varied only from play to play by the difference in the objects pursued, — a difference, however, sufficient to give each play its own ideal and its own standard of judgment. And in this respect the moral and artistic sides blend, for the poet goes for his “ forms ” to literature, or, say, learning generally, of which each special style is determined by its purpose or end ; as, for instance, to refer again to the case of History, the purpose or end of History is to judge of the comparative worth and rank of men as proved by actual trial. This is apparently the essential idea of History and what Bacon would call its “ form ; ” or in the case of a fable, the end is to convey a knowledge of moral truth by symbols, and this is its “ form ; ” and when such an idea or “ form ” is adopted as a constructive principle of a play and is developed back, as it were, into dramatic life and action, representing that side of human affairs, or that pursuit of ends, which furnishes the matter for the special style of writing from which “ the form ” is taken, it becomes obviously the rule that must be followed for the successful attainment of such ends, and, therefore, has a moral as well as an artistic side, as — ^ again to recur to History — a play founded on the “ form ” of History will exhibit a world in which men have for their ends the passing of judgments upon persons and things with a view of assigning them their rank, at least, in their own esteem and love, if not in general estimation ; while the rule that insures the correctness of such judgments requires the use of actual test as proof.

But as, in the pursuit of their desires, men make use of those means which they have been taught by experience are the best for the purpose, they in time formulate these means into methods and rules, and thus create Arts and Sciences, as, to take familiar instances, from a desire of health and the use of means

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v to preserve it, there arises the Art of Medicine, or, from a wish to persuade, the Art of Rhetoric : or, to recur once more to History, of which the end is to make a correct judgment of men by actual proof, but in doing which the mind is often- misled by secondary evidence unless means are taken to guard it against error, such means, when approved by experience, are framed into rules and methods that constitute the Art of Judging, or what is called the Inductive Method ; and in like manner with other sciences.

Consequently the plays have a scientific or doctrinal side, being so constructed that their personages in the pursuit of their ends exemplify, positively or negatively, by their action and speech, the tenets and rules of that art, science, or doctrine which grows out of the means used to accomplish their purposes or gratify their desires; from which it is apparent that not only do the moral and artistic sides coalesce, but that these two are also incorporated with the philosophic side into one.

And it is observable that in these illustrations of different branches of learning, the poet for the most part follows the divisions of the sciences laid down by Bacon, but not always ; for he sometimes takes his rules from Aristotle, but this apparently is only in cases where Bacon is silent on the points involved.

These plays have, moreover, what may be called a rhetorical side, that is, they may be examined as compositions with respect to their diction and metaphor, and particularly their use of words that are affined with or suggestive of the leading conceptions of the play, together with the phrases scattered through the piece containing thoughts, similes, and figures of speech that present analogies to the rule that is implicit in “ the form,” or rather is “ the form ” or organic idea ; and to this side also belongs the consideration of language itself in those peculiar phases and properties, and particularly those imperfections of it which cause it greatly to mislead the judgment, or which give it a special relation to that view of life and branch of literature of which “ the form ” is the essential law.

In addition to the above modes of considering these plays, they

VI

PREFACE.

have also a dramatic and a poetical side, in viewing the former of which notice may be taken of the curious and ingenious artifices employed to accelerate or retard the time or movement of the action, or to strengthen the effectiveness of the scene or unify the details of the piece ; and also of the incessant vigilance and mental activity in the nice adaptation of scene and stage or outward world to the moral tone and level of the sentiments, and conduct of the characters, and other similar matters ; while, viewed on their poetical side, that is, as complete works of art, we see the bare moral skeletons with which analysis only concerns itself, now reinvested with flesh and blood, and the whole piece become a world of living, breathing reality, with innumerable lights and shades, and filled with the joy and terror of life, enlisting the sympathies, delighting the imagination, and satisfying that sense of beauty to which it is the aim of art to minister. But these two last sides of the plays have been set forth by a thousand pens, with a force, insight, and eloquence that leave nothing to be desired, and to which nothing to any purpose could well be added ; therefore but little note is taken of these particulars in the following pages. On the other heads, however, there has not so much been said ; indeed, it is believed that a wide field of Shakespearian study remains yet unexplored, and of a few gleanings in this field this volume is offered as a contribution.

It is perhaps impossible to venture into the domain of Shakespearian criticism without treading on ground that has been traversed by others ; and if in the following pages there shall be found matter that belongs to other writers (outside of that general stock of information that is common to all) for which credit is not given (of which, however, the present writer is not conscious of any instance), it is hoped that such omission will be attributed to inadvertency, and not to any disposition to appropriate the labors of others without acknowledgment ; and, furthermore, it may perhaps not be superfluous to add that the bulk of this volume has been written many years.

When the word “ form ” is used in this volume in its technical or Baconian sense, it will be marked with inverted commas.

Contents

Introduction Cymbeline The Winter’s Tale King Lear

The Merchant of Venice All ’s Well that Ends Well Troilus and Cressida As You Like It Much Ado about Nothing The Merry Wives of Windsor Romeo and Juliet

Othf.t.t.o, the Moor of Venice m

Introduction

If a moralist or a metaphysician — or say, a philosopher combining both in one — wished to illustrate his rules of conduct or his laws of mind or, in other words, his moral or mental science by examples drawn from real life, he would be obliged to ransack histories, lives, memoirs and other records of human action for cases in point ; but if he could command the pen of a great dramatic poet or were he such a poet himself, endowed with a creative imagination and a profound knowledge of the world, he might invent plays so near to truth and nature that, while complying with the demands of dramatic art, they would present such pictures of life and of the good and evil in men’s natures as would exemplify a “ philosophy of man.” In such plays, the characters would have that mental constitution, the events that moral significance, and the dialogue those thoughts and sentiments, which, like the characters and events of real life, would furnish materials for a systematic knowledge of human nature ; with this difference, however, that whereas truth in real life is gathered from widely scattered particulars, in these plays it would in each be presented in characters and incidents woven into one connected story, furnishing all the examples necessary for the elucidation of some special branch of moral science. A drama written on this plan would be a vast collection of mental and moral phenomena making up in the aggregate a Natural History of the human mind, of which each play would constitute a separate chapter, devoted to some particular phase of life, with its special class of moral facts. Such a Natural History, it is believed, are the plays of Shakespeare ; the proof of which, however, must be in showing that these plays can be used, not merely in scraps and parts, but in their whole scope and tenor, to exemplify a well digested system of philoso- 1

INTRODUCTION.

phy. The abstract propositions of the philosopher must be revivified and made, as it were, to flower out into concrete and dramatic life and action. The thesis of the following pages is that the Shakespearian drama does this for the philosophy of Bacon.

This philosophy was not a theory of the world, but a method of judgment ; it professed to teach men how to arrive at a valid conclusion. No doubt it aimed, in its ultimate results, at a complete comprehension of the universe, but in its initial step it was an “ organum ” or “ machine” to guide the judgment in the investigation of truth. This is a cardinal fact and should be kept in mind, as it is in the correct or incorrect formation of judgments that the doctrines of Bacon seem most effectually to be carried into the characters and action of the plays.

One of Bacon’s chief aims was to emancipate the mind from its enthrallment to the Aristotelian logic, which, though of use in its appropriate sphere, was, he contended, wholly inadequate to cope with the subtilty of nature. He therefore brought forward a new method of Induction, which admits no conclusion, except upon proof of sense and experience, and this, too, in all the gradations of inference from simple particulars to the highest generalities. This is obviously in direct contrast with the method commonly practiced by the mind, which, after gathering a few and in most cases quite inadequate number of facts, hastens to generalize upon them ; and accepting the propositions thus obtained as incontrovertible truths, adopts them as premises, by which to prove the intermediate propositions. This latter or deductive method, which was the one almost universally in fashion previous to Bacon’s age, is exposed to many errors ; the facts or proofs it relies upon are few in number and insufficiently tested, the conclusions derived from them are hasty and unsound, and the syllogisms founded on such conclusions are untrustworthy, since “ syllogisms consist of propositions and propositions of words ; and words being but the current tokens and imperfect signs of things and full of deceit and ambiguity, necessarily vitiate the conclusion.” It was to combat and do away with this unsatisfactory mode of arriving at truth that Bacon invented his “ organum ” by which he. sought to “ make the mind a match for the nature of things.”

The leading distinction then between the system of Bacon and

INTRODUCTION.

that of the old philosophies — to which latter the mind is of its own nature prone — lay in the different methods of proof and judgment. Consequently if these plays or any of them can be taken as illustrative examples of the Baconian philosophy, they must, of necessity, exhibit and contrast in their principal features the correct and incorrect exercise of the judgment in forming conclusions, and furnish incidents, characters, and situations which will serve as examples both of the Inductive and Deductive methods of demonstration. Of these methods, Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale are, respectively, leading instances. It may be remarked that the mode in which philosophy, as such, is exemplified in the plays is very simple. The formation of a correct judgment is the only means of arriving at truth and consequently lies at the bottom of all science. A Shakespearian play is a representation of practical life, and must, in its action, exhibit characters that necessarily exercise their judgments in the choice of ends and also of the means of attaining such ends, and these means, when rightly selected, which they can only be through a knowledge of causes, are resolvable into the application of causes to produce effects and furnish rules for some special art or doctrine ; so that it is easy for the dramatist, provided he be possessed of the requisite knowledge and fertility of thought — and Shakespeare has always been supposed to be abundantly gifted with these — to convert his play, without in the least affecting its dramatic qualities, into an illustrative example of some special branch of knowledge.

In his attempts at the reformation of philosophy, Bacon taught that the old systems were, so far as a knowledge of nature was concerned, but useless theories made up of words and wholly unproductive of works ; for which he proposed to substitute facts and things ; and in treating of the prejudices and delusions that infest the human mind and obscure the judgment, he assigned the first rank in importance to those which grow out of the imperfections and perversions of words and names. This notion that language is the main source of error is constantly put forward by Bacon, “ for the great sophism of all sophisms,” he says, “ is equivocation or ambiguity of words and phrases ; ” and the same notion in some form is exemplified in almost every play of Shakespeare ; in fact, it is most intimately connected with that contrast between the factitious and the real, which is one of the most notable features of the Shakespearian drama.

INTRODUCTION.

But neither these nor any other general resemblance in the plays to Bacon’s tenets can be taken as a ground on which to build an argument that there is a connection between the plays and the philosophy. It will be said that it needed not Bacon nor any other seer or prophet to couch the eye of the writer of Hamlet or Othello in order that he might see the difference between words and things, and no parallelism between the general views and doctrines expressed by the poet and philosopher will be accepted as proof — in the first instance at least — of any communication or other privity between them ; but it so happens that in the later plays, and particularly in those written towards the close of the dramatist’s career, the apparent similitudes point not simply to the theoretical views, but to the system and technicalities of the Baconian philosophy ; they seem to reach the classification and subdivisions of the subjects of which they treat. Two great original minds, investigating the same subject, might, and in all probability would, arrive at the same general conclusions ; and as truth is one, the profounder their intellects, the more likely they would be to concur ; but no two original minds classify alike, for originality may be said to consist in the power of making a new classification, that is, of subjecting phenomena to a new principle of arrangement, the selection of which depends upon affinities and processes of thought that are peculiar to each mind and constitute its originality. To say, therefore, that two original minds classify alike is a contradiction of terms. Yet between the writings of Bacon and these plays, there are seemingly coincidences that indicate an identity not only of philosophic views but also of the distribution and even the nomenclature of the subject. If then these similitudes be not entirely fanciful ; if they shall be found to be too numerous and systematic to be considered casual, it will follow that there is some connection between the plays and the Baconian philosophy, and consequently that between Bacon and Shakespeare there existed some personal relation, the nature of which, however, must be left to conjecture since neither history nor tradition makes any mention of it.

One point should be borne in mind. Shakespeare’s plays, though thoroughly diversified and each possessing its own style and manner, even its own idioms and peculiarities of phraseology and versification, yet all have the same subject ; they all treat of

INTRODUCTION.

Man ; and will, therefore, in their philosophy sometimes overlap each other : for man can be considered only as an individual, or as a member of society or the State ; and inasmuch as the philosophical truths growing out of his nature as an individual or as a social or political being are few in number compared with the infinite variety of actions and events, the same passages from Bacon will occasionally be cited with reference to incidents in different plays ; yet notwithstanding these repetitions and this superficial sameness, it will be found, it is believed, that the application of the principles is in each case different and the subject looked at from a different point of view.

These repetitions take place more particularly with reference to the doctrine of “ Idols,” which being but another name for the prejudices and fallacies that beset the human mind, must necessarily take a prominent place among illustrations of errors of judgment.

The plays each present an artistic, a moral and a philosophic side, which, though they can be considered separately, support each other and blend in one total effect.

The shortest road to the philosophy of the plays is through their art, inasmuch as this philosophy finds exponents in the sentiments, purposes, and mental habits of the characters, which, of course, depend upon the constructive law of the piece ; and for this reason, The Winter’s Tale should perhaps be taken up before Cymbeline , for The Winter’s Tale treats of art and may be regarded as a model which fully illustrates Bacon’s doctrine of the development of works of art from “ forms,” yet as Cymbeline seems to put into life and action the inductive method itself, it logically leads the way and is therefore first considered.

The quotations from Bacon’s works are chiefly from the edition of Spedding, Ellis and Heath (reprinted in Boston, 1860), sometimes from that of Montagu.

CYMBELINE.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The purpose of the following analysis of the play of Cymbeline is to show, that, although a romantic drama, presenting a highly poetical, not to say a fantastic, phase of life, it nevertheless illustrates, in dramatic life and action, the method of the Experimental Philosophy, together with some other doctrines of Bacon ; but in order that it may be more precisely understood what particular doctrines are here referred to, they will be briefly stated.

In the De Augmentis in which Bacon classifies and distributes the extant arts and sciences and also notes those that are deficient, he thus makes the primary division of learning : —

“ The best division of human learning is that derived from the three faculties of the rational soul which is the seat of learning ; history being relative to the memory, 'poetry to the imagination, and philosophy to the reason.” Book II. ch. 1.

The logical arts he thus divides : “ The logical arts are four in number, divided according to the ends at which they aim, for men’s labor in rational knowledge is either to invent that which is sought, or to judge that which is invented, or to retain that which is judged, or to deliver over that which is retained : so, therefore, the rational arts are four : Art of enquiry or invention ; Art of Examination or judgment ; Art of Custody or memory, and Art of Elocution or tradition.” Book V- ch. 1.

“ Invention is of two kinds very different ; the one of arts and sciences, the other of speech and argument. The former of these I report altogether deficient .” Book V. ch. 2.

This deficiency Bacon aims at supplying by the Novum Organum, or new instrument for the mind. It is the true Inductive method resting on experience and is called The Interpretation of Nature.

The Art of Judging, the second of the rational arts above named, “ handles the nature of proofs and demonstrations. In this art, as indeed it is commonly received, the conclusion is made either by induction or syllogism .” Book Y ch. 4.

The syllogism, as a means of investigating nature, is utterly condemned by Bacon, and induction, as defined by the logicians, fares no better at his hands.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

“ For the vicious forms of induction,” he says, “ I entirely disclaim it, and as for the legitimate form I refer it to the New Organum or our method of interpreting nature .”

The Art of Memory Bacon divides into “ two parts, viz, the doctrine of helps for the memory and the doctrine of the memory itself. The help for the memory is writing and tables duly arranged.” Book

V ch. 5.

The Art of Transmission, or “the art of producing and expressing to others those things which have been invented, judged, and laid up in the memory, includes all the arts relating to words and discourse .” This art, says Bacon, “ I will divide into three parts : the doctrine concerning the organ of discourse, the doctrine concerning the Method of Discourse, and the doctrine concerning the Illustration or adornment of discourse.” The organ of speech is words and letters, “ hut this art of transmission has some other children besides words and letters.”

“ The notes of things are of two kinds Of the former are hieroglyphics and gestures ; of the latter, real characters.”

“ Gestures are as transitory hieroglyphics ; for as uttered words fly away, but written words stand, so hieroglyphics expressed by gestures pass, but expressed in pictures remain.” Book VI. ch. 1.

The foundation of the Baconian philosophy is a complete and accurate natural and experimental history as materials for induction.

“ The foundations of experience (our sole resource.) ” he says, “ have hitherto failed completely or have been very weak, nor has a store or collection of particular facts capable of improving the mind or in any way satisfactory been either sought after or amassed. We must begin, therefore, to entertain hopes of natural philosophy, then only when we have a better compilation of natural history , its real basis and support .” Nov. Org. Book I. Aph. 98.

And in his “Preparative towards a Natural and Experimental History” he gives a “ description ” and sets out “ the figure and plan ” or idea of such a history, as he deems necessary as a foundation for philosophy.

But materials for induction must not only be collected ; they must he arranged and digested into Tables — of Invention or Discovery, so called — so that the mind can act freely upon them and thus make an inquisition and induction. So apprehensive was Bacon lest his method should prove too abstruse for popular comprehension that he designed to set it forth in examples which should render it obvious, as it were, to the sense. In his Cogitata et Visa, which was unpublished in his lifetime, hut written about 1607 (and therefore in all probability antedating the play of Cymbeline), he says “that it appeared to him all important, that tables of invention or formulas of a legitimate inquisition, that is, collections of

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

particulars , arranged for the work of the understanding , in certain subjects should be set forth as an example or visible representation of his method.”

Of the above Arts and Doctrines the following analysis aims at showing that the play of Cymbeline illustrates the Art of Invention in that branch of it which is called The Invention of Arts or the Interpretation of Nature.

Also the Art of Judging in that branch of it which Bacon considers the true and legitimate Induction wherein all proof is made by Experience.

That it also furnishes examples of the Art of Memory in that branch of it which treats of the “ helps of the memory .”

That it also illustrates the Art of Transmission in that branch of it which treats of the organ of speech and more particularly of the doctrine of “ gestures as living hieroglyphics or signs significant.

And that the play is founded on the idea of History and more particularly Natural History , according to Bacon’s plan of “ a history as a foundation for philosophy,” which together with the illustrations of The Art of Judging and The Art of Invention above mentioned, renders it a pattern in dramatic form of what Bacon sometimes calls “ A Natural Story and Inquisition that draws down to the sense ” the method of Induction.

CYMBELINE.

Gymbeline , viewed as a work of art, is a model in dramatic form of a Chronicle History, a species of writing in which a large growth of Romance is engrafted on a slender historical stock. Cymbeline is history, so far as it treats of public events, of intrigues for the succession of the crown, of the reception of ambassadors, and of wars waged for the national defense or honor ; it is Romance, so far as it treats of the private and personal fortunes of its leading characters ; and is called Cymbeline , after the chief historical personage, a title, which without suggesting any particular story or series of incidents, stands for the events of a fabulous king’s reign.

History is a record of human experience, and it must, if truly written, be consistent with all experience, for there is one heart and conscience common to all men, and every individual man contains within himself, potentially, the history of the race. The facts of history, like the experiences of individuals, are infinitely diversified in form, but as they are but effects referable to principles in the nature of man, they are intelligible to all who share in human thought and sympathy. Experience is the ground of all knowledge and skill : by observation and experiment, we become acquainted with the occult virtues and effects of external things and accumulate the facts of science ; and by trial and development of our instincts and motives, we gain a knowledge of our own natures, and thus, generally, of human nature. This last knowledge opens to us an insight into the operation of moral causes ; by it we read the hearts of others, interpret motives by actions, and predict conduct from character. Experience, therefore, leads to the knowledge of the inward truth and meaning of the outward fact and sign, particularly in the moral world ; and as history is a record of experience, it teaches us the virtue and effective force of men, of which their actions are the external types.

To evolve the hidden moral causes of actions and thereby

CYMBELINE.

determine the comparative worth and consequently the relative place of the agents, is the aim of History, the value of which consists in the examples it sets of the heroism and the weakness, the height and the degradation of the human soul. To store the memory with names and dates avails nothing, but we plod through the records of the past to learn the capabilities of our nature as evinced in actual trial from which only can we learn the truth.