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    Guizot On Shakspeare. Skahspeare And 7ii...

    conditions , and even to the isolation of individuals . In England , everything combined to bring them into contact and connexion . The principle of common deliberation upon matters of common interest , which is the foundation of all liberty , prevailed in all the institutions of England , and presided over all the customs of the country . The freemen of the rural districts and the towns never ceased to meet together for the discussion and transaction of their common affairs . The county courts , the jury , corporate associations ; and elections of all kinds , multiplied occasions of meeting , and diffused in every direction the habits of public life . That hierarchical organization of feudalism , which , on the continent , extended from the poorest gentleman to the most powerful monarch , and was incessantly stimulating the vanity of every man to . leave his own sphere and pass into the rank of suzerain , was never completely established in Great Britain . The nobility of the second

    order , by separating themselves from the great barons , in order to take their place at the head of the commons , returned , so to speak , into the body of the nation , and adopted its manners as well as assumed its rights . It was on his own estate , among his tenants , farmers , and servants , that the gentleman established his importance ; and he based it upon the cultivation of his lands and the discharge of those local magistracies which , by placing him in connexion with the whole of the population , necessitated the concurrence of public opinion , and provided the adjacent district with a centre around which it might rally . Thus , whilst active rights brought equals into communication , rural life created a bond of union between the superior and his inferior ; and agriculture , by the community of its interests and labours , bound the whole population together by ties , which , descending successively from class to class , were in some sort terminated and sealed in the earththe immutable basis of their union .

    "Such a state of society leads to competence and confidence ; and where competence reigns , and confidence is felt , the necessity of common enjoyment soon arises . Men who are accustomed to meet together for business , will meet together for pleasure also ; and when the serious life of the landowner is spent among his fields , he does not remain a stranger to the joys of the people who cultivate or surround them . Continual and general festivals gave animation to the country life of old England . What was their primary origin ? What traditions and customs served as their foundation ? How did the progress of rustic prosperity lead gradually to this joyous movement of meetings , banquets , and games ? It is of little use to know the cause ; the fact itself is most worthy of our observation ; and in the sixteenth century , when civil discord had been brought to a term , we may follow it in all its brilliant details . At Christmas , before the gates of the castles , the herald , bearing the arms of the family , thrice shouted Largesse !—¦

    " ' Then opened wide the Baron ' s hall To vassal , tenant , serf , and all ; Power laid his rod of rule aside , And ceremony doffed his pride . The heir , with roses in his shoes , That ni g ht might village partner choose ; The lord , underogating , share The vulgar game of " post and pair . " ' Who shall describe the general joy and hospitality , the roaring fire in the hall , the well-spread table , the beef and pudding , and the abundance of good cheer which was then to be found in the house of the fanner as well as in the mansion of tbe gentleman . The dance , when the head began to swim with w assail ; tbe songs of minstrels , and tales of bygone days , wben the party had become tired of dancing , — were the pleasures which then reigned throughout England , Avhen , —

    All hail d , with uncontroll d delight , And general voice , the happy night , That to the cottage , as the crown , Brought tidings of salvation down . * Mt * * _'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest alo ; 'Twas Christinas told the merriest tale ; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor mairs heart through half tho year . ' These Christmas festivities lasted for twelve days , varied hy a thousand pleasures , kindled by the good wishes and presents of New Year ' s Day , and terminated by the Feast of Kings on Twelfth Day . But soon after came Plough Monday , the day on which work was resumed , and the first day of labour also was marked hy a feast .

    ( a ood house wiles , whom ( xod hath enriched enough , -Forget not tho feast ... that belong to the plough , ' says old Tusser , in his quaint rural poems . The spindle also had its festival . The harvest feast was one of equality , and an avowal , as it were , of those mutual necessities which bring men into union . On that day , masters and servants collected round tho same table , and , mingling in the same conversation , did not appear to be brought into contact with each other by the complaisance of a superior desirous of rewarding his inferior , but by an equal right to the pleasures of the day : — " ' ('' or all that clear'il the crop , or till'd tho ground , Are guests by right of custom;—old and young ; Here onro a year distinction low ' rH its crest , The master , servant , and the merry guest , Are equal all ; and round the happy ring The reaper ' s eyes exulting glances fling , Arid , wiirm'd with gratitude , he quits bis place , With sun-burnt hands and alc-cnlivcn'd face , hVJillN the jug his honuur'd host to tend , To servo at onro the master and the friend ; Proud thus to meet , his smiles , to share his tale , His nufs , bis conversation , and bis ale Hindi were the days- of days long past 1 sing . '

    " Sowing-tune , _shcup-shearing , indeed , every epoch of interest in rural life , wan celebrated by similar meetings and banquets , and by games of all kinds . Hut what day could equal the first of May , brilliant with the joys of youth and tho hopes of the year ? Scarce had the rising sun announced the arrival of this festive morn , than the entire youthful population hastened into the woods and meadows , to the river-bank and hillside , accompanied by the sounds of music , to gather their harvest of flowers ; and , returning laden with hawthorn and verdure , adorned the doors and windows of their houses with their spoils , covered with blossoms the May-polo which they had cut in fhe forest , and crowned with garlands the horns of the oxen which were to drag it , iu triumph through fhe village . Merrick , a contemporary of Shakspeare , thus invites his mistress to go a-Maying : — " Mbit up , get up for sluimo , ( ho ( dooming morn Upon her wings presents the god unshorn . See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh quilted colours through tho air ;

    Guizot On Shakspeare. Skahspeare And 7ii...

    Get up , sweet slug-a-bed , and see The dew bespangled herb and tree . Each flower has wept , and bow'd toward the east , Above an hour since , yet you are not dreat , Nay , not so much as out of bed ; v When all the birds have matins said , And sung their thankful hymns : 'tb sin , Nay , profanation , to keep in , When as a thousand virgins on this day , Spring sooner than the lark to fetch in May . " ' Come , my Corinna , come ; and , coming , mark How each field turns a street , each street a park Made green , and trimm'd with trees ; see how Devotion gives each house a bough , Or branch ; each porch , each door , ere this , ) An ark , a tabernacle is , Made up of white thorn neatly interwove ; As if here were those cooler shades of love . ' " The elegance of the cottages on May-morning was imitated by the castles ; and the young gentlefolks , as well as the lads and maidens of the village , went forth into the fields in search of flowers . Joy is sure to introduce equality into pleasures ; the symbols of joy never vary , and are changed as little by difference of rank as by difference of season . Here enjoyment , led by abundance , seems to spend the year in continual festivities . Just as the first of May displays its profusion of verdure as sheep-shearing fills the streets with flowers , and harvest-home is adorned with cars of corn , so Christmas will decorate the walls with ivy , holly , and evergreen . Just as dances , races , shows , and rustic sports , cause the sky of spring to resound with their joyous tones , so games in

    which" ' White shirts supplied the masquerade , And smutted cheeks the visors made , ' will waken the echoes , on the cold December nights , with shouts of gaiety ; and the May-pole and Christmas-log will alike be borne in triumph and extolled in song . " Amidst these games , festivals , and banquets , at these innumerable friendl y meetings , and in this joyous and habitual conviviality ( to use the national expression ) , the minstrels took their place and sang their songs . The subjects of these songs were the traditions of the country , the adventures of popular heroes as well as of noble champions , the exploits of Eobin Hood against the Sheriff of Nottingham , as well as the conflicts of the Percies with the Douglas clan . Tims the public manners called for poetry ; thus poetry originated in tbe manners of the people , and became connected with all the interests , and with the entire existence , of a population accustomed to live , to act , to prosper , and to rejoice in common . "

    SHAKSPEARE S COMEDY AND TRAGEDY . " Thus at the advent of Shakspeare , the nature and destiny of man , which constitute the materials of dramatic poetry ,- were not divided or classified into different branches of art . When art _desired to introduce them on the stage , it accepted them in their entirety , with all the mixtures and contrasts which they present to observation ; nor was the public taste inchned to complain of this . The comic portion of human realities had a right to take its place wherever its presence was demanded or permitted by truth ; and . such was the character of civilization , that tragedy , by admitting tbe comic element , did not derogate from truth in the slightest degree . In such a condition of the stage and of the public mind , what could be tbe state of comedy , properly so called ? How could it be permitted to claim to bear a particular name , and to form a distinct style ? It succeeded in

    this attempt by boldly leaving those realities in which its natural domain was neither respected nor acknowledged ; it did not limit its efforts to the delineation of settled manners or of consistent characters ; it did not propose to itself to represent men and things under a ridiculous but truthful aspect ; but it became a fantastic and romantic work , the refuge of those amusing improbabilities which , in its idleness or folly , the imagination delights to connect together by a slight thread , in order to form from them combinations capable of affording diversion or interest , without calling for the judgment of tho reason . Graceful pictures , surprises , the curiosity which attaches to the progress of an intrigue , mistakes , _quidpro-quos , all the witticisms of parody and _travestie , formed the substance of this inconsequent diversion . Tho conformation of tho Spanish plays , a taste for which wa . s beginning to prevail in England , supplied these gambols of the imagination

    with abundant frameworks and alluring models . Next to their chronicles and ballads , collections of French or Italian tales , together with tho romances of chivalry , formed the favourite reading of the people . Is it strange that so productive a iiriuo , and so easy a style , should first have attracted tho attention of Shakspeare ? Can wc feel astonished that his young and brilliant imagination hastened to wander at will among such subjects , free from the yoke of probabilities , and excused from seeking after serious and vigorous combinations ? Tho great poet , whose mind and band proceeded , it is said , with such equal rapidity that his manuscript scarcely continued a single erasure , doubtless yielded with delight to tliose unrestrained gambols in which he could display without labour his rich and varied faculties . He could put anything he pleased into his comedies , and he has , in fact , put everything into them , with the exception of ono thing

    which was incompatible with such a system , namely , the ensemble which , making every part concur towards the same end , reveals at every step tho depth of the plan , and the grandeur of the work . It would be difficult to find in Shakspeare ' h tragedies u single conception , position , act , or passion , or degree of vice or virtue , which may not also be met with in some one of his comedies ; but that which in his tragedies is carefully thought out , fruitful in result , and intimately connected with tho series of causes and effects , is in bis comedies only just indicated , and offered to our sight , for a moment to dazzle us with a passing gleam , and soon to disappear in a new combination . In Measure for Measure , Angelo , tho unworthy governor of Vienna , after having condemned Claudio to death for tho crime of

    having seduced a young girl whom he intended fo marry , himself attempts to seduce Isabella , the sister of Claudio , by promising her brother ' s pardon an a recompense for her own dishonour ; and when , by Isabella ' s-address in substituting another girl in her place , he thinks he has received the price of his infamous bargain , he gives orders to hasten ( . ' . audio ' s execution , is not this tragedy Y Such a fact might well be placed in the life of Richard the Third ; and no crime of _Macbeth's presents this excess of wickedness . Hut in Macbeth and Richard the Third , crime produces the tragic effect which belongs to it , because if bears the _iinpresH of probability , and because mil forms and colours attest its presence : we can discern tho place which if occupies in the hourt of which it has taken possession : we know how it gained admission , what it has conquered , and what remains

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17071852/page/18/