Hero; it is the absurdity which prevents the prompt disclosure of it after the detection. Let us take a passage of this inimitable piece of comedy to read apart, that we may see how entirely the character of Dogberry is necessary to the continuance of the action. When Borachio and Conrade are overheard and arrested, the spectators have an amiable hope that the mischief of Don John's plot will be prevented; but when Dogberry and Verges approach Leonato, the end, as they think, is pretty sure. Let us see how the affair really works:

"Leon. Neighbours, you are tedious.

Dogb. It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but, truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

Leon. All thy tediousness on me! ha!

Dogb. Yea, and 't were a thousand times more than 'tis : for I hear as good exclamation on your worship, as of any man in the city; and though I be but a poor man I am glad

to hear it.

V'erg. And so am I.

Leon. I would fain know what you have to say.

Verg. Marry, sir, our watch to night, excepting your worship's presence, have ta'en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in Messina.

Dogb. A good old man, sir; he will be talking; as they
say, When the age is in, the wit is out; God help us! it is a
world to see!-Well said, i' faith, neighbour Verges:-well,
God's a good man; an two men ride of a horse, one must
ride behind An honest soul, i' faith, sir; by my troth he
is, as ever broke bread: but God is to be worshipped: All
men are not alike; alas, good neighbour!

Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.
Dogb. Gifts, that God gives.

Leon. I must leave you."

Truly did Don Pedro subsequently say, "this learned constable is too cunning to be understood." The wise fellow, and the rich fellow, and the fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and everything handsome about him, nevertheless holds his prisoners fast; and when he comes to the Prince, with " Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves," though his method be not logical, his matter is all-sufficient. And so we agree with Ulrici, that it would be a palpable misunderstanding to ask what the noble constable Dogberry and his followers have to do with the play. Dogberry is as necessary as all the other personages ;-to a certain degree more necessary. The passionate lover, the calm and sagacious Prince, the doting father, were the dupes of a treachery, not well compact, and carried through by dangerous instruments. They make no effort to detect what would not have been very difficult of detection: they are satisfied to quarrel and to lament. Accident discovers what intelligence could not penetrate; and the treacherous slander is manifest in all its blackness to the wise Dogberry:

"Flat burglary as ever was committed."

Here is the crowning irony of the philosophical poet. The players of the game of life see nothing, or see minute parts only: but the dullest by-stander has glimpses of something more.

In studying a play of Shakspere with the assurance that we have possessed ourselves of the fundamental “idea" in which it was composed, it is remarkable how many incidents and expressions which have previously appeared to us at least difficult of comprehension are rendered clear and satisfactory. As believers in Shakspere we know that he wrought in the spirit of the highest art, producing in every case a work of unity, out of the power of his own "multiformity.” But, as we have before said, we have not always, as in the case of the natural landscape, got the right point of view, so as to have the perfect harmony of the composition made manifest to us. Let us be assured, however, that there is an entirety, and therefore a perfect accordance in all its parts, in every great production of a great poet,-and above all in every production of the world's

greatest poet; and then, studying with this conviction, when the parts have become familiar to us-as in the case before us the sparkling raillery of Benedick and Beatrice, the patient gentleness of Hero, the most truthful absurdity of Dogberry-they gradually fuse themselves together in our minds, and the whole at last lies clear before us,

STATE OF THE TEXT, AND CHRONOLOGY, OF TWELFTH NIGHT.

THIS comedy was first printed in the folio edition of 1623, under the title of Twelfe Night, or What you Will.' The text is divided into acts and scenes; and the order of these has been undisturbed in the modern editions. With the exception of a few manifest typographical errors, the original copy is remarkably correct. There is no entry of this play in the registers of the Stationers' Company.

It is scarcely necessary to enter into any detail of the conjectures of the commentators as to the chronology of Twelfth Night. Their guesses have been proved to be very wide of the mark. Tyrwhitt assigned it to 1614, because Sir Toby, in the third act, says, "Nay, if you be an undertaker, I am for you." In 1614 certain persons had undertaken, through their influence with the House of Commons, to carry affairs according to the wishes of the king; and the House was much troubled about the undertakers. Chalmers says the allusion was to the undertakers for colonising