THE

RELIGION OF SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER I.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION.

DRAMATIC representation had with Shakespeare a threefold end. Artistically its aim was, he says, to reflect the image of creation, to "hold the mirror up to nature." Hence it was essentially objective. His creations were not arbitrarily drawn from his own phantasy, but from existing types. Morally his intention was to exhibit the great characteristics of virtue and vice, to show virtue "her own image, scorn her own feature," to portray what was essentially and necessarily good or evil in its nature, origin, development, and result. Historically, or politically, its purpose was to set forth the "very form or pressure of the age and body of the time." And this meant, not the pedantic reading in of lessons from parallel passages of history, nor a caricature of passing events, drawn by the pen of a partisan,

A