William Shakespeare
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L I E) RA RY O F THL U N 1 V LRS ITY Of I LLI NOIS 1911 Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library Ft?2 -3ll:b^- L161—H41 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 1-11/ 11 f« WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BY VICTOR HUGO By MELVILLE B. ANDERSON EIGHTH EDITION CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 1911 Copyright By a. C. McClurg and Co. A.D. 1886, ; - TO ENGLAND 5 QeHicatt tJ)ts JSooft, THE GLORIFICATION OF HER POET. I TELL ENGLAND THE TRUTH BUT AS A LAND ILLUSTRIOUS AND FREE, I ADMIRE HER, AND AS AN ASYLUM, I LOVE HER. VICTOR HUGO. "v. Hautkvillb House, 1864. 4 PREFACE. THE true title of this work should be, ' Con- cerning Shakespeare.' The Author's original incentive was the desire to " introduce," as they say in England, the new translation of Shakespeare to the public. The tie that binds him so closely to the translator need not deprive him of the privi- lege of commending the translation.^ From an- other side, however, and still more closely, his conscience was engaged by the subject itself In contemplating Shakespeare, all the questions re- lating to art have arisen in the Author's mind. To deal with these questions is to set forth the mission of art ; to deal with these questions is to set forth the duty of human thought toward man. Such an opportunity' for speaking some true words imposes an obligation that is not to be shirked, especially in a time like ours. This the Author * Made by the poet's son, Fran9ois-Victor Hugo. — Tr. Vlll PREFACE. has understood. He has not hesitated to take every avenue of approach to these complex ques- tions of art and of civihzation, varying the horizon as the perspective shifted, and accepting every hint suppHed by the urgency of the task. From such an enlarged conception of the subject this book has sprung. Hauteville House, 1864. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE work herewith presented to the public belongs to the literature of power rather than to the literature of knowledge. Beguiling his exile, remote from great libraries and from books of reference, by this sweeping review of all that he regarded as worthiest and noblest in the whole range of humane letters, Victor Hugo is sometimes pardonably inaccurate in details. The Translator has deemed it his duty to re- produce faithfully the text, and has taken the liberty to correct in footnotes (signed Tr.) the errors that seemed to him most noticeable, es- pecially those touching the life and works of Shakespeare. That he has corrected all which may appear important to others, he cannot venture to hope. Fortunately, this great work does not depend for its value upon the accuracy of its statements of fact, nor even, chiefly, upon the X TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. light it throws upon the Hfe and genius of Shake- speare. It is mainly to be prized as a masterly- statement of the Author's ideas concerning the proper relation of literature to human life, — a statement illuminated by wonderful flashes of poetry and eloquence, and illustrated by strong characterizations of many famous books and men. This is not to say, however, that the present work will not serve, better than most others, as an introduction to Shakespeare, to ^Eschylus, and perhaps to some other of the immortals whom it so glowingly celebrates. The Translator is responsible for the table of contents, and for the index, which makes no pre- tence of being exhaustive. M. B. A. Purdue UNrvERSixY, Lafayette, InA, October^ 1886. Topical Table of Contents. part Mx&U book I. SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Description of Marine Terrace, Isle of Jersey. — The Exiles . 3 CHAPTER II. Shakespeare and the Ocean 7 CHAPTER III. Shakespeare's Birthplace. — Orthography of Name. — Youth- ful Escapades and Marriage. — London under Elizabeth. — The Actors, the Theatres, the Audience. — Moliere's Theatre and Louis XIV.'s Patronage. — Shakespeare's Person. — The Taverns. — Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays. — Shakespeare Manager and Money-lender. — New Place ; Mrs. Davenant. — The Last Years 9 XU TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE Shakespeare's Life embittered. — Contemporary Notice. — The Puritans close the Play-houses. — Shakespeare's Fame after the Restoration. — Dryden, Shaftesbury, Nahum Tate. — Shakespeare's " eclipse " 29 CHAPTER V. Recasts o£ Plays. — Voltaire, Garrick, Malone 34 BOOK II. MEN OF GENIUS. CHAPTER I. Art, Nature, God. — Science and the SupematuraL — The Poet's Inspiration 36 CHAPTER II. The Poet's Ascent to the Ideal. — Homer characterized.— Job characterized. — ^Eschylus characterized. — Isaiah characterized. — Ezekiel characterized. — Lucretius char- acterized. — Juvenal characterized. — Tacitus character- ized : Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. — Saint John characterized. — Saint Paul characterized. — Dante char- acterized. — Rabelais characterized. — Cervantes charac- terized. — Shakespeare characterized 41 CHAPTER III. The Dynasty of Genius. — The Wreck of ^Eschylos .... 82 CHAPTER IV. The Great, Anonjonous, Collective Works of Orient and Occident. — The German Genius: Beethoven. — "Good Taste " an Incubus upon Genius 84 TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii BOOK III. ART AND SCIENCE. CHAPTER I. PAGE Poetry made imperishable by Printing. — The Book the In- strument of Civilization 95 CHAPTER II. Number the Basis of Poetry and of Science 99 CHAPTER III. Poetry, being absolute in Nature, incapable of Progress . loi CHAPTER IV. The Relative and Progressive Nature of Science. — The Im- provement of the Telescope. — Examples of Outgrown Scientific Notions. — The Errors of Pythagoras. — The Errors of Chrysippus. — Science transitory, Art abiding. — The Eternal Power of Art illustrated by the Effect of Lucretius upon Hugo 105 CHAPTER V. The Decline of Poetry impossible 118 XIV TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. BOOK IV. THE ANCIENT SHAKESPEARE. CHAPTER I. FACE Formidable Character of ^schylus. — Vastness and Compre- hensiveness of the Drama. — Tragic Terror of ^schylus . 122 CHAPTER II. Description of the Greek Theatre. — Description of the Rep- resentation of a Greek Play . 126 CHAPTER III. The Renown of ^Eschylus after his Death 132 CHAPTER IV. Ptolemy Evergetes and the Alexandrian Library. — ^schylus stolen from Athens and transferred to Alexandria. — The Alexandrian Library burned by Omar 135 CHAPTER V. Attempts to justify Omar. — Shakespeare nearly meets the fate of iEschylus I40 CHAPTER VI. " iEschylus Lost." — The Number of Works irrevocably destroyed 143 TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER VII. PAGE The AflSnity of ^schylus with Asia. — His Geography. — His Priesthood of Nature. — His Bold Familiarity 146 CHAPTER VIII. The Relation of Aristophanes to ^schylus. — The Opposition of Socrates to their Religious Enthusiasm. — The Broad Farce of JEschylus. — The Alarming Mirth of Art. — The Two Ears of Poetry 153 CHAPTER IX. Greece the great Civilizer. — The Drama in her Colonies. — iEschylus the Poet of the Greek Fatherland 160 CHAPTER X. Explanation of the Loss of Books in Antiquity. — Gutenberg has made the Book immortal. — The Ruins of Greek and Roman Books. — Sources of our Knowledge of .^schylus. — Similarity of .^schylus to Shakespeare 164 BOOK V. SOULS. CHAPTER I. The Genesis of the Soul. — No Tangible Law. — The Coinci- dences of Genius. — The Sacred Horror of the Great Mys- tery. — The Reality of the Soul. — The Reality of Great Souls. — Their Lofty Functions. — The Origin and the Mission of Genius 170 CHAPTER II. God the Ezhaustless Source of Genius 183 — xvi TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. part g)econti. BOOK I. SHAKESPEARE'S GENIUS. CHAPTER I. pag:c The Censurers of Shakespeare: Forbes, Greene, Rymer, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Warburton, Foote, Pope, Voltaire, Dr. Johnson, Frederick the Great, Coleridge, Knight, Hunter, Delandine iSp CHAPTER II. Shakespeare's Reality. — The Inexorable Law of his Genius. — His Sovereign Horror and his Charm. — His Philoso- phy. — His Imaginative Arabesque. — His Psychology. — His History. — His Universality 195 CHAPTER III. Shakespeare's Antithesis a Double Refraction of Nature . 203 CHAPTER IV. The Orthodox and Academical School condemns the Luxu- riance of Great Poets. — No Flirtation with the Muses. Genius bound over to keep the Peace 205 CHAPTER V. " " Shakespeare a Trial to the Sober Critics ; his Fertility and Virility. — Shakespeare intoxicated with Nature . .211 TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii BOOK II. SHAKESPEARE'S WORK. — THE CULMI- NATING POINTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Great Poets Creators of Human Types. — Their Kinship with God. — The Infamy of their Censors 219 CHAPTER II. The Nature of the Living Types produced by the Poets. — How they differ from Historic Persons 223 CHAPTER III. The Man of ^schylus, Prometheus; the Man of Shake- speare, Hamlet 228 CHAPTER IV. Prometheus on Caucasus. — Hamlet 230 CHAPTER V. The Feigned Madness of Hamlet. — The Character of Ham- let 234 CHAPTER VI. Macbeth. — Othello. — Lear: Time of the Action; Nature of the Subject ; Character of Lear ; Lear and Cordelia . 240 b — xviii TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. BOOK III. ZOILUS AS ETERNAL AS HOMER. CHAPTER I. PAGE A Chapter of Calumnies 250 CHAPTER II. The Pedants and the Police 254 CHAPTER III. Calumniation of Voltaire and Rousseau. — Their Burial in the Pantheon. — Their Bones thrown into a Hole 257 CHAPTER IV. Pedantry solicitous about Genius 261 CHAPTER V. The Academical View of Genius. — The Comfortable Middle- Class View 263 CHAPTER VI. The Sun offensive to Weak Eyes. — Genius portentous. Its Humanity, Sympathy, Love, Beauty 268 TOPICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX BOOK IV. CRITICISM. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Double Plots of Shakespeare's Plays a Reflection of all the Art of the Renascence 274 CHAPTER II. Genius to be accepted as Nature is accepted 377 CHAPTER III. Pegasus a Gift-Horse. — Prometheus the Progenitor of Mab and Titania 279 CHAPTER IV. The Romantic School has imitated neither Shakespeare nor iEschylus 282 CHAPTER V. The Poet original, personal, inimitable 285 CHAPTER VI. Definition of the Official French School of Letters.