CHAPTER IV. THE GRAVER COMEDIES ABOUT the year 1600, when Shakspeare was six-and thirty years of age and had still sixteen years of his earthly course to run, his genius underwent a natural modification. His comic vein, out of which the brilliant series of his Gayer Comedies had been produced, ceased to yield material of the same quality and quantity; and his muse turned, by preference, to tragic themes. This was the period in which his great tragedies came into existence. Yet he still went on, at intervals, writing comedies, though without the same riotous abundance of inspiration. To this period belong six productions which we may designate his Graver Comedies; their titles are printed on the opposite page. Another name which has been proposed for theseor for some of them-is Romances. As a rule they have not the compactness of comedies, but rely for 1In the First Folio Cymbeline appears among the Tragedies; while, by a lucky chance, The Tempest stands first among the Comedies— that is, first in the entire volume-where, by its perfection, it may have lured readers on who might have been dismayed by some of the earlier comedies. There seems to be no order in the arrangement of the Comedies or the Tragedies in the First Folio; but the English Histories follow the chronological order of the reigns. their interest more on the story they tell. Pericles, for example, in total defiance of the dramatic unities, moves from country to country and skips from year to year, telling a story on which, it would appear, the audience of Shakspeare's day hung with straining interest, although in our minds it rather awakens surprise that Shakspeare can have had any hand in putting together such an incoherent medley. All's Well That Ends Well is not unlike, in construction, to a modern novel. It is Shakspeare's version of the ever-fresh story of the Prodigal Son, who goes from home in search of adventure, but really in flight from his own happiness, and comes to himself after a bitter experience of the emptiness of the world. Several of the characters bear a striking resemblance to those of Thackeray's Pendennis -the heroine to Laura, the Countess to Pendennis' mother, Lafeu to Major Pendennis, and Parolles to Captain Costigan; although it must be confessed that, in such a comparison, the dramatist is a sufferer, his version of the sowing of a young man's wild oats and of his redemption through the love of woman being but a rude and slight sketch in comparison with the perfect picture painted by the hand of the great master of the modern novel. The incidents on which these Graver Comedies chiefly turn are the reconciliation of husbands and wives, who have been separated by jealousy, the finding of children, who have been lost, the reunion of parted friends and the forgiveness of injuries; and it is impossible not to wonder whether the preoccupation of the poet's mind with such themes had any connexion with his personal history. The year in which he returned to his native Stratford-on-Avon, where he spent his closing years, though still writing for the London theatres, and where, it is understood, he had left his wife and family during his residence in the metropolis, is not accurately known; but probably his visits to the place had become more frequent before he finally settled there, and his mind had been becoming more and more set on escaping from the excitement of the city and living permanently among the sights and sounds of the country. There is in Cymbeline a fervid description of the enjoyments of the country, coupled with a severe criticism of the manners and customs of refined society, put into the mouth of Belisarius, who is a brother of the king but banished from the court. In this play, too, and in A Winter's Tale, there are charming descriptions of country sights, but especially of flowers. Perdita, in the latter play, says: Here's flowers for you, Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, The marigold that goes to bed with the sun And with him rises weeping; and later she speaks of |