INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

HE fact is certain-Homer sometimes nods, and Shakspere now and then indulged in his "forty winks." Yet even in slumber the milder rays of intellect illumine their revelations; and we ought to wonder that such colossal faculties so seldom need a brief repose, rather than complain that they follow the universal law of mortality, and cannot be kept incessantly on the stretch.

It is with this feeling-surely at the least excusable-that we approach the minor Shaksperian dramas; anxious to place their merits in the most favourable position, and somewhat pertinaciously inclined to explain away defects which no amount of grateful scepticism will prevent us from perceiving. If we are told, for instance, that the Dromios, in the play before us, are chargeable with sundry woful puns and coarse allusions, the apology spontaneously suggests itself,-"That is true; but then, consider the license of the age; their station in society; what a number of good things are mingled with the bad; how many of the bad may have been foisted into the genuine text; but above all (for it is difficult to think of Shakspere's characters other than as actual beings), consider what droll good-humoured mortals these Dromios are;-a condition of blood that prevents them from withholding even the poorest comical fancy that may tickle the hearer for the moment, however it may damage their reputation as wits, when put upon paper." In real life, amiable fellows of the brightest faculties will sometimes utter what they perfectly well know to be atrocious absurdities, critically considered, from the mere love of fun, and a generous disregard of what more prudent wags would deem their personal pretensions. Charles Lamb appears to have been a prodigal of this description; and Shakspere doubtless was another in his private capacity, as he was occasionally too much so (let us candidly admit it) in his public one of a dramatist.

Thus much granted, it is by no means necessary to continue a notice of the present play in a tone of apology. If we cannot call it in the highest sense, what it calls itself, a "Comedy," it is certainly the nonpareil of farces; and although probably a very early production, much of the matter, both humorous and poetic, would not have been unworthy of the writer's brighter day. The opening dialogue between Egeon and the Duke, forms an admirable introduction to the subsequent scenes of systematic confusion; it places a clue in the hand of the reader that guides him joyously through the labyrinth of cross purposes that from first to last involves and baffles the active though unconscious agents in the turmoil. These perplexities tell excellently in representation. The varieties of voice, &c. that necessarily exist between the representatives of the respective twins, render the whole plot obvious to the spectator; while moderate resemblances of person, with the assistance of similar dresses, are sufficient to make him put faith in the general mystification; it not being painfully difficult to suppose that the victims of the spell may not be quite so quicksighted as ourselves.

A nice observer will detect differences of temperament in the Dromios; and still more clearly in the superior Brothers. The female characters, also, though not of the strongest cast, are sweetly discriminated. And here we cannot but do justice to the respect that Shakspere invariably exhibits for the higher points of morality and social feeling: the Brother exhibits not the slightest sympathy with the blandishments which the Wife seems anxious to lavish upon him, on the supposition that he is her husband. It is this wholesome reverence for substantial decency which, in despite of his occasional indecorums, has effectively co-operated even with his boundless genius to keep Shakspere continually fresh and welcome in the hearts and eyes of his countrymen-and countrywomen. And it is the want of this same soul of purity which-notwithstanding their brilliant fancies, and the galvanising efforts of laborious commentators-has condemned so many of his contemporaries and successors to hopeless and deserved obscurity.

The "COMEDY OF ERRORS" is doubtless founded on the "MENECHMI" of Plautus; it was first published in the original folio.