fused figures, their occasional puns and bombast. These are
substantially the criticisms that Dryden offers when under the influence
of Rymer. Rymer himself (_A Short View of Tragedy_, 1693) goes much
farther. He desires tragedy to give a rationalized view of life, dealing
poetic justice to various typical persons, and consequently condemns
Shakespeare's persons as too individual, his plots as too irregular, and
the total effect of his plays as insufficiently didactic and moral. This
view of tragedy was mainly due to the rationalistic and classical ideas
which continued for a century to dominate European criticism. But before
the seventeenth century was over, Shakespeare's growing reputation had
proved itself a rock against which the tendencies in criticism had
broken like unavailing waves. However much they might insist on rules in
art, critics were generally willing to hail Shakespeare as the great
exception. Champions were ready to answer Rymer and to defend
Shakespeare. _Othello_, selected by Rymer for special analysis and
condemnation, continued to hold its place on the stage and to incite
dramatists to emulation. The plays continued to be read, and new
editions were demanded. In the forty years from 1660 to 1700, in spite
of great changes in theatrical conditions, in spite of changes of taste
in readers that relegated most of Elizabethan drama to neglect, and in
spite of the formation of a criticism doubtful or neglectful of the very
qualities in literature that his plays present, Shakespeare continued to
win admirers. By 1700 he was recognized as a dramatist and poet who was
one of the great possessions of the English race.

[Page Heading: Widening Influence]

In the two centuries since, Shakespeare's fame and influence have spread
and multiplied to an extent difficult to characterize justly in a brief
summary. Some important evidences of this growth may indeed be collected
and analyzed. The position and importance of his plays on the stage, the
ever increasing number of editions, the changing attitudes of critics
and men of letters--on these matters it is not difficult to draw
conclusions as to Shakespeare's influence at home and abroad. But it is
not so easy to say what his influence was on the literature of any
generation, and still less easy to summarize with certainty the effects
on thought and feeling and conduct which made up his continuing power
over generation after generation of readers. This much is cl