t from
the opening of a play where the purpose is chiefly expository, and where
indeed the language is not free from that mixture of figures which some
condemn. The wonderful first scene of _Antony and Cleopatra_, which
within the compass of its sixty-two lines presents the two protagonists
and their background of empire and war, opens thus in the speech of a
subordinate.

Nay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front; his captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.

[Page Heading: Characterization]

A few lines further on Antony speaks thus, as he embraces Cleopatra.

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rang'd Empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life
Is to do thus, when such a mutual pair
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to wit
We stand up peerless.

No other man ever wrote verse like this; and it is hard to believe that
words will ever again respond to such a magician.

This poetry is the fitting accompaniment of a characterization, the
range and vitality of which, the world to wit, stand up peerless. While
these are in general qualities of the Elizabethan drama, it is
noteworthy that almost from the beginning Shakespeare outstripped his
rivals. Launce, Richard III, Shylock, Juliet, were enough to establish a
supremacy. The years that followed with their maturing thought and
experience gave an amazing development to what was manifestly the native
bent of his genius. Whatever else one may find in the plays, indeed
whatever one finds there of wisdom or beauty, truth or art, it cannot be
separated from their revelation of human nature.

It is this primarily that makes the dramas great and lasting. The
histories, with all their pomp and movement and patriotism, reveal kings
and lords and peasants as alike the subjects of changing fortune, alike
human beings for our pity, admiration, or laughter. The comedies with
their fancy and sentiment and fun, and their perennial sunshine on the
self-deceived a