often merely a necessity, a legitimate weapon, a right. And
indeed, Shakespeare always held that there are no unconditional
prohibitions, nor unconditional duties. For instance, he did not doubt
Hamlet's right to kill the King, nor even his right to stab Polonius to
death, and yet he could not restrain himself from an overwhelming
feeling of indignation and repulsion when, looking around, he saw
everywhere how incessantly the most elementary moral laws were being
infringed. Now, in his mind there was formed, as it were, a closely
riveted ring of thoughts concerning which he had always vaguely felt:
such unconditional commandments do not exist; the quality and
significance of an act, not to speak of a character, do not depend upon
their enactment or infringement; the whole substance lies in the
contents with which the separate individual, at the moment of his
decision and on his own responsibility, fills up the form of these
laws."

In other words, Shakespeare at last clearly saw that the moral of the
_aim_ is the only true and possible one; so that, according to Brandes,
Shakespeare's fundamental principle, for which he extols him, is that
_the end justifies the means_--action at all costs, the absence of all
ideals, moderation in everything, the conservation of the forms of life
once established, and the end justifying the means. If you add to this a
Chauvinist English patriotism, expressed in all the historical dramas, a
patriotism according to which the English throne is something sacred,
Englishmen always vanquishing the French, killing thousands and losing
only scores, Joan of Arc regarded as a witch, and the belief that Hector
and all the Trojans, from whom the English came, are heroes, while the
Greeks are cowards and traitors, and so forth,--such is the view of life
of the wisest teacher of life according to his greatest admirers. And he
who will attentively read Shakespeare's works can not fail to recognize
that the description of this Shakespearian view of life by his admirers
is quite correct.

The merit of every poetic work depends on three things:

(1) The subject of the work: the deeper the subject, _i.e._, the more
important it is to the life of mankind, the higher is the work.

(2) The external beauty achieved by technical methods proper to the
particular kind of art. Thus, in dramatic art, the technical method will
be a true individuality of language, corresponding to the characters, a
natural, and