remember that her prosperity
depends on her command of the sea,--of "the silver sea, which serves
it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against
the envy of less happier lands"; to hold firm in the memory "the dear
souls" who have made "her reputation through the world"; to subject at
need her faults and frailties to criticism and rebuke; and finally to
treat with disdain those in places of power, who make of no account
their responsibilities to the past as well as to the present and the
future. The political, social, and physical conditions of his country
have altered since Shakespeare lived. England has ceased to be an
island-power. The people rule instead of the king. Social
responsibilities are more widely acknowledged. But the dramatist's
doctrine of patriotism has lost little of its pristine vitality, and
is relevant to current affairs.

IX

A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH[38]

[Footnote 38: This paper was first printed in _The Author_, October
1903.]

I

For some years past scarcely a month passes without my receipt of a
communication from a confiding stranger, to the effect that he has
discovered some piece of information concerning Shakespeare which has
hitherto eluded research. Very often has a correspondent put himself
to the trouble of forwarding a photograph of the title-page of a late
sixteenth or early seventeenth century book, on which has been
scrawled in old-fashioned script the familiar name of William
Shakespeare. At intervals, which seem to recur with mathematical
regularity, I receive intelligence that a portrait of the poet, of
which nothing is hitherto known, has come to light in some recondite
corner of England or America, and it is usually added that a
contemporary inscription settles all doubt of authenticity.

I wish to speak with respect and gratitude of these confidences. I
welcome them, and have no wish to repress them. But truth does not
permit me to affirm that such as have yet reached me have done more
than enlarge my conception of the scope of human credulity. I look
forward to the day when the postman shall, through the generosity of
some appreciative reader of my biography of Shakespeare, deliver at my
door an autograph of the dramatist of which nothing has been heard
before, or a genuine portrait of contemporary date, the existence of
which has never been suspected. But up to the moment of writing,
despite the good intentions of my correspo