The Shakspere references in the text
are made to the Globe Edition.
The writer's best thanks are due to his friends Mr. F.J. Furnivall and
Mr. Lauriston E. Shaw, for their kindness in reading the proof sheets,
and suggesting emendations.
TEMPLE,
October 7, 1879.
"We are too hasty when we set down our ancestors in the gross for
fools for the monstrous inconsistencies (as they seem to us)
involved in their creed of witchcraft."--C. LAMB.
"But I will say, of Shakspere's works generally, that we have no
full impress of him there, even as full as we have of many men. His
works are so many windows, through which we see a glimpse of the
world that was in him."--T. CARLYLE.
ANALYSIS.
I.
1. Difficulty in understanding our elder writers without a knowledge of
their language and ideas. 2. Especially in the case of dramatic poets.
3. Examples. Hamlet's "assume a virtue." 4. Changes in ideas and law
relating to marriage. Massinger's "Maid of Honour" as an example. 5.
_Sponsalia de futuro_ and _Sponsalia de praesenti_. Shakspere's
marriage. 6. Student's duty is to get to know the opinions and feelings
of the folk amongst whom his author lived. 7. It will be hard work, but
a gain in the end. First, in preventing conceit. 8. Secondly, in
preventing rambling reading. 9. Author's present object to illustrate
the dead belief in Demonology, especially as far as it concerns
Shakspere.
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