Part 10 (1/2)
_The Fable._ Bened.i.c.k, a lord of Padua, pledges himself to bachelorhood. Beatrice, a disdainful lady, is scornful of men.
Claudio plans to marry Hero.
Don John, enemy of Claudio, plans to thwart the marriage by letting it appear that Hero is unchaste.
Don Pedro and Claudio make Bened.i.c.k believe that Beatrice is dying of love for him.
Ursula and Hero make Beatrice believe that Bened.i.c.k is dying of love for her.
The disdainful couple make friends. Don John thwarts the marriage of Claudio by his tale of Hero's unchast.i.ty. Claudio casts off Hero at the altar. Hero swoons, and is conveyed away as dead. Beatrice and Bened.i.c.k are brought into close alliance by their upholding of Hero's cause.
Proof is obtained that Hero has been falsely accused. She is recovered from her swoon. Claudio marries her. Bened.i.c.k and Beatrice plight troth.
In this play Shakespeare writes of the power of report, of the thing overheard, to alter human destiny. Antonio's man, listening behind a hedge, overhears Don Pedro telling Claudio that he will woo Hero. The report of his eavesdropping conveys no notion of the truth, and leads, no doubt, to a bitter moment for Hero. Borachio, hiding behind the arras, overhears the truth of the matter. The report of his eavesdropping leads to the casting off of Hero at the altar. Don John and Borachio vow to Claudio that they overheard Don Pedro making love to Hero. The report gives Claudio a bitter moment. Bened.i.c.k, reporting to the same tune, intensifies his misery.
Bened.i.c.k, overhearing the report of Beatrice's love for him, changes his mind about marriage. Beatrice, hearing of Bened.i.c.k's love for her, changes her mind about men. Claudio, hearing Don John's report of Hero, changes his mind about his love. The watch, overhearing Borachio's report of his villainy, are able to change the tragedy to comedy.
Leonato, hearing Claudio's report of Hero, is ready to cast off his child. Report is shown to be stronger than any human affection and any acquired quality, except the love of one unmarried woman for another, and that strongest of all earthly things, the fool in authority. The wisdom of Shakespeare is greater and more various than the brains of little men can imagine. It is one of the tragical things, that this great man, who interpreted the ways of fate in glorious, many-coloured vision, should be set aside in our theatres for the mockers and the accusers, whose vision scatters dust upon the brain and sand upon the empty heart.
Though the play is not one of the most pa.s.sionate of the plays, it belongs to Shakespeare's greatest creative period. It is full of great and wonderful things. The character-drawing is so abundant and precise that those who know how hard it is to convey the illusion of character can only bow down, thankful that such work may be, but ashamed that it no longer is. Every person in the play is pa.s.sionately alive about something. The energy of the creative mood in Shakespeare filled all these images with a vitality that interests and compels. The wit and point of the dialogue--
_Don Pedro._ I think this is your daughter.
_Leonato._ Her mother hath many times told me so.
_Bened.i.c.k._ Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?
_Leonato._ Signior Bened.i.c.k, no; for then you were a child;
or (as in the later pa.s.sage)--
_Beatrice._ I may sit in a corner and cry heigh ho for a husband.
_Don Pedro._ Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.
_Beatrice._ I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your Grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.
_Don Pedro._ Will you have me, lady?
_Beatrice._ No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days: your Grace is too costly to wear every day--
is plain to all; but it is given to few to see with what admirable, close, constructive art this dialogue is written for the theatre. Of poetry, of understanding pa.s.sionately put, there is comparatively little. The one great poetical scene is that at the opening of the fifth act. The worst lines of this scene have become proverbial; the best are
”'tis all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow, But no man's virtue nor sufficiency, To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself.”
There is little in the play written thus, but there are many scenes throbbingly alive. The scene in the church shows what power to understand the awakened imagination has. The scene is a quivering eight minutes in as many lives. Shakespeare pa.s.ses from thrilling soul to thrilling soul with a touch as delicate as it is certain.
Shakespeare's fun is liberally given in the comic scenes. In the last act there is a beautiful example of the effect of lyric to heighten a solemn occasion.
_Twelfth Night._
_Written._ 1600 (?)