should fail For many years Shakespeare took upon
himself the burden of the human race, and struggled
in thought under the oppression of sorrows not his
own. That he turned at last to happier scenes, and
wrote the Romances, is evidence, it may be said, that
his grip on the hard facts of life was loosened by
fatigue, and that he sought refreshment in irrespon-
sible play. And this perhaps is true; but the marvel
is that he ever won his way back into a world where
play is possible. He was not unscathed by the ordeal:
the smell of the fire had passed on him. There are
many fearful passages in the Tragedies, where the
reader holds his breath, from sympathy with Shake-
spearers characters and apprehension of the madness
that threatens them. But there is a far worse terror
when it begins to appear that Shakespeare himself is
not aloof and secure; that his foothold is precarious
on the edge that overlooks the gulf. In King Lear
and Timon of Athens and Hamlet there is an unmis-
takable note of disgust and disaffection towards the
mere fact of sex; and the same feeling expresses itself
faintly, with much distress and uncertainty, in Measure
for Measure. It is true that the dramatic cause of this
disaffection is supplied in each case; Lear's daughters
have turned against him, Timon's curses are ostensibly
provoked by special instances of ingratitude and cruelty
and lust, Hamlet's mind is preoccupied with the horror
of his mother's sin. But the passion goes far beyond its
occasion, to condemn, or to question, all the business
and desire of the race of man. The voice that we
have learned to recognise as Shakespeare's is heard, in
its most moving accents, blaspheming the very founda-
tions of life and sanity. These who cannot find in the
Sonnets any trace of personal feeling may quite well
maintain that here too the passion is simulated; but

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