he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of
love. Leander, he would have lived many a fair year, though Hero
had turned nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night: for,
good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and
being taken with the cramp was drowned; and the foolish chroniclers
of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos'. But these are all lies: men
have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not
for love.

- once at this point, Shakespeare wore his romance 'with a
difference'. There followed the period of the 'Dark' Comedies
from which the only escape was by way of Hamlet, Othello and
the rest of the tragedies.

This, fortunately, was not the end. In his latest plays Shake-
speare returned to his old love - the romantic drama, yet

not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.

Mr. Pettet traces this side of Shakespeare's art with sensitive
skill as he follows play by play the treatment of the romance
convention. As we go with him he not only helps us to realise
this, but also to see how far-reaching was Shakespeare's concep-
tion of comedy. Where Lyly or Jonson were content to dwell on
a single theme, Shakespeare ranges over many, and among the
most important of them all was the romance tradition so admir-
ably surveyed in the pages which follow.

H. S. BENNETT.

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