The dogmatic grammarians, a race not yet wholly
extinct, make rules for language as Aristotle made
rules for the epic poem, and impose their chill models
on submissive decadence. Much of Shakespeare's
language is language hot from the mind, and only
partially hardened into grammar. It cannot be judged
save by those whose ease of apprehension goes some
way to meet his ease of expression.

Here then, is matter enough and to spare. A brief
essay cannot hope to achieve much. 'Tis too late to
be ambitious. Among the topics, old and new, which
are fit for treatment, a selection must be made, and
of those selected none can he exhaustively handled.
What is chosen shall be chosen with a single aim in
view: the mind of Shakespeare is to be seen at work;
and to that end the raw material of his craft, and the
nature of the tools that he employed, must be con-
sidered in the closest possible connection with that
marvellous body of poetry which, by its vitality and
beauty, has cast some shadow of disesteem on the
forgotten processes of its making.

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