Philosophy essay writing
Essay Topics On The Bhagavad Gita
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Aint No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell free essay sample
Only a couple of decades back, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell recorded a tune named ââ¬Å"Ainââ¬â¢t No Mountain High Enoughâ⬠, that got radio broadcasts by storm. The energetic and deep style of music, alongside sweet verses that would make any young lady swoon, was a furor of 1967 that has proceeded from that point onward. Most would perceive this tune as one added to the Grammy Hall of Fame, a piece composed by Nikolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, or as the celebrated song that made it as a main twenty hit. Anyway itââ¬â¢s to be known, this supernatural two part harmony between ââ¬Å"The Prince of Motownâ⬠and his exquisite accomplice has the most grounded of characters. Opening with the vocals of Marvin Gaye and an energetic foundation, ââ¬Å"Ainââ¬â¢t No Mountain High Enoughâ⬠is fit for dazzling any crowd. Following the flawless presentation, Tammi Terrellââ¬â¢s voice is brought into the playful music and a great romantic tale unfolds. We will compose a custom article test on Aint No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell or then again any comparable subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page From start to finish, these two craftsmen sing of a cheerful, ceaseless love. With verses, for example, ââ¬Å"Remember the day, I set you free/I disclosed to you could generally rely on me, darlingâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢ll be there when you need meâ⬠, any individual who hears this melody gets enveloped with the enthusiasm. Regardless of whether audience members have experienced a situation like the one depicted in the verses, or just turned out to be wonderfully lost in the fantasy that they also would have another adoration them so much, they feel a more profound association. Itââ¬â¢s an ideal romantic tale, loaded up with desperate dedication that is altogether relatable. This melody is an awesome exemplary. From the beginning loaded up with energy, the luring center, and a staggering blur to a nearby, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell carried numerous extraordinary credits what exactly would turn into an amazingly critical melody. Genuinely exemplifying the title of the best tune at any point made, ââ¬Å"Ainââ¬â¢t No Mountain High Enoughâ⬠will top the outlines for a very long time!
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Pans Labyrinth Analysis Free Essays
Viewable Cues, Harassed Symbolism and the Grim Fantasy Unlike other ecstatically charmed film types, this reminiscent fantasy turns into a strange getaway into crafted by Guillermo Del Toro. This chilling story limits pretend stanzas reality through the eyes of a little youngster. Two universes are spoken to inside Panââ¬â¢s Labyrinth, a chilly hard fundamentalist system in Spain, and an enamoring fantasyland both passed on through visual narrating. We will compose a custom exposition test on Skillet Labyrinth Analysis or then again any comparable subject just for you Request Now The striking oddity of the dreamland becomes appearance as a general rule, giving little obvious prompts that expansion as the story unfurls, revealing a dismal communication among Ophelia and the new world she has experienced. The style turns into the account inside the film, and the utilization of mise-en-scene helps the movies express importance, by giving associations between the blending scenes. Del Toro utilizes standard and non-standard methodologies in film, which addresses the crowd either deliberately or through the sub cognizant, so the complexity of the real world and creative mind is rendered. The style all through Panââ¬â¢s Labyrinth is basic for making emotional dynamic all through the film; the meticulousness turns into a savage part to mise-en-scene, and irritates imagery. In the start of the scene, Ofelia strolls toward the camera in quest for the little animal she seen during her movements. The outward appearance is dumbfounding, anyway she needs to find out additional. The desire to concentrate new thoughts can be seen truly while she seizes onto her books, in the interim assistants dump her different things. The grip on her books turns into the distinguisher between pretend and reality. As Ofelia moves towards the camera, she drops her pile of books, inferring that she has relinquished her world to follow the little curious animal. During this, men are strolling around in uniform, underscoring the exacting, dreariness and unforgiving truth of Ofelias new condition. Men lined straight recommend this new spot is all together, with schedule that will not be upset and surely a bad situation for a meandering creative mind. As Ofelia runs toward the woods, she is running towards her new predetermination, comparing her eagerness to avoid, escaping her new reality. Upon her appearance into the woods, the maze is presented just because. Dull shadows are casted among the stone speaking to the specific obscure that will be confronted. The primary pathway driving into the Labyrinth is splendidly lit, as to seem inviting and warming. The uniqueness between the haziness of the portal and the daintiness of the way can be induced as a specific notice, some risk will be presented before the black market can be reached. As Ofelia strolls towards the passageway, taking little, slow advances, the inclination turns into a programmed change from reality to dream, and a feeling of tumbling down the bunny opening emerges. The passageway into the Labyrinth seems immaculate, with greenery and bushes becoming over the dividers, an unmistakable difference from the coldblooded cruel network ran by the Captain. The dividers give off an impression of being endured and lessening in time, the time it has taken to locate the lost princess. The quietness of the space forms into a bit of serenity from the outside world combined with a fantasy of trust in Ofelia, another departure she will before long learn of. All through Panââ¬â¢s Labyrinth, shallow shading is utilized with a great deal of dim and unbiased tones threw in reality, contrasted with the rich banquet of hues in the black market. During this arrangement in any case, the two universes have not yet been recognized, so the shading separation is inconspicuous, warm hues are utilized that give a feeling of solace. Dim shadows are casted among the dividers making the obscure predominant to the watcher, coordinating our eye down the dull way that leads further into the Labyrinth. These hues recommend a having a place for Ophelia, a spot where she is needed back. This inclination never leaves for Ofelia, she takes part in various levels to get an opportunity at her new life in the dreamland. Getting achy to visit the family for a spot she has never been or recalls. The dress assumes a job in continuing the mise-en-scene in this film. Ofelia is wearing boring dressing alongside her mom. Creating the way of life from which they originated from, and a uniqueness that is locked onto them when being brought to this new home. They right away become the outcasts from the earliest starting point, generally perceived during the panning shot of the camp while Ofelia turns out to be more fascinated by the pixies return. Tight, formally dressed men arranged straight differentiated against a youthful inquisitive, frump young lady. The style of garments not just recognizes the connection between the newcomers, Ofelia and her Mother, to the military camp, yet in addition positions an additional association among Ofelia and Mercedes. As Mercedes shows up to disclose the Labyrinth to Ofelia, her garments are standard and dull a lot of like that of Ofelia. The disparate impression that Mercedes has from the camp interests to Ofelia, and a relationship is reinforced. The garments turns into a staple into the closeness that these two characters will later share. This relationship isn't just decision of style, rather the craving for a getaway. When the solider comes up and requests Mercedes, despair comes to over her face as she pivots, setting Ofelia out of sight of the shot, however rapidly the little youngster comes to back up to Mercedes, supporting their relationship has started. Trust has begun to assemble when Ofelia clarifies the relationship or absence of one with the Captain, as Mercedes folds her arm over Ofelia, finishing the security of their relationship. These little obvious signals help the watcher set up thoughts, which the Story may before long lead into. Getting mindful of these picked components can assist watchers with anticipating story parts. Mise-en-scene plans the style as a type of narrating. Guillermo Del Toro approach is dreamlike and gives a great deal of expressive decision in convincing this magnificently made fantasy. Panââ¬â¢s Labyrinth turns out to be less about the unequivocal importance; yet rather the inferred visual markers drives the watcher to reflect increasingly about the centrality then the story. The most effective method to refer to Pans Labyrinth Analysis, Essay models
Friday, August 21, 2020
More Information on Social Justice Research
More Information on Social Justice ResearchSocial justice research is not a hot topic on the internet. For those who use the internet, you will find that there are very few sites that allow this type of research, which is why there is so little on the internet. However, many people are beginning to take interest in this type of research and there are many different subjects that have been looked at for social studies research.One of the best places to look for social justice research is the internet. It will provide you with tons of links to different topics that you may be interested in. If you choose to research these types of issues at the library, you will find that the research you will find will be done in a similar way. You will need to access books to be able to get the information that you need, and you may have to pay for this access.There are many different books that will teach you about social justice research topics. These books can provide you with just as much informa tion as the internet, but the books will cost you less money to purchase. This is why you should always consider this type of research before you make the decision of spending your hard earned money.The most common topic that is covered in social justice research topics is race. There are many different races that are used for these studies, but there are also different reasons that these races are chosen. For example, if a person has a different skin color from the majority, it is more important for that person to be looked at carefully because of their different skin color.There are also many different causes that are looked at in the study of these social causes. For example, people are often encouraged to take an action against racism if they see that someone is doing something wrong that is un-American. There are many different social groups that can be involved in this type of action, so everyone is able to take part in the action.Other major issues that are looked at include gender roles. Because there are different roles for men and women, it is important to look at how the roles are broken down. Both men and women have the same rights as each other, but sometimes people feel that they are being treated differently because of their gender roles.There are also different types of discrimination that people face on a daily basis. This includes different types of religion, age, sexual orientation, and disability. This makes it difficult for many people to accept that the discrimination that they experience is not against them, but instead against someone else.There are many different issues that can be covered in this field of study. These issues range from many different topics that you may have never thought of before. It is possible to find more information on social justice research than you might think, and this can help you see that there is more to learn than you would ever have imagined.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Essay on Sexual Victimization of Women - 1160 Words
According to a statement addressing the sexual victimization of college women The Crime and Victimization in America states that, ââ¬Å" One out of four women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus.â⬠This disturbing fact has not minimized throughout the years, instead it is continuing to worsen throughout college campuses. Sexual assault is not an act to be taken lightly. Society must stop pinpointing the individuals who commit these crimes one by one, but rather look at the problem as a whole and begin to understand the main cause of sexual assault and possible methods to reduce these acts of sexual coercion. Definition of Rape It was once acceptable for men to have full control over women, declaring when they will marry and whenâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦A majority of these sexual assaults occur in college parties, especially private house parties, known as ââ¬Å"fraternity or athletic team partiesâ⬠Fraternity or athletic teams often express their masculine characteristics, trying to prove their dominance and popularity over the college campus. It is said that, ââ¬Å"Several aspects of fraternity culture serve to create an environment for sexual coercion. Fraternities define masculinity in a very narrow way, emphasizing traditional male roles, such as athleticism, power, money, dominance, and an ability to consume alcoholâ⬠(Boeringer et al., 1991). The consumption of alcohol at college parties plays a dominant role on the actions of sexual assault that take place. It is due to these wild, unsupervised, gatherings that girls are put in unsafe situations. Although in many situations the male figure is the one initiating the ââ¬Å"spontaneousâ⬠act of sexual assault, there have been studies that have proven that their is a process of victimization. Victimization is defined as the act of singling someone for cruel or unjust treatment. Women may not realize, but many of their choices and actions may lead them into risky and/or harmful situations. In a study done by Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski (1987) 339Show MoreRelatedViolent And Sexual Victimization Of Women On College Campuses1143 Words à |à 5 PagesIt is no secret that violent and sexual victimization of women in college campuses occurs at a high rate. However, repeat victimization, or the occurrence of the same victimization happening more than once to the same individual, is rarely discussed. Daigle et al., conducted a study to find if repeat victimization was an issue among the women being victimized violently and sexually on college campuses. The findings can be related to different th eories of criminology and victimology. Considering theRead MoreChild Abuse and Revicitmization896 Words à |à 4 Pagesââ¬Å"Women with a childhood abuse history are around 1.4 to 3.7 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adulthood, and a majority (around 59%) of women with either childhood sexual assaults (CSA) or adult assaults have experienced bothâ⬠(Cloitre Rosenberg, 2006). Revictimization for prior victims is an important topic in our society. Knowing and understanding the cycle of abuse can help prevent future victimization for such a vulnerable population. ââ¬Å"This interest is grounded in evidence thatRead MoreSexual Victimization And The Campus Climate Survey Validation Study843 Words à |à 4 PagesConsiderable interest has been paid to the occurrence of sexual acts on U.S. university campuses in the past decade. The Clery Act pushed for a greater focus on the prevention of and the response to campus sexual victimization. Campus crime statistics were to be made publicly accessible in efforts to increase transparency between universities and students. Rape figures collected from postsecondary institutions have been increasing since data collection began in 2001. As of 2014, four-year or aboveRead MoreThe Impact Of Sexual Child Abuse On America1517 Words à |à 7 Pages The Impact of Sexual Child Abuse in America Child abuse has been going on for many years. There are many forms of child abuse, however, there is one that is far worse than the rest; sexual abuse. Children has a natural instinct to trust too easily and believe what people tell them, especially if they know those people. Statistics show very high figures of sexual child abuse in America. When children undergo sexual abuse, it impacts their whole being. There are physicalRead MoreThe Effects Of Sexual Assault On College Campuses1610 Words à |à 7 PagesA common worry of female freshman is the threat of sexual assault victimization on her college campus. Although the emotional treatment of sexual victimization is prevalent on campuses nationwide, research has neglected to explore the effect the assault has on academic performance (Faravelli, Guigni, Salvatori, Ricci, 2004). Can being sexually victimized within the first or second semester of a femaleââ¬â¢s freshman year of college negatively impact academic performance? Cur rent research has shownRead MoreIntimate Partner And Sexual Violence1555 Words à |à 7 PagesNational Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence 2010 survey, will provide statistical information on victims who experienced one or more violent crimes from their husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. These crimes arrange from stalking, rape, to physical and mental abuse. It will examine the impact of intimate partner violence on gender, race, and ethnicity. This report will give an overview of health consequences and the implications for prevention for Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence. Lastly, thisRead MoreA Historical Context That Changed Perspectives985 Words à |à 4 PagesFirst are historical explanations, which describe crimes through past events, and the second are situational explanations, which describe crimes incidents through circumstances. This approach utilized to describe group differences when it comes to victimization and trends in crime rates. From sociologistsââ¬â ¢ point of view, routine activities theory classifies normal activities and illegal ones and explains some odd associations between beneficial social change and increasing crime rate. It is importantRead MoreCampus Crime : The Dark Side Of The Ivory Tower1456 Words à |à 6 Pagesattention and is regularly reported in both print and electronic media. Specific and general legislation has also been passed in order to prevent campus crime from occurring as well as to educate those who are either in danger of victimization or have the ability to prevent victimization and assure that justice is done. However, campus crime is not a new issue in regard to its occurrence, only in that it has finally attracted both public and media attention. Furthermore, Sloan III and Fisher (2011) suggestRead MoreIPV Essay1733 Words à |à 7 PagesDISCUSSIONS The study reveals that there is a difference in the experience of IPV against women in urban and rural areas. Table 1 shows that rural women were more likely to experience physical, sexual, and psychological IPV than urban women. In terms of the association between place of residence and IPV, the study showed that urban women experience physical and psychological IPV than rural women and this finding agrees with the study by Balogun, Eme, and Olufunmilayo (2012). This finding is differentRead MoreAdult Sexual Assault Of Men Essay1557 Words à |à 7 Pages3. Methods Types of research in Prevalence and consequences of adult sexual assault of men: Review of empirical findings and state of the literature, consisted of systematic research of empirical studies on men at ASA published in the last 25 years. The research consisted of 204 potentially relevant articles on this topic. These articles were limited by empirical articles consisting of men addressed at ASA in North America and Europe. When researching sexually abused male victims whether to use behaviorally
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
The Homelessness And Its Effects On Women - 762 Words
Although homelessness may be difficult and isolating for anyone who experiences it, there are certain adversities specific to women. Whether cisgender or transgender, those who identify as women often have additional hardships when homeless (Shier, Jones, Graham, 2011). A society in which women are paid 77 cents to a manââ¬â¢s dollar, it is apparent women are seen as the lesser gender and are subject to different difficulties; this is evidenced in multiple studies concerning women experiencing homelessness (David, Rowe Ponce, 2015; Sayers, 2012; Shier, Jones, Graham, 2011; Whitbeck, Armenta, Gentzler, 2015). David, Rowe, Stacheli and Ponce (2015) surveyed homeless women with both mental illnesses and substance abuse problems and 100 percent reported to be victims of physical or sexual assault. Additionally, Shier, Jones, and Graham (2011) studied homeless women who expressed the lack of shelter space for women, and they found many shelters are catered to men only. Another stud y on intersectionality of homeless women found women experiencing homelessness are three times more likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder than women in the general population (Whitbeck, Armenta, Gentzler, 2015). Due to these facts, women experiencing homelessness are clearly subject to unique exploitations and vulnerabilities. It is also important to understand that various intersections of race, culture, sexuality, age, and physical and mental health conditions contribute to the severityShow MoreRelatedHomeless in The United States 1309 Words à |à 6 PagesHomelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as ââ¬Å" one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accom modations for human beingsâ⬠(McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly theRead MoreThe State of Homelessness in the United States Essay586 Words à |à 3 PagesHomelessness became a huge problem in everywhere especially in the USA. Most people heard homeless people, and they saw homeless people in the streets, markets, or bridges. Most people never try to understand why there is much homelessness. Most people do not know any facts about them seem the truth of homelessness, the state of homelessness in the United States, and the effect on people from homelessness. Many causes become the answers to homeless people. The most easy understanding of homelessnessRead MoreThe Effects of Homelessness on Children1654 Words à |à 7 Pagesmental abuse and drug use. Homelessness gained public attention in the late 1970s because homelessness became more visible when it began to include women and children. Today homelessness can be linked to various other problems. It is estimated that 200,000 thousand Canadians have lived in or used the services of a homeless shelter. On any given night, as many as 30,000 thousand Canadians experience homelessness and as many as 50,000 thousand Canadians may be ââ¬Å"hidden homelessnessâ⬠victims. In other wordsRead MoreCauses And Effects Of Homelessness Essay1267 Words à |à 6 Pages Causes and effects of homelessness in industrialized countries Student Name Institution ââ¬Æ' Introduction Homelessness is the lack of a place to leave or sleep especially during the night. Homeless people do not have proper housing, security and most of them sleep in different places depending on various conditions. Homelessness definition can vary in countries or in various regions in the same country. According to Evans, L., Strathdee in the book ââ¬Å"A roof is not enoughâ⬠, he explainsRead MoreHomelessness And The United Kingdom1747 Words à |à 7 PagesHomelessness has been a globalised concern for centuries. In United Kingdom homelessness predominantly describes in the lines homeless legislation such the Housing Act (2004) and Homeless persons Act (2002) Burrows, Pleace and Quilgars, (2004). This in predominantly surrounding who is perceived as homeless based certain criteria whereby the individual cannot be intentional homeless. However, priority is given to women who have children and women who are vulnerable, in cases such as domestic violenceRead MoreHomelessness and C hildhood Development Essay976 Words à |à 4 Pagesexperience homelessness in youth. Homelessness at such an early and integral stage in oneââ¬â¢s life presents lasting consequences and we must work to better understand, prevent and reverse the effects of homelessness on children. ââ¬Æ' Homelessness is a widespread issue that in recent years has only worsened with the downturn in the economy and a never-ending war. Of this very vulnerable population however there is within an even more vulnerable population, the children affected by homelessness. We as a societyRead MoreViolence Against Women Is A Womenââ¬â¢S Health Issue Stemming1465 Words à |à 6 PagesViolence against women is a womenââ¬â¢s health issue stemming from the cultural acceptance of the power dynamic between men and women. Specifically, men are socialized to be more powerful, commanding and assert themselves in the public sphere. While females are socialized to be more docile, reserved, obedient and to consume as little space as possible ââ¬â both physically and figuratively. This mindset is something that adversely affects the health of women, taking away her autonomy, and subverting herRead MoreAmerican Journal Reviews of Child and Family Homelessness720 Words à |à 3 Pagesand Family H omelessness: Where are we Now? American Journal of Public Health 103.2 (2013): E1-E10. ProQuest. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. Roy Grant, M.A., et al. conducted a review of family and childhood homelessness over a course between a twenty-five year span of the 1980ââ¬â¢s to 2013. They reviewed journal articles, government reports, and news stories to find any changes in conditions or the amount of family and childhood homelessness. The review concluded family and childhood homelessness still existsRead MoreNegative Effects Of Homelessness1446 Words à |à 6 Pagesthemselves the question, ââ¬Å"Does homelessness affect me at all?â⬠Typically, if homelessness isnââ¬â¢t affecting a certain individual or anyone that theyââ¬â¢re close to, they tend to not want to help. From previous research done by Pergantis, Tolliver, Bishop, 2016, it is a known fact that about 578,242 people in America are considered to be homeless. People who were homeless back then done by were considered as disconnected from the world and they have also encountered psychological effects. Other writers likeRead MoreEssay on The Challenges and Effects of Being Homelessness1599 Words à |à 7 PagesHomelessn ess affects families ways of living. Many within the country are faced with the challenges of homelessness. They have to suffer from many challenges physically and mentally. It affects the whole family from before they were born until the day they die. Homelessness affects their jobs and education also. Homelessness has a big impact on their life. Homelessness affects a vast number of people. In the United States over 100 million people are homeless (Stearman 9). In fact, between 600,000
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Part One Introduction to The Law in Shakespeare Essay Example For Students
Part One Introduction to The Law in Shakespeare Essay Part One Introduction to The Law in Shakespeare SHAKESPEAREquot;S persistent and correct use of law terms was long ago noticed and caused the conjecture that he must have studied in an attorneyquot;s office. What is the truth in this respect will probably never be certainly known; but that he was more addicted to the employment of legal nomenclature than any English writer excepting, of course, the jurists is incontestable. The work of winter evenings, commenced long ago, as an incident to habitual study of the works of him who converted the elements which awaited at his command into entertainments, is submitted with little speculation upon questions concerning which there have been many words and few demonstrations. It is not pretended that every legal phrase which he used is here presented. The aim has been not to extend the task beyond the necessity of proof into a wearisome repetition of expressions which often recur in scores. To the lawyer many of the notes will be needless, though some of them will be found helpful. I have not hesitated to present the definitions of the commonest legal terms. To those unversed in law lore, they will present at a glance the argument intrinsic in the text. Some of the quotations, taken alone, are doubtless of trifling probative force. They are given because, in cumulative testimony, each independent fact is a multiplier. We seem to have here something more than a sciolistquot;s temerity of indulgence in the terms of an unfamiliar art. No legal solecisms will be found. The abstrusest elements of the common law are impressed into a disciplined service with every evidence of the right and knowledge of commanding. Over and over again, where such knowledge is unexampled in writers unlearned in the law, Shakespeare appears in perfect possession of it. In the law of real property, its rules of tenure and descents, its entails, its fines and recoveries, and their vouchers and double vouchers; in the procedure of the courts, the methods of bringing suits and of arrests, the nature of actions, the rules of pleading, the law of escapes, and of contempt of court; in the principles of evidence, both technical and philosophical; in the distinction between the temporal and the spiritual tribunals; in the law of attainder and forfeiture; in the requisites of a valid marriage; in the presumption of legitimacy; in the learning of the law of prerogative; in the inalienable character of the crown, this mastership appears with surprising authority. It is not necessary in accounting for this to assault truth with a paradox, or to put a mask upon the face of the first of men. The law books of that time were few. Shakespearequot;s French is nearly as bad as the law French in which many of them were written; and it is not to be forgotten that to learn must have been easy to this man, whose mental endowments were so universal that the best intellects of after times have vainly essayed to admeasure them. Coleridge has remarked that a young authorquot;s first work almost always bespeaks his recent pursuits. He might have said with equal correctness that any authorquot;s works can never entirely hide his former pursuits. These may be betrayed by the style, or by prejudices, affections, antipathies. or affectations. Gibbon thought that his experience as an officer in the Hampshire militia was of assistance to him in describing that vast mutation in history whereby the Roman world, by a process almost physical in appearance, shifted from temperate simplicity, grandeur, civilization, and solidity to tropical luxury, effeminacy, barbarism, and quick decay. Were every detail of Falconerquot;s and Somervillequot;s lives unknown, it would be certain from their works that the one was a sailor and the other a sportsman. Sir Walter Scott had been called to the bar and his works attest his legal proficiency. We see Fieldingquot;s experience as a magistrate in the examination of Partridge, in the conspiracy between Lady Booby and Lawyer Scout against Fanny, and in that masterpiece of savage irony, the life of the late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. We know from the details of mercantile routine in Robinson Crusoe and Colonel Jack that Defoe must have been a merchant. That Thackeray had been an artist is very apparent in his works. Donne, 1572-1631, who had been a student at Lincolnquot;s Inn, satirized a barristerquot;s wooing in law phrase: -he throws, Like nets or lime twigs, wheresoequot;r he goes, His title of barrister on every wench, And woos in language of the pleas and bench. A motion, lady! Speak, Coscus. I have been In love equot;er since tricesimo the queen. Continual claims Iquot;ve made, injunctions got To stay my rivalquot;s suit, that he should not Proceed; spare me, in Hilary term I went; You said if I returned next quot;size in Lent, I should be in remitter of your grace. In thquot; interim my letters should take place Of affidavits. The argument on the present question rests mainly, of course, upon the general and constant employment by Shakespeare of the terms of a science which, in his time, was crabbed and harsh, and which has at any time few points of contact with the graces of literature. There is another special argument of great force, in presenting which my inadequate resources for comparison restrict me to the use of Hamlet, though I have no doubt that corroborative results will be yielded to any one who may make a more extended investigation. Hamlet was published in quarto in 1603. Compared with the final version which appeared in the folio of 1623, it is a magnificent imperfection, but invaluable because it shows how the hand of the master wrought upon his work. From the one to the other we see Shakespearequot;s mind in operation. Its creative processes are disclosed. Its industry is demonstrated. Here are the blotted lines Jonson wished for. We see the growth of immortal blossoms from barren common-places. It is as if some sculptor, with an enchanterquot;s power, had wrought upon an unadorned Milan cathedral through one night, so that the morning showed thousands of carvings and statues where the day before were only walls of unadorned simplicity. If Shakespearequot;s use of legal learning were not that of a full man, with pride in his skill, we should not expect to see, in the changes by which he brought the play to perfection, any additions or elaborations in that respect. But that they do appear most remarkably, the following, in which the text of the quarto is given, together with that of the finished version, will show: Who by a seale compact, well ratified by law And heraldrie? did forfeit with his life all those His lands which he stood seazed of to the conqueror, Against the which a moiety competent Was gaged by our king Quarto. To this Shakespeare added: -which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras Had he been vanquisher; as by the same covenant And carriage of the article designed, His fell to Hamlet. Standard Version. He hath, my lord, wrung from me a forced graunt. Quarto. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave, By laborsome petition, and at last Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. Standard Version. Or that the Everlasting had not fixquot;d His canon quot;gainst self-slaughter! Not in Quarto. Oph. My lord, he hath made many tenders of his love to me. Cor. Tenders. I, I, tenders you may call them. Oph. And withall such earnest vowes. Cor. Springes to catch woodcocks. What, do I not know when the blood cloth burne How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes. In brief, be more scanter of your maiden presence, Or tendering thus youquot;l tender mee a foole. Quarto. Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me. Pol. Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Pol. Marry, Iquot;ll teach you: think yourself a baby: That you have taquot;en these tenders for true pay Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly: Ornot to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thusyouquot;ll tender me a fool, Standard Version. Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, The better to beguile. Not in Quarto. I did repel his letters, deny his gifts, As you did charge me. Quarto. I did repel his letters, and denied His access to me. Standard Version. For in that dreame of death, when we awake, And borne before our everlasting judge, From whence no passenger euer returned, The undiscovered country, at whose sight The happy smile and the accursed damnquot;d. Quarto. The undiscoverod country from whose bourne No traveller returns. Standard Version. Yet you cannot Play upon me, besides to be demanded by a spunge. Quarto. Besides, to be demanded of a spunge: what replication Should be made by the son of a king? Standard Version. King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal. * * * * * Laer. It will appear: but tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats So crimeful and so capital in nature. Not in Quarto. First Clo. I say no, she ought not to be buried In Christian burial. Sec. Clo. Why, sir? First Clo. Marry, because sheequot;s drownquot;d. Sec. Clo. But she did not drowne her selfe. First Clo. No, thatquot;s certaine, the water drownquot;d her. Sec. Clo. Yea, but it was against her will. First Clo. No, I deny that; for looke you, sir; I stand here; If the water come to me I drowne not my selfe; But if I goe to the water, and am then drownquot;d, Ergo, I am guiltie of my owne death. Yquot;are gone; goe, yquot;are gone, sir. Sec. Clo. I; but see, she hath Christian burial Because she is a great woman. Quarto. First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation? Sec. Clo. I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial. First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? Sec. Clo. Why, quot;tis found so. First Clo. It must be quot;se offendendo;quot; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly. Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, First Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. Sec. Clo. But is this law? First Clo. Ay, marry, isquot;t; crownerquot;s quest law. Sec Clo. Will you haquot; the truth onquot;t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out oquot; Christian burial. Standard Version. Ham. Looke you, therequot;s another, Horatio. Why maiquot;t not be the scull of some Lawyer? Me thinkes he should indite that fellow Of an action of Batterie, for knocking Him about the pate withquot;s shovel: now where is your Quirkes and quillets now, your vouchers and Double vouchers, your leases and free-holde And tenements? Why that same box will scarce Hold the conveiance of his land, and must The honor lie there? O pittifull transformance! I prithee tell me, Horatio, Is parchment made of sheep-skinnes? Hor. I, my lorde, and of calves-skinnes too. Ham. Iquot;faith they proove themselves sheepe and calves That deale with them or put their trust in them. Quarto. Ham. Therequot;s another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in quot;s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha? Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. Standard Version. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still ber wheaten garland wear And stand a comma quot;tween their amities, And many such-like quot;Asquot;es of great charge, That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debasement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allowquot;d. Hor. How was this sealquot;d! Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my fatherquot;s signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal; Folded the writ up in form of the other, Subscribed it, gavequot;t the impression, placed it safely, The changeling never known. Not in Quarto. Hor. No, I am more an antike Roman Than a Dane; here is some poison left. Ham. Upon my love I charge thee let it goe. O fie, Horatio, and if thou shouldsquot;t die What a scandale wouldsquot;t thou leave behind; What tongue should tell the story of our deaths, If not from thee. Quarto. Ham. Had I but timeas this fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest O, I could tell you But let it be. Horatio, I am dead; Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. Hor. Never believe it; I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: Here is yet some liquor left. Ham. As thouquot;rt a man Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, Iquot;ll havequot;t. O good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. Standard Version. Part Two Introduction to The Law in Shakespeare It thus appears that Shakespeare amplified the statement of the compact with Fortinbras; changed Poloniusquot; term, a forced graunt, to a more formal and elaborate legal expression; inserted the word canon to express a divine law; forced the word tender to an ampler use; called loverquot;s oaths brokers ; caught the idem sonans of the word borne and changed it to bourne as the boundary of that undiscovered country; took the suggestion of the word demanded and asked what replication shall be made; added the request for a sealed acquitance, and the demand why capital crimes had not been proceeded against; rewrote the dialogue between the clowns solely to enlarge it and make it more accurate in its legal meaning, and more relevant to the case in Plowden; reconstructed Hamletquot;s meditations on the lawyerquot;s skull; corrected the inaccurate suggestion of an indictment for an action of battery; struck out the words leases and free-hold e and tenements; added to the enumeration of the devices of money-lenders the words buyer of land, statutes, recognizances, fines, recoveries, all with the greatest pains-taking to be full and accurate; added to the purport of the kingquot;s letter to England and, where Hamlet, in the quarto, merely resists Horatioquot;s attempt to drink the cup by expressing a desire that he should live to tell the story, changed this to an injunction to his friend to live to report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. By an unlearned writer such a task of correction and amplification would never have been attempted. By one who was learned in the subject, and who either delighted in it or had the tendency of practice in its employment, it was inevitable that this should be done. In the scene between Hamlet and his fatherquot;s ghost the effect of the juice of cursed hebenon is stated with much detail. This passage was also retouched, but no material change was made. No symptom or effect was a dded. The legal statements were changed throughout. But the former needed correction, for it is very inaccurate. The introduction of poison into the circulation through the porches of the ear, so that the effect will be an instantaneous incrustation of the skin, was a conception of Shakespeare and has no foundation in medical science. It is especially to be noticed that this legal learning is accurately sustained in many passages with cumulative and progressive application. The word employed becomes suggestive of other words, or of a legal principle, and these are at once used so fully that their powers are exhausted. In one scene the lover, wishing a kiss, prays for a grant of pasture on his mistressquot; lips. This suggests the law of common of pasture, and she replies that her lips are no common. This suggests the distinction between tenancy in common and tenancy in severally, the lips being several, and she adds, though several they be. Miranda and Ferdinand simply betroth themselves; sanctimonious ceremonies are intended to follow. In the case of Florizel and Perdita the contract before witnesses is proposed, but the disguised father interrupts the proceedings and prevents a marriage. In the case of Mariana there is a contract of marriage, followed by consummation in the legal and physical sense, and it is not even suggested that this is not a valid marriage. In describing the wager of battle everything is correctly and orderly set forth. The appeal is made; gloves are thrown down and taken up; the lists are set upon the green; proclamation is made; the judges take their places; the king stops the combat by throwing down his warder. The regularity of the process in Shylock v. Antonio is fully pointed out elsewhere. The trial of Queen Catherine opens with a proposition to read the commissions of the judges, citation is made, her appearance is demanded, and she refuses it, because to appear will be a submission to the jurisdiction of the court. This is precisely the ground upon which Mary Stuart stood at her trial, and so insurmountable did her prosecutors deem it to be, that she was cajoled into doing that which Catherine refused. The barbarous penalty of Shylockquot;s bond is a reminiscence of the Twelve Tables, by which the creditors of a delinquent debtor were allowed to cut him into pieces. The Italian novel upon which the play is founded attributes the same penalty to the bond. So does the old ballad of Gernutus. It has been contended that the ballad is the offspring of the play, but incorrectly, because the former contains nothing concerning any woman as a judge, a circumstance too effective to have been omitted by any ballad maker who drew his inspiration from the play. When Hamlet surmises that the skull may be that of a lawyer, a lender of money, he enumerates at once the methods by which loans were secured. The words factor and broker are used with perfect understanding of the technical differences in their meaning. Tamora claims her Roman citizenship through her incorporation into a Roman family under the principle of adoption by marriage. Lear partitions his kingdom, and delivers it by livery of seizin. He entails the crown by apt words. Hermione is accused of adultery, and therefore of treason, according to the statute of Edward III. The validity of the acts of a king de facto and the duty of obedience to him are stated with the most precise understanding of the distinction between officers de facto and those de jure. Helena is a feudal ward. Cade makes a bestial pun, suggested by tenancy in capite, and by an infernal privilege of stupration, which is one of the recondite curiosities of the law. Dromio asserts that there is no time for a bald man to recover his hair. This having been written, the law phrase suggested itself, and he was asked whether he might not do it by fine and recovery, and this suggested the efficiency of that proceeding to bar heirs; and this started the conceit that thus the lost hair of another man would be recovered. A quot;quest of thoughts all tenants to the heart is impaneled to decide the question of title to the visage of the beloved one between the heart and the eye, where the defendant denies the plea, and the verdict is a moiety to each. The remembrance of things past is summoned up to the sessions of sweet, silent thought. These illustrations have been given as they occur to the memory from hundreds of passages to enforce the argument of the probative force of accumulated circumstances from diverse sources, when there can be no doubt of the circumstances themselves. There is no question here of fabricated evidence. While the simulation of evidence by perverting or inventing circumstances is a device of all fabricators from the time of the exhibition of Josephquot;s coat to Jacob, the noting the mole on Imogenquot;s snow-pure breast, the smearing by Lady Macbeth of the groomsquot; faces with blood, and the use of the handkerchief by Iago, are done with legal craft, and form Shakespearequot;s judgement upon what is called circumstantial evidence, which after all the judicial cant upon the subject, such as the assertion that circumstances cannot lie, can be made the most illusory of all testimony; for while circumstances cannot lie, they can be feigned, invented, distorted, half-stated, misapplied, mistaken, or lied about with most infernal skill. It is upon circumstantial evidence so misunderstood that the claims of all impostors have been maintained from the falsi Neronis ludibrio which moved the hosts of Parthia to the pretensions of the claimant in the Tichborne case. The least mistake makes a ll the difference in the world. Suppose, for instance, that in the perspective of ages events should be so foreshortened that the years which cover Shakespearequot;s life-time and that of Milton should blend, it might be argued from the extracts from Comus, which are hereinafter set out, from an assumption that Shakespeare was an obscure and illiterate man, and from Miltonquot;s commanding intellectual force and erudition, that the latter wrote the plays in that heyday of his youth when, according to his own statement, he delighted in the sinuosi pompa theatri; or it might be maintained with nearly equal force that Shakespeare wrote Areopagitica or Paradise Lost in his later years, after he had forsaken the vanities of his youth, had become devout, and had thrown all the forces of his mighty intellect into the polemics incident to a great political and religious revolution. These considerations are also relevant to what it is intended to submit relative to the theory that Francis Bacon was Shakespeare. We can apply here the tests which decide our ordinary actions, and which in courts are found sufficient to adjudicate the most momentous questions. In the daily conduct of our lives we act upon the results of a calculation of probabilities. Analyse Shakespeare's use of dramatic and poetic effects EssayMiltonquot;s epitaph upon Shakespeare stands in the folio of 1632. In 1637 we find him writing from London the first elegy ad Carolum Deodatum, in which he informs his friend how his time is spent, and attests his habitual attendance at the theater: Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, Et vocat ad plausus garrula scene suos. Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus haeres, Seu procus, aut posita casside miles adest, Sive decennali foecundus lite patronus Detonat inculto barbara verba foro! Saepe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti, Et nasum rigidi fallit ubique patris; Saepe novos illic Virgo mirata calores, Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotas, Et dolet et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo. Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest: Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit: Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor Conscia funereo pectora torre movens. The last four lines have been thought to refer to Romeo, and to Banquoquot;s ghost or to the one in Hamlet. Comus is filled with undisguised borrowings from Shakespeare. Ere the blabbing eastern scout The nice morn. is Shakespearequot;s Gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day. The possessor of chastity is alad in complete steel; so is the ghost in Hamlet. With Milton philosophy is musical as is Apolloquot;s lute. With Shakespeare love is -as sweet and musical As bright Apolloquot;s lute strung with his hair. Comusquot; dissertation on virginity is a manifest adaptation of Parollesquot; discourse upon that subject. Sabrina sets her printless feet Oquot;er the cowslipsquot; velvet head. And Prosperoquot;s elves on tile sands with printless feet Do chase the ebbing Neptune The spirit is another Ariel who can soar as soon To the corners of tile moon, like Hecate, who says that Great business must be wrought ere noon Upon the corner of the moon. These extracts have been adduced to show that Shakespeare was clearly seen by the greatest man of the next generation. Charles I. as sixteen years of age when Shakespeare died. Bacon dedicated to him his history of Henry VII. Shakespeare, in Macbeth, nobly magnified the house of Stuart by a prophecy of its perpetuity. The works of Shakespeare were the closet companion of Charles, who was reproached for this by Milton at a time when the fierce zealots of re bellion had come to look upon the drama as sinful. Falkland was Charlesquot; councillor, and it is from him that we have respecting Caliban the first critical estimate extant of any character in Shakespeare. And yet from prince, king, courtier, poet, or scholar, we hear no hint which can give this modern theory the slightest support. Bacon was actively engaged in the court of chancery for many years before he became lord chancellor. It was then that the memorable war of jurisdiction was waged between Ellesmere and Coke, and yet there is not in the works of Shakespeare, to the best of my belief, a single phrase or word, much less any application of any principle, peculiar to the chancery. Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis, and the Rape of Lucrece, to the Earl of Southampton, with strong expressions of affection, and it is a tradition that he was munificently treated by that nobleman. No one has ever denied that the author of these poems is also the author of the plays. But if Bacon was Shakespeare, it is incredible that within a few years the former should have appeared as volunteer counsel against Essex and Southampton in that trial which has so stained Baconquot;s name, or that he should have undertaken afterwards, in his Declaration of the Treason of Robert, Earl of Essex, the task of proving the complicity of his friend and patron in that conspiracy. It is also remarkable that in this same production, in order to fasten guilt upon the conspirators, Bacon lays especial stress upon the fact that the afternoon before the rebellion, Merick, with a great company of others, that afterwards were all in the action, had procured to be played before them the play of deposing King Richard the Second. Neither was it casual, but a play bespoken by Merick; but when it was told him by one of the players that the play was old, and that they should have loss in playing it, because few would come to it, there were forty shillings extraordinary given to play it, and so thereupon played it was. So earnest was he to entirely satisfy his eyes with the sight of that tragedy, which he thought soon after his lordship should bring from the stage to the state, but that God turned it upon their own heads. If Francis Bacon wrote Richard II, it was a piece of matchless effrontery for him to maintain that his own production had been displayed as a counterfeit presentment in aid of a treason in which his friend was engaged. And in the face of all this and much more we are asked to believe that Bacon, colluding with Shakespeare, practiced this stupendous imposture for nearly twenty-five years, and that it was undetected and unsuspected until after more than two centuries had passed away. If we look to the intrinsic evidence wrenched and misapplied by conjecture from the treasures which these men left to us, we find nothing but a foolish and extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions, begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. Part Five Introduction to The Law in Shakespeare Baconquot;s prose has less rhythmus than Hookerquot;s or Raleighquot;s. We have specimens of his versification. He translated seven of the psalms into English verse, and here is his first verse: Who never gave to wicked reed A yielding and attentive ear; Who never sinnerquot;s path did tread Nor sat him down in scornerquot;s chair, But maketh it his whole delight On law of God to meditate, And therein spendeth day and night, That man is in a happy state. Sternhold could not make this worse. Compare it with the crudest lines Shakespeare ever wrote. The differences between these most august of intellectual beings are manifest. Both were sages; one was a poet, the other a philosopher. It is the difference between Homer and Plato. Both had great imaginations, but Baconquot;s was a reasoning imagination, which disclosed its logical processes. That of Shakespeare was intuitive, and left little trace of its trackless paths of development. It is the difference between two continents of vast area, watered by great and fertilizing rivers, full throughout of naturequot;s wonders; but one is temperate, orderly, subject to little variation, while the other is tropical, ravaged by storms, the home of the greatest beauties sleeping in the very dens of the greatest terrors, and both beneficent and enduring. Each was a discoverer. But Bacon made his quest in the material world, while Shakespeare voyaged through the mind and soul of man and reached their destinies. One is the Columbus and the other the Dante of thought. The results have been different. The intrepid experimental investigation of causes upon which Bacon insisted as the only force which could break down the prison walls of knowledge, placed thought upon a line of logical consequences leading directly to much that we now enjoy so completely of social, political, and religious rights. This is the greatest boon ever bestowed upon humanity by one man. Baconquot;s genius triumphed in his closet over the servility of his disposition, and, so triumphing, impelled the race to results to which he, living, never could have led it. The consequences which have flowed from Shakespeare have been even more diffused. They are not mere results. The man and his effects live and touch persons. His works are known to all men. Baconquot;s are known to few. Bacon is to us impersonal precisely where his influence is greatest, and is real where he has ceased to act. We know the supple courtier, the false friend, the pliant lawyer, and the corrupt judge. But the philosopher, in the midst of whose system we stand to-day, is nearly an ideal conception. Shakespeare, colorless as he is in all that regards material knowledge or political and religious rights, is with us always; speaks to us every day; interprets us to ourselves; is immanent in our literature as its presiding spirit. Bacon little knew or suspected that there was then existing the only one that ever did exist his superior in intellectual power. Position gives magnitude. While the world was rolling above Shakespeare, he was seen imperfectly. When he rose above the world, it was discovered that he was greater than the world. The most honest of his cotemporaries would scarcely have admitted this, even had they known it. But vast objects of remote altitude must be looked at a long while before they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope-tubes that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare, and generations of men serve but as single witnesses to his claims. Landor. The strongest proof that Shakespearequot;s legal knowledge was very great consists in the confident and cumulative use of these terms, not only in the general fact that they so recur in every play, in all the poems, and even in the dedications, but also in their exhaustive use in many passages where to explain some principle, to carry out some comparison or analogy to its likeness to the finest lines and features of the thought, to push some conceit to the remotest extravagance, so that it is necessary for a well-read lawyer to make special investigation into the law and statutes of that time before he can follow it, Shakespeare exhausts the capacity of the terms he employs. We turn from these exhibitions of thorough technical skill to see whether he displays anything like such familiarity in other departments of knowledge. We find little that tends to show proficiency in medicine, and this is everybodyquot;s science. In geography he is as perfectly without location as his still vexq uot;d Bermoothes, which no research has been able to map. No dogma stains his plain belief in Him who was nailed For our advantage to the bitter cross. With time and place his tricks are more magical than that by which Puck girdled the earth in forty minutes. He is utterly indifferent to the devil and hell-fire, excepting in Henry VI. in Hamlet, and in that terrific use of the witches in Macbeth, who seem to have received from him a power beyond their own to call up from futurity the coroneted baby-brows, the two-fold balls, and treble scepters. In music he discloses little technical learning, although he could make the concourse of sweet sounds quire with the young-eyquot;d cherubim, so divinely was his soul attuned who expressed the whole compass of our language in harmonies which we hear from him only. We find little knowledge of tactics or maneuvers and less of nautical terms, although it was an age of wars by land and sea, and his works are filled with soldiery. There is next to nothing of the ancient philosophies; not one of Platoquot;s glorious and cloudy dreams was ever smitten by the light of this glorifying sun. The wonder at this use of legal expressions is not so much that Shakespeare understood them so well, as it is that the man who commanded the most copious vocabulary that any English writer has ever been able to wield, should have used them with such persistence. Surely he did not need them as instruments of expression. His resources in the treasuries of words were too vast for that. These law terms were present in his mind as standards of comparison with things which nothing but his own despotic imagination could have brought into relevancy. I know of no writer who has so impressed into his service the terms of any science or art. They come from the mouth of every personage: from the queen; from the child; from the Merry Wives of Windsor; from the Egyptian fervor of Cleopatra; from the love-sick Paphian goddess; from violated Lucrece; from Lear, Hamlet, and Othello; from Shakespeare himself, soliloquizing in his sonnets; from Dogberry and Prospero; from riotous Falstaff and melancholy Jacques. He utters them at all times as standard coin, no matter when or in what mint stamped. These emblems of his industry are woven into his style like the bees into the imperial purple of Napoleonquot;s coronation robes. It may be suggested that this figure, so frequently woven into Shakespearequot;s diction, may test whether certain plays, which have been attributed to him, come from other hands than his. Thus, I have little doubt that Sir John Oldcastle, if not wholly written by him, bears the imprint of his golden hand. The passage concerning the royal buck, the scene where Harpool forces the sumner to eat the citation he has come to serve, and the other legal phrases, taken together, seem to indicate this. If he did not compose the entire play, he mingled in its composition, like a skillful teacher who corrects the awkward execution of a pupil, by letting his hand fall for a moment upon the keys to strike chords of recognized harmony. The soundest English and German critics agree that he wrote the first act of the Two Noble Kinsmen, and that the rest of the play is by Fletcher, who took the organ from the master after the prelude had filled the arches of the imagination with its melody. If the first act is tested by comparison with all that follows it, we have the results we should expect in such familiar expressions, as the tenor of thy speech, prorogue, fee, moiety, canon, seal the promise. Legal learning and language are essentially unpoetical, and the other dramatists of that time were sparing in their use. Ben Jonson was a scholar. He delighted in the exhibition of accurate nowledge, but he does not approach the precision or ease of his great contemporary in his representations of legal proceedings, or in his use of legal terms. An examination of the court scene in the Fox will establish the truth of this remark. Fletcher had been a student at Cambridge, and Beaumont at Oxford. The latter was the son of a ju dge of the court of common pleas, and was himself bred to the law. But we can find in their works no such disposition or facility in the use of law terms, or the procedure of the courts. In the Little French Lawyer, La Wit, who turns duelist and challenges everybody, including the venerable judge who has ruled against him, uses little of the vocabulary of his vocation. In the Spanish Curate, the lawyer Bartolus is a very important character, and considerable legal knowledge appears in his sayings and doings, particularly in the scene where his debtors sit down to the feast he has made for them, and are arrested for debt by the waiters, who are disguised officers, under warrants which appear as the only repast upon the plates when they are uncovered, but the performance is broad, and has not the incidental accuracy which appears again and again in Shakespeare. So Massinaer in the Old Law, brings to trial the unfilial son and the profligate wife, but the scene, as a forensic representation, is crude, lacks detail, and displays none of that pomp of justice which all courts of any dignity exhibit. The affiliation between the disciples of Themis and Thespis was a marked feature of those times. Many students of law forsook it and became dramatists. So common was this transition that Greene, in his Groatquot;s Worth of Wit, published before 1593, in a passage which has been thought to reflect directly upon Shakespeare, speaks of these re-enforcements to the play-writers as those who have left the trade of Noverint, know all men, etc. Sir Christopher Hatton wrote a play entitled Tancred and Gismund, and afterwards became lord chancellor. So noteworthy were these accessions from the law students that Ben Jonson begins the Poetaster, in which he lampoons a rival dramatist and the lawyers, with a scene between Ovid and his father, who detects the young law student writing plays and poems. There is so much similarity between the opening lines of the Poetaster Then when this body falls in funeral fire, My name shall live and my best part aspire, and Shakespearequot;s assertion of undying fame in the sonnet Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, that one is tempted to conjecture that Jonson intended to impersonate Shakespeare in Ovid; but the alluring supposition is too fanciful, for we know from Ovid himself that Saepe pater dixit, studium quid inutile tendes, Maeonides nullas ipse reliquit opes. * * * * * * * Non me verbosas leges discere, non me Ingrato voces prostituisse foro. John Shakespeare, coming to London, and detecting his son in the composition of plays, would have been a far better theme for an imaginary conversation than Landor chose when he gave us the examination of William Shakespeare before Sir Thomas Lucy for deer-stealing. Henry Wriothesly, to whom Shakespeare dedicated the first heir of his invention, was the grandson of a common-law lawyer, who was lord chancellor from 1544 to 1547. The relations of the most dramatic profession of real life to that which mimics life was then much like the construction of the amphitheater of Curio, which was elliptical, but built in equal sections, which could be revolved so that each became a theater, displaying a different spectacle, but could be turned in a moment into the unity of the original shape, and confuse two representations and two audiences. The inns of court were the scenes of spectacular dramas of great magnificence, the expenses of which were borne by the lawyers. These revels, as they were called, laid the best dramatic genius under contribution, and, though they have long since ended, the ancient sympathy has survived the insubstantial pageants and the actors, which have melted into thin air. It is not difficult to account for this intimacy. The dramatists of that time were unquestionably the most brilliant men who ever lived together in one city. Intellectual society was limited. The physicians have left no memorials. The stage was abhorred by the clergy. The editor was yet to come. But there was the bar, whose members knew life and human nature as they are, and who played their parts in all their real comedies and tragedies; university men, ripe and sweet with all classical learning, cynical and humorous, tainted with no cant. The taverns were the clubs. And thus it was that the most cultivated scholarship and the most brilliant imaginations of England met in encounters, which kindled into conflagrations of wit, humor, learning, ribaldry, and wisdom. There was everything in that romantic age to stir the imagination. There was a spirit of chivalry abroad which marched in quest of something more substantial than mouldy relics, and fulfilled vows sworn to something grander than the achievement of pious absurdities. Frobisher had sailed northward into the silence of the eternal seas of ice. E1 Dorado lifted against the western skies its shafts and domes of gold. The Armada had vanished like a portentous phantom, smitten by the valor of Englishmen, and chased far off into the Hebridean fogs by the waves of the exasperated sea, which fought for its island nursling. Hawkins, pirate and admiral, had thrown his fortune into the pit which threatened to swallow up his country, and had died under the displeasure of his stingy yet magnificent queen. Raleigh, having seen his dreams of the new world die out, lay in the Tower, writing his history, doubtless smoking the consoling weed, while awaiting the end of so much bravery, so much rashness, and so many cares, in the summons of eloquent, just, and mighty Death. Drake had spoiled the seas and the cities thereof. Captain John Smith had told of great empires in the west, and their swarthy emperors. Mary, Queen of Scots, that changeful enchantress, as we see her now, at one time the French lily, all sweet, and pure, and fragrant; and again the Scottish thistle, spinous and cruel to all who touched her, had woven the cords of love into the chains of empire, and had pressed the cup of her sorceries to the lips of many men, until her own glorious head bowed to -the long divorce of steel. History, among all the women who have been crowned with the thorns of sorrow, presents no figure of which Shakespeare could have made so much. But what could any dramatist do for her in the life-time of Elizabeth, or in that of the pusillanimous and unfilial Sawney who succeeded her? A reverend church had been subverted throughout the land, and beliefs and ceremonies, which its believers asserted to be as old as the apostles, were forbidden as crimes. Hooker, anticipating Locke, had declared that all governments exist by the consent of the governed, without which consent there were no reason that one should take on him to be lord or judge over another. Bacon, thinking that the knowledge whereof the world is now possessed, especially that of nature, extendeth not to the magnitude of works, had declared that there should be one method of cultivating the sciences and another of discovering them, and by this fiat liberated experimental philosophy into the limitless fields in which it has since worked. There never was a time when so many causes confederated to stimulate the human mind to the exhibition of its greatest powers in all departments, and the result was that the soldier became a historian, the divine a statesman, the statesman a philosopher, and the lawyer the first of poets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)