Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Shakespeare's Complete Works, Vol. 16
III. Critical comments ON the play [from Mzz/z'tt's C/zaraftc'rs (f S/ml'espear's Plays. Shakespear has in this play shown himself well versed in history and state affairs. Como/aims is a storehouse of polit ical commonplaces. The arguments for and against aristocracy or democracy, on the privileges Of the few and the claims of the many, on liberty and Slavery, power and the abuse of it, peace and war, are here very ably handled, with the Spirit Of a poet and the acuteness of a philosopher. Shakespear himself seems to have had a leaning to the ar bitrary side of the question, perhaps from some feeling of contempt for his own origin, and to have spared no occasion of bating the rabble. What he says of them is very true; what he says of their Oetters is also very true, though he dwells less upon it. The cause of the people is indeed but little calculated as a Subject for poetry: it admits of rhetoric, which goes into argument and explanation, but it presents no immediate or distinct images to the mind.
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