Excerpt from Shakespeare's England: An Account of the Life Manners of His Age

The truth was well handled by Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, in their profound discussion of human life. Does not our life consist of the four elements P said Sir Toby. Faith, so they say, ' said Sir Andrew, but I think it rather consists of eating and drinking.' Sir Andrew is a foolish gentleman, but those who want to know what Shakespeare thinks must not neglect what his fools say. After all, how does one age differ from another The elements remain the same; earth, air, fire, and water birth, marriage, and death; these are not much altered from century to century. It is the little things that change, and in their change serve as an index to the character of a man or of an age. Everything in one sense remains the same everything in another sense is different. Some slight changes in material conditions alter manners, customs, values, and the meanings of spoken language.

Shakespeare's book is not the only book that is some times read with imperfect intelligence. In the authorized translation of the Bible, produced in King James's reign, and in the Book of Daniel, the people are told to fall down and worship the golden image when they hear the sound of the comet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music It might be thought that those are the instruments which were played in King Nebuchadnezzar's time. They are the music of Elizabethan England.

Elizabethan England is reflected everywhere in Shake speare's works he held the mirror up to nature, but the nature that passed across it was English nature of the time of Elizabeth. He said many things that are true for all time but if we understand the world that he moved in and the language that he spoke, we are saved from mistaking the accidents of his time for the essentials of his thought.

The English school of Shakespeare criticism has always been strong in antiquarian lore. Theobald, Malone, Drake, Furnivall, and a score of others have served Shakespeare's fame well, and have drawn a better meaning out of his plays than the philosophers have read into them. The best that can be hoped for this book, the work of many hands, is that it may be judged to be not unworthy of its ancestry, and of the service to which it is dedicated.

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