He got closer to the human heart than any and all other authors. To him nature was an open book, and he was so thoroughly in love with it, that he left no page unturned or un.o.bserved; from the primer page or the humblest creations of nature"s lavish hand up through the countless and variegated specimens of her handiwork to the crowning production of her creative power, _man_--this son of genius penetrated all her secrets, delved all her depths, scaled her loftiest heights.
The heart of man, that secret repository of so many contending pa.s.sions; that cradle where the affections are rocked into life; that fountain whence so many varying emotions spring, that sea o"er which are swept the mult.i.tudinous pa.s.sions of life, was also to him an open page; the last and greatest chapter in nature"s wonderful volume. He understood life in all its phases.
No plays afford greater opportunity for scenic splendor than Shakespeare"s, yet none are less dependent on the adjuncts of scenery and outward realism. Shakespeare put his realism into his characters and no inadequate surroundings can rob them of their wondrous charms; they possess such range of mental vision, such tremendous power of thought, such depth and placidity, such glowing imagination; his characters are living, breathing, speaking types of the age in which they lived, and he their creator stands out wholly beyond question or dispute, the most transcendent genius our earth has ever produced.