In conclusion, the chief fact to be remembered is that Shakespeare lived with French artisans during the most important period of his literary life. Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, perhaps Hamlet, were most probably written in the house at the corner of Silver Street. The mystery of the scene in French in Henry v. is now cleared up: the Vautrolliers, the Mongoyes and their circle taught Shakespeare French.
And yet there is about Professor C. W. Wallace's discovery something unsatisfactory that will be readily understood. The voice that reaches us over the bridge of time seems terribly disappointing: known only by the illuminating utterances in his works, the poet lived on in our memory surrounded with a halo of idealism; he was as an eagle soaring on high and whose wings were never soiled by touching earth. A pity it is that, instead of a formal deposition before a judge's clerk, chance did not bring to light a conversation with Ben Jonson. The veil is just lifted, we draw near, and the god we had figured dwindles into a mere man.
FOOTNOTES:
[261] Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. v. chap. viii.
[262] Athenæum, 26th February 1910.
[263] Nor let us omit Professor Morel in Bulletin de la Société pour l'étude des langues et littératures modernes, March 1910.
[264] W. A. Shaw, Denizations and Naturalizations of Aliens, 1911, p. 11.
[265] Letter to the Athenæum, 26th March 1910.
[266] What to Expect of Shakespeare, p. 14.