[CHAPTER THIRD]
[Ben Jonson]
[SECTION I.—The Man—His Life]318
[SECTION II.—His Freedom and Precision of Style]321
[SECTION III.—The Dramas Catiline and Sejanus]327
[SECTION IV.—Comedies]333
[SECTION V.—Limits of Jonson's Talent—His Smaller Poems—His Masques]345
[SECTION VI.—General Idea of Shakespeare]350
[CHAPTER FOURTH]
[Shakespeare]
[SECTION I.—Life and Character of Shakespeare]354
[SECTION II.—Shakespeare's Style—Copiousness—Excesses]366
[SECTION III.—Shakespeare's Language And Manners]371
[SECTION IV.—Dramatis Personæ]377
[SECTION V.—Men of Wit]382
[SECTION VI.—Shakespeare's Women]386
[SECTION VII.—Types of Villains]391
[SECTION VIII.—Principal Characters]393
[SECTION IX.—Characteristics of Shakespeare's Genius]407
[INDEX]
HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE PAINE
Photogravure from an engraving.
This picture shows the eminent French critic as he appeared thirty years ago. At that period his fame as a literary savant was spreading to the four quarters of the world, and he was lecturing daily to the crowds of students who had flocked to Paris to study literature under his guidance. In personal appearance he was unlike the traditional scholar, but resembled, in his quick, nervous energy and plain business-like ways, a keen-witted man of affairs. He was simple in dress, as the picture shows, and it is a noteworthy fact that the honors he received never caused him to lose his self-poise, or to cease his severe studies, which he carried on with diligence to the very day of his death. His face denotes the cool, critical, and well-balanced scholar, with the initiative to enter new fields of thought, and the will-power to impress his opinions upon others.