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from which he received a very ample income-estimated as equivalent to
about five thousand dollars of our money now. Though he lived in familiar
intercourse with the nobles, the wits, and the poets of his day, he looked for-
ward to the time when he should retire to his native town, and with this
view he purchased New Place, the principal house in Stratford, with more
than a hundred acres of ground attached. "The year 1612 has been assigned
as the date of his final retirement to the country. In the fulness of his fame,
with a handsome competency, and before age had chilled the enjoyment of
life, the poet returned to his native town to spend the remainder of his days
among the quiet scenes and the friends of his youth. Four years were spent
by Shakspeare in this dignified retirement, and the history of literature scarcely
presents another such picture of calm felicity and satisfied ambition. He died
on the 23d of April, 1616, having just completed his fifty-second year. His
widow survived him seven years. He had three children, one son and two
daughters. The former died in 1596. Both the latter were married, and
one had three sons, but all these died without issue, and there now remains
no lineal representative of the great poet."

So many authors having written upon Shakspeare and his dramas, some of whom are referred to in the note, it is deemed unnecessary here to go into a critical examination of his character. Indeed it would be hardly possible to say any thing new. The subject seems to be exhausted. And to write in eulogy would be somewhat presumptuous, when he has so exqui sitely pronounced his own:

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

One of his contemporaries, Ben Jonson, thus characterizes him :-" I loved the man, and do honor to his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature: had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary it should be stopped. His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so too! But he redeemed his vices with his virtues; there was even more in him to be praised than pardoned.".

But Dryden has portrayed his genius in the following nervous and masterly lines, which have been served up to us in a diluted state by many a modern critic: To begin, then, with Shakspeare. He was the man who, of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them, not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it-you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards and found her there. I cannot say he is everywhere alike; were he so, I should do him injury to coin. pare him with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat and insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great when some great occasion is presented to him; no

man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of poets,

Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi. 1

The consideration of this, made Mr. Hales of Eaton say, that there was no subject of which any poet ever wrote, but he would produce it much better done in Shakspeare,'

The difficulty of making selections from Shakspeare must be obvious to every one. So numerous and diversified are his characters, so varied his style, suited to every description of poetry and of fiction, and so many gems of wit, humor, satire, and pathos, everywhere present themselves, that the mind is perplexed what to choose. But we must begin.

THE THREE CASKETS.

Portia, a beautiful and accomplished heiress, is sought in marriage by a large number of suitors, whose fate is to be determined by the choice they make of one of three caskets, "gold, silver, and base lead." The following are the comments of three of the suitors:

Enter Portia, with the Prince of Morocco.

Por. Now make your choice.

Mor. The first, of gold, who this inscription bears;-
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire.
The second, silver, which this promise carries;-
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves.
This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt;2
Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath-
How shall I know if I do choose the right?

Por. The one of them contains my picture, prince:
If you choose that, then I am yours withal.

Mor. Some god direct my judgment! Let me see,
I will survey the inscriptions back again:

What says this leaden casket?

Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath.
Must give-For what? for lead? hazard for lead?
This casket threatens: Men, that hazard all,

Do it in hope of fair advantages:

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross;
I'll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead,
What says the silver, with her virgin hue?
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves.
As much as he deserves?-Pause, there, Morocco,
And weigh thy value with an even hand:
If thou be'st rated by thy estimation,
Thou dost deserve enough; and yet enough
May not extend so far as to the lady;
And yet to be afeard of my deserving
Were but a weak disabling of myself.

As much as I deserve!-Why, that's the lady;
I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
But, more than these, in love I do deserve.

1 As the cypresses are wont to do among the slender shrubs.
That is, as gross as the dull metal.

What if I stray'd no further, but chose here?-
Let's see once more this saying graved in gold.
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire
Why, that's the lady; all the world desires her:
-Deliver me the key;

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!

Por. There, take it, prince, and if my form lie there, Then I am yours.

Mor. What have we here?

[Unlocking the golden casket.

A carrion death, within whose empty eye

There is a written scroll! I'll read the writing

All that glisters is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold,
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscroll'd:
Fare you well; your suit is cold.

Cold, indeed; and labor lost:

Then, farewell, heat, and welcome, frost.

Portia, adieu! I have too grieved a heart

To take a tedious leave: thus losers part. [Exit.

Enter Prince of Arragon.

Por. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince:

If you choose that wherein I am contain'd,

Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized;
But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
You must be gone from hence immediately.

Ar. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things:
First, never to unfold to any one

Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail

Of the right casket, never in my life

To woo a maid in way of marriage; lastly,
If I do fail in fortune of my choice,
Immediately to leave you, and be gone.

Por. To these injunctions every one doth swear,
That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

Ar. And so have I address'd' me: Fortune now
To my heart's hope!-Gold, silver, and base lead.
Who chooseth me, must give and hazard all he hath:
You shall look fairer, ere I give, or hazard.
What says the golden chest? ha! let me see:-
Who chooseth me, shall gain what many men desire.
What many men desire.-That many may be meant

By the fool multitude, that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,
Which pries not to the interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather, on the outward wall,

Even in the force2 and road of casualty.

↓ Address'd me-prepared me; that is, I have prepared myself by the same tremonies. 3 The power.

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I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits,
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house;
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear:
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves:
And well said too: For who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.

O, that estates degrees, and offices

Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover, that stand bare?
How many be commanded, that command?
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd
From the true seed of honor? and how much honor
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new varnish'd? Well, but to my choice:
Who chooseth me, shall get as much as he deserves :
I will assume desert;-Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

Por. Too long a pause for that which you find there.
Ar. What's here? the portrait of a blinking idiot,
Presenting me a schedule? I will read it.

How much unlike art thou to Portia!

How much unlike my hopes, and my deservings!
Who chooseth me, shall have as much as he deserves:
Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?

Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?
Por. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices,
And of opposed natures.

Ar. What is here?

The fire seven times tried this;

Seven times tried that judgment is,
That did never choose amiss:

Some there be, that shadows kiss:
Such have but a shadow's bliss:
There be fools alive, I wis,2
Silver'd o'er; and so was this.

Still more fool I shall appear
By the time I linger here:

With one fool's head I came to woo,

But I go away with two.

Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath,

Patiently to bear my wroth.3

Enter Bassanio.

Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves;

The world is still deceived with ornament.

In law what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,

1 The meaning is, how much meanness would be found among the great, and how much greatness among the mean.

2 I know.

3 My misfortune.

Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple, but assumes
Some mark of virtue on its outward parts.
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk?
And these assume but valor's excrement"
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Thus ornament is but the guiled3 shore

To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threat'nest, than dost promise aught,
Thy plainness moves me more than cloquence,
And here choose I: Joy be the consequence!

Fair Portia's counterfeit ?4

Opening the leaden casket.
What find I here?

Here's the scroll,

The continent and summary of my fortune
You that choose not by the view,

Chance as fair, and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content and seek no new.

If you be well pleased with this,

And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is,

And claim her with a loving kiss.

Por. You see me, lord Bassanio, where I stand,

Such as I am: though, for myself alone,

I would not be ambitious in my wish,

To wish myself much better; yet, for you,

I would be trebled twenty times myself;

A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times

More rich;

That only to stand high on your account,

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