Essays and notes on Shakespeare Author:John Wesley Hales Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV. SHAKESPEARE'S GREEK NAMES. (From the Cornhill Magazine, February, 1876.) THE critics of the last century found a curious pleasure in proving that ... more »Shakespeare was a dunce. It could not be denied that there was something in him; but there was a general reluctance to allow that he knew anything of books. That he could write was demonstrable, and that he could read was beyond doubting; but not much more was allowed him in the way of accomplishments. Persons who were not themselves acquainted with Italian, as was amply proved by the blunders they committed in discussing the matter, easily convinced themselves and their disciples that Shakespeare was quite innocent of that language. And so with regard to French, it was thought absurd to believe that he had any knowledge of French; though to be sure there is in several of his plays an appearance of some knowledge of it. Of all symptoms of such a knowledge it was not difficult to dispose by the theory that he had a friend who had enjoyed superior advantages, and could readily inform him what was the equivalent for " finger " and " hand " and so forth. As to Latin, the University men rather resented the notion that he could read his Ovid in the original. Shakespeare might have studied and interpreted nature with remarkable success; but art and the great works of art were out of his line. Certainly there were endless signs in his writing that their author was possessed, of some Latinity :. but what arguments are considerable when the case is prejudged?. To entertain for a moment the idea that he was in the slightest possible degree a Greek scholar would have been held the mere wildness of phantasy. It was even ; maintained that his knowledge of his native tongue was un- sound and blundering. In all these respects the views ...« less