KC 6554 THE effect of the play as a whole is weak and disappointing. The truth is that the interest, instead of rising towards the end, falls away utterly, and leaves us in the last act among persons whom we scarcely know, and events for which we do not care. . . . I know no other play in Shakespeare which is chargeable with a fault like this, none in which the moral sympathy of the spectator is not carried along with the main current of action to the end. In all the historical tragedies a Providence may be seen presiding over the development of events, as just and relentless as the fate in a Greek tragedy. Even in Henry IV., where the comic element predominates, we are never allowed to exult in the success of the wrong-doer, or to forget the penalties which are due to guilt. And if it be true that in the romantic comedies our moral sense does sometimes suffer a passing shock, it is never owing to an error in the general design, but always to some incongruous circumstance in the original story which has lain in the way and not been entirely got rid of, and which after all offends us rather as an incident improbable in itself than as one for which our sympathy is unjustly demanded. The singularity of Henry VIII. is that, while four-fifths of the play are occupied in matters which are to make us incapable of mirth,-' Be sad, as we would make you,'-the remaining fifth is devoted to joy and triumph, and ends with universal festivity : 'THIS DAY NO MAN THINK 'HAS BUSINESS AT HIS HOUSE: FOR ALL SHALL STAY: THIS LITTLE ONE SHALL MAKE IT HOLIDAY.' HARVARD LIBRARY 1179 SPEDDING. |