has only one strictly farcical
play, _The Comedy of Errors_. There are few intellects keen enough to
extract all the humor from Shakespeare. For literal minds the full
comprehension of even a slight display of his humor, such as the
following dialogue affords, is better exercise than the solution of an
algebraic problem. Dogberry, a constable in _Much Ado About Nothing_,
thus instructs the Watch:--

"_Dogberry_. You shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid
any man stand in the prince's name.

"_Watch_. How if a' will not stand?

"_Dogberry_. Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go, and
presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are
rid of a knave."

Of all Shakespeare's qualities, his humor is the hardest to describe
because of its protean forms. Falstaff is his greatest humorous
creation. So resourceful is he that even defeat enables him to rise
like Antaeus after a fall. His humor is almost a philosophy of
existence for those who love to use wit and ingenuity in trying to
evade the laws of sober, orderly living. Perhaps it was for this very
reason that Shakespeare consented to send so early to "Arthur's
bosom"[26] a character who had not a little of the complexity of
Hamlet.

[Illustration: FALSTAFF AND HIS PAGE. _From a drawing by B.
Westmacott_.]

Much of Shakespeare's humor is delicately suffused through his plays.
Many of them either ripple with the laughter of his characters or are
lighted with their smiles. We may pass pleasant hours in the company
of his joyous creations, such as Rosalind in _As You Like It_, or
Portia in _The Merchant of Venice_, or Puck as the spokesman for _A
Midsummer Night's Dream_, who good naturedly exclaims:--

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

or Viola and her companions in _Twelfth Night_, or Beatrice and
Benedict in _Much Ado About Nothing_, or Ariel in _The Tempest_
playing pranks on the bewildered mariners and singing of the joys of
life which come as a reward for service:--

"Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

Shakespeare is also the one English author who is equally successful
in depicting the highest type of both comedy and tragedy. He has the
power to describe even a deathbed scene so as to invest it with both
humor and pathos. Dame Quickly's lines in _Henry V_., on the death of
Falstaff, show this capacity.

The next greatest English writer is lacking in this