sense of humor.
John Milton could write the tragedies of a _Paradise Lost_ and a
_Samson Agonistes_, but he could not give us the humor of _A Midsummer
Night's Dream_, _The Comedy of Errors_, or _As You Like It_. We have
seen that the next greatest dramatic genius, Marlowe, has little sense
of humor. Mrs. Browning correctly describes the plays of Shakespeare
as filled--

"With tears and laughters for all time."

Moral Ideals.--To show the moral consequences of acts was the work
which most appealed to him. Banquo voiced the comprehensiveness of
moral law when he said, "In the great hand of God I stand." There is
here great divergence between the views of Shakespeare and of Bacon.
Dowden says:--

"While Bacon's sense of the presence of physical law in the universe
was for his time extraordinarily developed, he seems practically to
have acted upon the theory that the moral laws of the world are not
inexorable, but rather by tactics and dexterity may be cleverly
evaded. Their supremacy was acknowledged by Shakespeare in the
minutest as well as in the greatest concerns of human life."

By employing "tactics" in sending Hamlet on a voyage to England, the
king hoped to avoid the consequences of his crime. Macbeth in vain
tried every stratagem to "trammel up the consequence." Goneril and
Regan drive their white-haired father out into the storm; but even in
_King Lear_, where the forces of evil seem to run riot, let us note
the result:--

"Throughout that stupendous Third Act the good are seen growing
better through suffering, and the bad worse through success. The
warm castle is a room in hell, the storm-swept heath a sanctuary...
The only real thing in the world is the soul with its courage,
patience, devotion. And nothing outward can touch that."[27]

Shakespeare makes no pessimists. He shows how misfortune crowns life
with new moral glory. We rise from the gloom of _King Lear_, feeling
that we would rather be like Cordelia than like either of her sisters
or any other selfish character who apparently triumphs until life's
close. And yet Cordelia lost everything, her portion of her father's
kingdom and her own life. When we realize that Shakespeare found one
hundred and ten lines in _King Lear_ sufficient not only to confer
immortality on Cordelia, but also to make us all eager to pay homage
to her, in spite of the fact that the ordinary standard of the world
has not ceased to declare such a lif