tood him and delighted in him, but who yet had never read "Troilus
and Cressida." They had, in one way and another, got the notion that it
is a very inferior play, and not worth reading, or at least not to be
read until after they were tired of all the others--a time which had not
yet come. There seems to be a slur cast upon this play; the reason of
which is its very undramatic character, and the consequent
non-appearance of its name in theatrical records. No one has heard of
any actor's or actress's appearance, even in the last century, as one of
the personages in "Troilus and Cressida." Its name has not been upon the
playbills for generations, although even "Love's Labor's Lost" has once
in a while been performed. Hence it is almost unknown, except to the
thorough Shakespearian readers, who are very few; fewer now, in
proportion to the largely increased leisurely and instructed classes,
than they were two hundred years ago, much to the shame of our vaunted
popular education and diffusion of knowledge. And yet this neglected
drama is one of its author's great works; in one respect his greatest.
"Troilus and Cressida" is Shakespeare's wisest play in the way of
worldly wisdom. It is filled choke-full of sententious, and in most
cases slightly satirical revelations of human nature, uttered with a
felicity of phrase and an impressiveness of metaphor that make each one
seem like a beam of light shot into the recesses of man's heart. Such
are these:

In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men.

The wound of peace is surety;
Surety secure; but modest doubt is called
The beacon of the wise.

What is aught, but as 'tis valued?

'Tis mad idolatry
To make the service greater than the god.

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give
Before a sleeping giant.

'Tis certain greatness once fall'n out with fortune
Must fall out with men too; what the declin'd is
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honor.

Besides passages like these, there are others of which the wisdom is
inextricably interwoven with the occasion. One would think that the
wealth of such a mine would be daily passing from mouth to mouth as the
current coin of speech; and yet of all Shakespeare'