ose here, in England before the Reformation, and in those parts of
the continent unaffected by it--the entrance into a religious order was
another. Here, then, we have a full explanation of Camiola's conduct.
She is in possession of evidence of a contract of marriage between
herself and Bertoldo, which, whether _in praesenti_ or _in futuro_,
being confirmed by oath, she can force upon him, and which will
invalidate his proposed marriage with the duchess. Having established
her right, she takes the only step that can with certainty free both
herself and Bertoldo from the bond they had created, by retiring into a
nunnery.

[Footnote 1: Swinburne, p. 227.]

This explanation renders the action of the play clear, and at the same
time shows that Shakspere in his conduct with regard to his marriage may
have been behaving in the most honourable and praiseworthy manner; as
the bond, with the date of which the date of the birth of his first
child is compared, is for the purpose of exonerating the ecclesiastics
from any liability for performing the ecclesiastical ceremony, which was
not at all a necessary preliminary to a valid marriage, so far as the
husband and wife were concerned, although it was essential to render
issue of the marriage legitimate.

6. These are instances of the deceptions that are likely to arise
from the two fertile sources that have been specified. There can
be no doubt that the existence of errors arising from the former
source--misapprehension of the meaning of words--is very generally
admitted, and effectual remedies have been supplied by modern scholars
for those who will make use of them. Errors arising from the latter
source are not so entirely recognized, or so securely guarded against.
But what has just been said surely shows that it is of no use reading a
writer of a past age with merely modern conceptions; and, therefore,
that if such a man's works are worth study at all, they must be read
with the help of the light thrown upon them by contemporary history,
literature, laws, and morals. The student must endeavour to divest
himself, as far as possible, of all ideas that are the result of a
development subsequent to the time in which his author lived, and to
place himself in harmony with the life and thoughts of the people of
that age: sit down with them in their homes, and learn the sources of
their loves, their hates, their fears, and see wherein domestic
happiness, or lack of it, made them str