ming merely at the recreation and amusement of the
spectators, can not possibly represent the teaching of life, and that,
while there is no true religious drama, the teaching of life should be
sought for in other sources.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This essay owes its origin to Leo Tolstoy's desire to contribute a
preface to the article he here mentions by Ernest Crosby, which latter
follows in this volume.--(_Trans._)

[2] "Shakespeare and His Writings," by George Brandes.

[3] A Russian poet, remarkable for the delicacy of his works.

PART II

APPENDIX

APPENDIX CONTENTS

I. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE
WORKING CLASSES, BY ERNEST CROSBY, 127

II. LETTER FROM MR. G. BERNARD SHAW, 166

SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WORKING CLASSES

BY ERNEST CROSBY

"Shakespeare was of us," cries Browning, in his "Lost Leader," while
lamenting the defection of Wordsworth from the ranks of progress and
liberalism--"Milton was for us, Burns, Shelley were with us--they watch
from their graves!" There can, indeed, be no question of the fidelity to
democracy of Milton, the republican pamphleteer, nor of Burns, the proud
plowman, who proclaimed the fact that "a man's a man for a' that," nor
of Shelley, the awakened aristocrat, who sang to such as Burns

"Men of England, wherefore plow
For the lords who lay ye low?"

But Shakespeare?--Shakespeare?--where is there a line in Shakespeare to
entitle him to a place in this brotherhood? Is there anything in his
plays that is in the least inconsistent with all that is reactionary?

A glance at Shakespeare's lists of _dramatis personae_ is sufficient to
show that he was unable to conceive of any situation rising to the
dignity of tragedy in other than royal and ducal circles. It may be said
in explanation of this partiality for high rank that he was only
following the custom of the dramatists of his time, but this is a poor
plea for a man of great genius, whose business it is precisely to lead
and not to follow. Nor is the explanation altogether accurate. In his
play, the "Pinner of Wakefield," first printed in 1599, Robert Greene
makes a hero, and a very stalwart one, of a mere pound-keeper, who
proudly refuses knighthood at the hands of the king. There were other
and earlier plays in vogue in Shakespeare's day treating of the triumphs
of men of the people, one, for instance, which commemorated the rise of
Sir Thomas Gre