ulous is so rare an event that it is worth
while to enumerate the instances. Now and then a servant or other
obscure character is made use of as a mere lay figure of which nothing
good or evil can be predicated, but usually they are made more or less
absurd. Only at long intervals do we see persons of this class at once
serious and upright. As might have been expected, it is more often the
servant than any other member of the lower classes to whom Shakespeare
attributes good qualities, for the servant is a sort of attachment to
the gentleman and shines with the reflection of his virtues. The noblest
quality which Shakespeare can conceive of in a servant is loyalty, and
in "Richard II." (Act 5, Sc. 3) he gives us a good example in the
character of a groom who remains faithful to the king even when the
latter is cast into prison. In "Cymbeline" we are treated to loyalty _ad
nauseam_. The king orders Pisanio, a trusty servant, to be tortured
without cause, and his reply is,

"Sir, my life is yours.
I humbly set it at your will."
(Act 4, Sc. 3.)

In "King Lear" a good servant protests against the cruelty of Regan and
Cornwall toward Gloucester, and is killed for his courage. "Give me my
sword," cries Regan. "A peasant stand up thus!" (Act 3, Sc. 7). And
other servants also show sympathy for the unfortunate earl. We all
remember the fool who, almost alone, was true to Lear, but, then, of
course, he was a fool. In "Timon of Athens" we have an unusual array of
good servants, but it is doubtful if Shakespeare wrote the play, and
these characters make his authorship more doubtful. Flaminius, Timon's
servant, rejects a bribe with scorn (Act 3, Sc. 1). Another of his
servants expresses his contempt for his master's false friends (Act 3,
Sc. 3), and when Timon finally loses his fortune and his friends forsake
him, his servants stand by him. "Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery"
(Act 4, Sc. 2). Adam, the good old servant in "As You Like It," who
follows his young master Orlando into exile, is, like Lear's fool, a
noteworthy example of the loyal servitor.

"Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp with truth and loyalty."
(Act 2, Sc. 3.)

But Shakespeare takes care to point out that such fidelity in servants
is most uncommon and a relic of the good old times--

"O good old man, bow well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
Wh