(1) _The Early Comedies._ In these plays there is a certain amount of immaturity: the plots show less originality; the characters are less finished; the power of the style is less sustained; the humor is often puerile and quibbling; and there is a large amount of prose. Of this type are _The Comedy of Errors_, _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, and _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_. (2) _The Histories._ These show an advance, particularly in style. There is more blank verse, which, though it is often stiffly imitative of the older playwrights, abounds in splendid passages. The appearance of such characters as Falstaff in _Henry IV_ and other plays is a sign of growing strength. (3) _The Tragedies._ The great tragedies, such as _Hamlet_, _Macbeth_, and _King Lear_, are the climax of Shakespearian art. They reveal the best of his characterization and the full power of his style. (4) _The Later Comedies._ A mellowed maturity is the chief feature of this group, which contains _Cymbeline_, _The Winter’s Tale_, and _The Tempest_. The creative touch of the dramatist, making living men out of figment, is abundantly in view; the style is notable and serenely adequate; and with the ease of the master the author thoroughly subdues the meter to his will. No more fitting conclusion--rich, ample, and graciously dignified--could be found to round off the work of our greatest literary genius. =4. His Prose.= Shakespeare’s prose appears all through the plays, sometimes in passages of considerable length. In the aggregate the amount is quite large. In the earlier comedies the amount is considerable, but the proportion is apt to diminish in the later plays. With regard to the prose, the following points should be observed: (_a_) it is the common vehicle for comic scenes, though used too in serious passages (one of which is given below); (_b_) it represents the common speech of the period, and some of it, as can be seen in _Hamlet_, is pithy and bracing. Even the rather stupid clowning that often takes place cannot altogether conceal its beauty. We quote a passage from _Hamlet_. The style is quite modern in phrase, and the beauty and grace of it are far beyond the ordinary standard of Shakespeare’s literary contemporaries.