Friends, Countrymen, and Romans, lend me your ears! A dazzling spell is upon us that veils from our apprehension all incompatibilities--all impossibilities--for he dips the Swan-quill in Power--and Power is that which you must accept from him, and so to the utter oblivion, while we read or behold, of them all. To go to work with such inquiries is to try to articulate thunder. What do I intend? That Shakspeare is only to be _thus_ criticised? Apollo forbid--forbid the Nine! I intend Prologomena to the Criticism of Shakspeare. I intend mowing and burning the brambles before ploughing the soil. I intend showing where we must not look for the Art and the Genius of Shakspeare, as a step to discovering where we must. I suspect--I know--that Criticism has oscillated from one extreme to another, in the mind of the country--from denying all art, to acknowledging consummated art, and no flaw. I would find the true Point. Stamped and staring upon the front of these Tragedies is a conflict. He, the Poet, beholds Life--he, the Poet, is on the Stage. The littleness of the Globe Theatre mixes with the greatness of human affairs. You think of the Green-room and the Scene-shifters. I think that when we have stripped away the disguises and incumbrances of the Power, we shall see, naked, and strong, and beautiful, the statue moulded by Jupiter. _Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ Transcriber's Notes: Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_. Bold markup is denoted by =equals=. Rendered the cypher on p. 559 as Gs over numerals. Added anchor for unanchored footnote on p. 567. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849, by Various