Frank Harris is such a man himself; he makes no secret of the fact that this has been his tragic life-story. So, as we read the book, our first question is, to what extent has Frank Harris read himself into Shakespeare. It has been a long time since I read the plays straight through, and I should want to do it again before I felt I had an opinion. Meantime, we can say this much: if the Shakespeare of Frank Harris is not Shakespeare, but a work of imagination, it is one of the most fascinating works of imagination in the world, fully as significant as any character in any of Shakespeare’s plays. All critics would assent to the statement that Shakespeare began with youthful glorification of his leisure-class friends, their graces and their charms; and that as the years passed he met with a series of disillusionments, which drove him to bitterness, almost to madness. But it is to be noted that throughout this period of disillusionment he remains purely personal, he never rises above the “good man” theory of life. You know how it is in our politics; if there is corruption, it is because we have elected bad men to office. The test of one’s ability to think straight on social questions is the outgrowing of this “good man” theory. “Just a moment,” says Mrs. Ogi, who has not entirely outgrown this theory herself. “Do you deny that there are some things a good man can do in the world that would not be done otherwise?” “Of course; I’m willing to admit that any social system would work, if we could manage to get good men in charge, and to keep them there. The trouble about evil systems is that they keep good men out of power; they turn good men into bad men, even before they get into office. They keep us from finding the good men; they make us think that bad men are good--until ruin has come and it’s too late.” “But think of the frightful pictures that Shakespeare drew of evil men in power!” “Shakespeare was a man of refinement, he loathed brutality and cruelty. That was a part of his propaganda, his hatred of power blindly used; he comes back again and again to cry out against it, to defend the gentle and the innocent and the kind. In those ways he was far ahead of his time; for those things we love him, they help to make him a world poet. But here is the point--with Shakespeare it is all a family matter, inside the leisure class. Some bad member of the family has got power, and our attention is concentrated upon turning him out, and putting in some good member of the family, who will make wiser use of power.