Shakespeare! loveliest of souls, Peerless in radiance, in joy. MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). “Heine’s Grave.” _New Poems_, 1867, p. 198. * * * * * If Shakespeare did not know the ancients, I think they were at least as unlucky in not knowing him. J. R. LOWELL (1819-1891). _Among my Books_, 1870, p. 190. * * * * * Shakespeare recognised both our human imperfections and our human greatness. . . . A woman is dearer to Shakespeare than an angel; a man is better than a god. EDWARD DOWDEN (_b._ 1843). _Shakespeare: His Mind and Art_, 1875, p. 346. * * * * * Shakespeare frequently has lines and passages in a strain quite false, and which are entirely unworthy of him. But one can imagine his smiling if one could meet him in the Elysian Fields and tell him so; smiling and replying that he knew it perfectly well himself, and what did it matter? MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). “Preface to Poems of Wordsworth,” 1879. _Essays in Criticism_, 2nd ser., p. 135. * * * * * All Castaly flowed crystalline In gentle Shakespeare’s modulated breath. D. G. ROSSETTI (1828-1882). “On certain Elizabethan Revivals.” _Recollections of D. G. Rossetti._ By T. Hall Caine, 1882, p. 256. * * * * * Conception, fundamental brain work, that is what makes the difference in all art. Work your metal as much as you like, but first take care that it is gold, and worth working. A Shakespearean sonnet is better than the most perfect in form, because Shakespeare wrote it. _Ibid._, p. 249. * * * * * I close your Marlowe’s page, my Shakespeare’s ope, How welcome—after gong and cymbal’s din— The continuity, the long slow slope And vast curves of the gradual violin! WILLIAM WATSON (_b._ 1858). _Epigrams of Art, Life, and Nature_, 1884, vii. * * * * * Shakespeare illustrates every phase and variety of humour: a complete analysis of Shakespeare’s humour would make a system of psychology. G. MOULTON (_b._ 1849). _Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist_, 1893, p. 285. * * * * * From Shakespeare, no doubt, the world may learn, and has learnt, much; yet he professed so little to be a teacher, that he has often been represented as almost without personal opinions, as a mere undisturbed mirror, in which all Nature reflects herself. Something like a century passed before it was perceived that his works deserved to be in a serious sense studied.