Produced by Geetu Melwani, Dave Morgan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) +------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in | | this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | | this document. | +------------------------------------------------------------+ _Tolstoy on Shakespeare_ Tolstoy on Shakespeare _A critical Essay on Shakespeare_ By LEO TOLSTOY _Translated by V. Tchertkoff and I. F. M._ Followed by Shakespeare's Attitude to the Working Classes By ERNEST CROSBY And a Letter From G. BERNARD SHAW NEW YORK & LONDON FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 1906 _This Volume is issued by arrangement with V. Tchertkoff, sole literary representative of Leo Tolstoy outside Russia, and Editor of "The Free Age Press," Christchurch, Hants._ NO RIGHTS RESERVED _Published, November, 1906_ CONTENTS PART I PAGE TOLSTOY ON SHAKESPEARE 1 PART II APPENDIX I. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WORKING CLASSES, BY ERNEST CROSBY, 127 II. LETTER FROM MR. G. BERNARD SHAW, 166 PART I TOLSTOY ON SHAKESPEARE I Mr. Crosby's article[1] on Shakespeare's attitude toward the working classes suggested to me the idea of also expressing my own long-established opinion about the works of Shakespeare, in direct opposition, as it is, to that established in all the whole European world. Calling to mind all the struggle of doubt and self-deceit,--efforts to attune myself to Shakespeare--which I went through owing to my complete disagreement with this universal adulation, and, presuming that many have experienced and are experiencing the same, I think that it may not be unprofitable to express definitely and frankly this view of mine, opposed to that of the majority, and the more so as the conclusions to which I came, when examining the causes of my disagreement with the universally established opinion, are, it seems to me, not without interest and significance. My disagreement with the established opinion about Shakespeare is not the result of an accidental frame of mind, nor of a light-minded attitude toward the matter, but is the outcome of many years' repeated and insistent endeavors to harmonize my own views of Shakespeare with those established amongst all civilized men of the Christian world.