WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. BY VICTOR HUGO TRANSLATED BY A. BAILLOT WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT PUBLISHERS 1864 [Illustration: _Portrait of Victor Hugo._ Photogravure by Goupil et Cie.--From Painting by Pannemaker.] TO ENGLAND I Dedicate this Book, THE GLORIFICATION OF HER POET. I TELL ENGLAND THE TRUTH; BUT, AS A LAND ILLUSTRIOUS AND FREE, I ADMIRE HER, AND AS AN ASYLUM. I LOVE HER. VICTOR HUGO. Hauteville House, 1864. PREFACE The true title of this work should be, "Apropos to Shakespeare." The desire of introducing, as they say in England, before the public, the new translation of Shakespeare, has been the first motive of the author. The feeling which interests him so profoundly in the translator should not deprive him of the right to recommend the translation. However, his conscience has been solicited on the other part, and in a more binding way still, by the subject itself. In reference to Shakespeare all questions which touch art are presented to his mind. To treat these questions, is to explain the mission of art; to treat these questions, is to explain the duty of human thought toward man. Such an occasion for speaking truths imposes a duty, and he is not permitted, above all at such an epoch as ours, to evade it. The author has comprehended this. He has not hesitated to turn the complex questions of art and civilization on their several faces, multiplying the horizons every time that the perspective has displaced itself, and accepting every indication that the subject, in its rigorous necessity, has offered to him. This expansion of the point of view has given rise to this book. Hauteville House, 1864. CONTENTS PART I. Book I. Shakespeare.--His Life 1 II. Men of Genius.--Homer, Job, Æschylus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Lucretius, Juvenal, Tacitus, St. John, St. Paul, Dante, Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare 28 III. Art and Science 78 IV. The Ancient Shakespeare 102 V. The Souls 146 PART II. I. Shakespeare.--His Genius 161 II. Shakespeare.--His Work.--The Culminating Points 187 III. Zoilus as Eternal as Homer 215 IV. Criticism 238 V. The Minds and the Masses 256 VI. The Beautiful tub Servant of the True 274 PART III.--CONCLUSION. I. After Death.--Shakespeare.--England 298 II. The Nineteenth Century 325 III. True History.--Every one put in his Right Place 337 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait op Victor Hugo Frontispiece "In order to gain a Livelihood, he sought to take Care of Horses at the Doors of the Theatres" Shakespeare in his Garden Anne Hathaway's Cottage Portrait of Shakespeare [not included] WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. PART I.--BOOK I. HIS LIFE. CHAPTER I