The science of æsthetics is essentially a creation of the German mind. In all the æsthetic systems of Solger, Hegel (Hotho), F. Th. Vischer, A. Zeising, M. Carrière, etc., Shakspeare plays a prominent part. Nay, the ascendancy of this æsthetic interest has covered the tree of German Shakspeare literature with such an amount of parasites, that they threaten to choke the growth of the tree itself. There would be no end were I to adduce all the great and little treatises which, since Goethe's Shakspeare und Seine Ende, have either discussed the Shakspearian drama in general, or endeavoured from an æsthetic point of view, to elucidate individual plays and the inner connection of the action, to describe the fundamental features of the character of his heroes, or to discover his leading ideas. Indeed, it would scarcely be worth the trouble; for, to judge from many of these treatises, it seems almost as if every novice in the domain of aesthetics considered himself entitled at once to bring forward his thoughts and ideas, however, unimportant and untenable they may be. I shall therefore not mention any of the many monographs, not even such as are able and deserving of recognition, and shall name only those works which embrace a wider field, or are distinguished either by profundity of conception and acuteness of judgment, or by sound study, not only of Shakspeare's works but also of the history of Shakspeare and his poetry. Among these, we may mention H. T. Rötscher's 'Cyclus dramatischer Charactere (1844); F. Th. Vischer's Kritische Gänge' (Parts 1-5, 1844); G. G. Gervinus' 'Shakespeare' (1849; 3rd edition, 1862); F. Kressig's Vorlesungen über Shakespeare, seine Zeit und seine Werke' (1858); C. Hebler's Aufsätze über Shakspeare' (1865); H. von Friesen's Briefe über Shakespeare's Hamlet' (1864); and if, in conclusion, I also add G. Rümelin's Shakspeare-studien ' (1866), I do so because I am convinced that this ingenious work also, in spite of its, in most cases, unjustified polemic against Shakspeare and the German reverence for Shakspeare, will only contribute to the study of the poet, and promote the appreciation of his value as the leading, and—in spite of his faults and defects -the greatest genius in dramatic poetry.

But the most striking testimony of the love and devotion

with which the German nation still tends and cherishes its adopted son by the side of its own great children, is the German Shakspeare Society, which was founded at Weimar on the 300th anniversary of Shakspeare's birth. It has given sufficient proof of its vitality by the ten volumes of its Jahr-buch, which have already appeared, and by the work it has undertaken in the revisal of Schlegel and Tieck's translation of Shakspeare, several volumes of which have already been published.

INDEX.

Ben Jonson School, i. 292 et seq.; ii. Clarke's, Mrs. C., Concordance to

Eastward Hoe,' i. 301
'Edward II.,' i. 151, 164; ii. 319

'Conspiracy of the Duke of Byron, | Edwards, R., i. 84

Coventry, Religious Plays at, i. 18 et Entremets, i. 30

'Cymbeline,' i. 360; ii. 165 et seq.; Every Man in His Humour,' i. 218

'Cynthia's Revels,' i. 300 ; i. 249, note Ezechiel's 'Life of Moses,' i. 1

Davenant, W., i. 250, note; ii. 419, 'Fair Maid of the Exchange, The, 1.
424

'David and Bethsabe,' i. 66, 124, 137 Fair Maid of the Inn, The,' i. 316