This may be
called the comedy of nature, and it is the comedy which we generally
find in Shakespeare.--Whether the analysis here given be just or
not, the spirit of his comedies is evidently quite distinct from
that of the authors above mentioned, as it is in its essence the
same with that of Cervantes, and also very frequently of Moliere,
though he was more systematic in his extravagance than Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's comedy is of a pastoral and poetical cast. Folly is
indigenous to the soil, and shoots out with native, happy, unchecked
luxuriance. Absurdity has every encouragement afforded it; and
nonsense has room to flourish in. Nothing is stunted by the
churlish, icy hand of indifference or severity. The poet runs riot
in a conceit, and idolizes a quibble. His whole object is to turn
the meanest or rudest objects to a pleasurable account. The relish
which he has of a pun, or of the quaint humour of a low character,
does not interfere with the delight with which he describes a
beautiful image, or the most refined love. The clown's forced jests
do not spoil the sweetness of the character of Viola; the same house
is big enough to hold Malvolio, the Countess, Maria, Sir Toby, and
Sir Andrew Aguecheek. For instance, nothing can fall much lower than
this last character in intellect or morals: yet how are his
weaknesses nursed and dandled by Sir Toby into something 'high
fantastical', when on Sir Andrew's commendation of himself for
dancing and fencing, Sir Toby answers: 'Wherefore are these things
hid? Wherefore have these gifts a curtain before them? Are they like
to take dust like Mistress Moll's picture? Why dost thou not go to
church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? My very walk
should be a jig! I would not so much as make water but in a cinque-
pace.
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