Gushing laudation is as little to the taste of wise men as
treacle. They cannot escape condiments of the kind, but the smaller
and less frequent the doses the more they are content. Shakespeare no
doubt had the great man's self-confidence which renders him to a large
extent independent of the opinion of his fellows. At the same time,
the knowledge that he had succeeded in stirring the reader or hearer
of his plays, the knowledge that his words had gripped their hearts
and intellects, cannot have been ungrateful to him. To desire
recognition for his work is for the artist an inevitable and a
laudable ambition. A working dramatist by the circumstance of his
calling appeals as soon as the play is written to the playgoer for a
sympathetic appreciation. Nature impelled Shakespeare to note on the
pages of his journal his impression of the sentiment with which the
fruits of his pen were welcomed in the playhouse.
But Shakespeare's journal does not exist, and we can only speculate as
to its contents.
II
We would give much to know how Shakespeare recorded in his diary the
first performance of _Hamlet_, the most fascinating of all his works.
He himself, we are credibly told, played the Ghost.
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