"[33] Mr Gladstone
declared Lord John's repartee to be the best that he ever heard.
[Footnote 33: The pun on "cant" and "recant" was not original, though
Lord John's application of it was. Its inventor seems to have been
Lady Townshend, the brilliant mother of Charles Townshend, the elder
Pitt's Chancellor of the Exchequer. When she was asked if George
Whitefield, the evangelical preacher, had yet recanted, she replied:
"No, he has only been canting."]
It may be profitable to consider how patriotism, which is singularly
liable to distortion and perversion, presented itself to the mind of
Shakespeare, the clearest-headed student of human thought and
sentiment.
II
In Shakespeare's universal survey of human nature it was impossible
that he should leave patriotism and the patriotic instinct out of
account. It was inevitable that prevalent phases of both should
frequently occupy his attention. In his role of dramatist he
naturally dealt with the topic incidentally or disconnectedly rather
than in the way of definite exposition; but in the result, his
treatment will probably be found to be more exhaustive than that of
any other English writer. The Shakespearean drama is peculiarly
fertile in illustration of the virtuous or beneficent working of the
patriotic instinct; but it does not neglect the malevolent or morbid
symptoms incident either to its exorbitant or to its defective growth;
nor is it wanting in suggestions as to how its healthy development may
be best ensured.
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