Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

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god-like power is reflected in tlie dramatist's moral stance.
Shakecpeare views his characters with a degree of detachment,
and
brings before us a group of persons, attractive,
full of desire, vessels of the genial, seed-bearing
powers of nature, a gaudy life flowering out over
the old court and city of Vienna, a spectacle of
the fulness and pride of life which to some may
seem to touch on the verge of wantonness. Behind
this group of people, behind their various action,
Shakespere inspires in UG the sense of a strong
tyranny of Nature and circumstance.
(p.653)
Consequently, the characters are not divided simply into good
and v.lcked:
The slightest... is at least not ill-natured:
the meanest can put forth a plea for existence...
This lends the play a "vivid reality" and "subtle interchange
of light and shade" which leads Pater to conn are the shadow of
Death on each character v.dth the effect of Orcagna's fresco at
Pisa:
The little mirror of existence, which reflects to
each for a moment the stage on which he plays,
is broken at last by a capricious accident; vhilc
all alike, in their yearning for untocted enjoyr.ient,
are realty discounting their days, grasping so
hastily and accepting so inexactly the precious
pieces.
(p.654)
Pater finds the figure of Barnsrdine particularly touching, am
praises ohakerpcare's sensitivity in placing in the mouth of
"a gilded witless youth" words "which seen to e:chauct nan's
deepest sentiment concerning death and life" (p.657).
The imortrnce of do- til to the sensitive nine! if: 1 a subject
treated in many of Pater's essayc« In the Conclucion to the first
edition of The Renair.fiance,published in 1073, the promise of
death lies behind one of the author's moot .famous pronouncements:
.Veil! we are ,11 conclai:nic_, a:: Victor ^ugo says:
we are all under sentence of dea.th but v.dth a
sort of indefinite reprieve - lea homines sont
tous condfuanes/a raort avec :airsis iiidefinis;
we have an intorvai, anr! tnoi: o\:r -ilacc knows uc
no more, .jome spend thia interval in listlecsnecc
some in hi^;h pascionc, the wisest, at least araon^'
the "children" of t.'ie v/orld" ii: rt and cong. SQ?~'
our one chance lies in expanding that interval, in
gettinr as many pulaations as r>os ible into the
riven tine.