politics, contemporary questions that interested the public, and morals, was early recognized in the restraints put upon representations by the censorship, and in the floods of attacks upon its licentious and demoralizing character. The plays of Shakespeare did not escape the most bitter animadversions of the moral reformers. We have seen how Shakespeare mirrored his age, but we have less means of ascertaining what effect he produced upon the life of his time. Until after his death his influence was mainly direct, upon the playgoers, and confined to his auditors. He had been dead seven years before his plays were collected. However the people of his day regarded him, it is safe to say that they could not have had any conception of the work he was doing. less satisfied with him. importance of the They were doubt It was a great age for romances and story-telling, and he told stories, old in new dresses, but he was also careful to use contemporary life, which his hearers understood. It is not to his own age, but to those following, and especially to our own. time, that we are to look for the shaping and enormous influence upon human life of the genius of this poet. And it is measured not by the libraries of comments that his works have called forth, but by the prevalence of the language and thought of his poetry in all subsequent literature, and by its entrance into the current of common thought and speech. It may be safely said that the English-speaking world and almost every individual of it are different from what they would have been if Shakespeare had never lived. Of all the forces that have survived out of his creative time, he is one of the chief. HARPER'S AMERICAN ESSAYISTS. With Portraits. 16mo, Cloth, $100 each. OTHER TIMES AND OTHER SEASONS. By LAURENCE HUTTON. A LITTLE ENGLISH GALLERY. By LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY. LITERARY AND SOCIAL SILHOUETTES. By HJALMAR HJORTH ROYESEN. STUDIES OF THE STAGE. BY BRANDER MAT THEWS. AMERICANISMS AND BRITICISMS, with Other AS WE WERE SAYING. By CHARLES DUDLEY FROM THE EASY CHAIR. By GEORGE WILLIAM FROM THE EASY CHAIR. FROM THE EASY CHAIR. Second Series. By Third Series. By CRITICISM AND FICTION. BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. FROM THE BOOKS OF LAURENCE HUTTON. CONCERNING ALL OF US. BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. THE WORK OF JOHN RUSKIN. By CHARLES WALDSTEIN. PICTURE AND TEXT. By HERNY JAMES. With Illustrations. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. For sale by all booksellers, or will be mailed by the publishers. postave prepaia, on receipt of the price. BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES. Three Volumes. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $3 50 each. FROM THE EASY CHAIR. With Portrait. 16m0, Cloth, Ornamental $100. FROM THE EASY CHAIR. Second Series. With Portrait. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $100. FROM THE EASY CHAIR. Third Series. With Portrait. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 oo. PRUE AND I. Illustrated Edition. 8vo, Illuminated Silk, $350. Also 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, $1 50. LOTUS-EATING. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top, $150. NILE NOTES OF A HOWADJI. Gilt Top, $150. 12m0, Cloth, JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, Ornamental, 50 cents. WENDELL PHILLIPS. A Eulogy. 25 cents. 8vo, Paper, PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. |