and sanction to the royal rights of the daughter, and the poet well knew how to make the contested legitimacy of his queen clear to the entire public. And this queen deserved such zealous attachment. She thought it no sacrifice of queenly dignity when she authorised the poet to present on the stage with absolute impartiality all her ancestors and even her own father. And it was not only as a queen but as a woman that she proved she would never encroach on the rights of poetry, and as she had granted our poet the greatest liberty of speech in political matters, so she permitted him the boldest expression as to the relations of the sexes. She was not shocked at the most reckless jests of a healthy sensuality, and she, "the maiden queen," the royal virgin, even requested that Sir John Falstaff should show himself as a lover. To her smiling nod[1] we owe the Merry Wives of Windsor.
Shakespeare could not have brought his English historical dramas to a better conclusion than by having the new-born infant, Elizabeth, carried over the stage the glorious future of England in swaddling-clothes.
But did Shakespeare really depict to the life Henry VIII., the father of his queen? Yes,
- ↑ Wink, a sign of intelligence, nod, hint, or wink. In German a nod is truly "as good as a wink."—Translator.
