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upon our problem. It is supposed to suggest a cause for Shakespeare's supposed pessimistic mood. To take a parallel case: we may find an explanation of Swift's misanthropy in his long ordeal of disappointed ambition. There is no doubt whatever that Swift's writings express a misanthropy as savage as that of Timon or Thersites; and on the other side, there is no doubt that his career was calculated to sour his nature. Putting the history of the man and his works together, both become the more intelligible. The fierce indignation shown by the author is explained and palliated by the life of the man. If Shakespeare had suddenly retired from the stage and taken to writing pamphlets like the Drapier's Letters or the Martin Marprelate Tracts, we might admit the probability of some events which embittered his life. But then the conspicuous fact is that his life ran on, as far as we can tell, with perfect smoothness. Nobody can prove that he did not love Mistress Fitton; but it is quite clear that, if he did, it did not prevent him from making money, buying New Place, setting up as a gentleman, and continuing a thoroughly prosperous career. The passion clearly did not dislocate his career. Even if the alleged fact be true, it had no permanent bearing on his