tragedy nor in comedy, indeed, was this Shakespeare’s method.  In his historical plays he relied to some extent on his hearers’ knowledge of history, whether gathered from books or from previous plays of the historical series; and where such knowledge was not to be looked for, he would expound the situation in good set terms, like those of a Euripidean Prologue.  But the chronicle-play is a species apart, and practically an extinct species:  we need not pause to study its methods.  In his fictitious plays, with two notable exceptions, it was Shakespeare’s constant practice to bring the whole action within the frame of the picture, opening at such a point that no retrospect should be necessary, beyond what could be conveyed in a few casual words.  The exceptions are The Tempest and Hamlet, to which we shall return in due course.

How does The Merchant of Venice open?  With a long conversation exhibiting the character of Antonio, the friendship between him and Bassanio, the latter’s financial straits, and his purpose of wooing Portia.  The second scene displays the character of Portia, and informs us of her father’s device with regard to her marriage; but this information is conveyed in three or four lines.  Not till the third scene do we see or hear of Shylock, and not until very near the end of the act is there any foreshadowing of what is to be the main crisis of the play.  Not a single antecedent event has to be narrated to us; for the mere fact that Antonio has been uncivil to Shylock, and shown disapproval of his business methods, can scarcely be regarded as a preliminary outside the frame of the picture.

In As You Like It there are no preliminaries to be stated beyond the facts that Orlando is at enmity with his elder brother, and that Duke Frederick has usurped the coronet and dukedom of Rosalind’s father.  These facts being made apparent without any sort of formal exposition, the crisis of the play rapidly announces itself in the wrestling-match and its sequels.  In Much Ado About Nothing there is even less of antecedent circumstance to be imparted.  We learn in the first scene, indeed, that Beatrice and Benedick have already met and crossed swords; but this is not in the least essential to the action; the play might have been to all intents and purposes the same had they never heard of each other until after the rise of the curtain.  In Twelfth Night there is a semblance of a retrospective exposition in the scene between Viola and the Captain; but it is of the simplest nature, and conveys no information beyond what, at a later period, would have been imparted on the playbill, thus—­

  “Orsino, Duke of Illyria, in love with Olivia. 
  Olivia, an heiress, in mourning for her brother,”