12.  If it need wit to know wit, according to the proverb, Shakspeare’s time should be capable of recognizing it.  Sir Henry Wotton[608] was born four years after Shakspeare, and died twenty-three years after him; and I find, among his correspondents and acquaintances, the following persons:[609] Theodore Beza, Isaac Casaubon, Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of Essex, Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Isaac Walton, Dr. Donne, Abraham Cowley, Berlarmine, Charles Cotton, John Pym, John Hales, Kepler, Vieta, Albericus Gentilis, Paul Sarpi, Arminius; with all of whom exists some token of his having communicated, without enumerating many others, whom doubtless[610] he saw,—­Shakspeare, Spenser, Jonson, Beaumont, Massinger, two Herberts, Marlow, Chapman and the rest.  Since the constellation of great men who appeared in Greece in the time of Pericles,[611] there was never any such society;—­yet their genius failed them to find out the best head in the universe.  Our poet’s mask was impenetrable.  You cannot see the mountain near.  It took a century to make it suspected; and not until two centuries had passed, after his death, did any criticism which we think adequate begin to appear.  It was not possible to write the history of Shakspeare till now; for he is the father of German literature:  it was on the introduction of Shakspeare into German, by Lessing,[612] and the translation of his works by Wieland[613] and Schlegel,[614] that the rapid burst of German literature was most intimately connected.  It was not until the nineteenth century, whose speculative genius is a sort of living Hamlet,[615] that the tragedy of Hamlet could find such wondering readers.  Now, literature, philosophy, and thought, are Shakspearized.  His mind is the horizon beyond which, at present, we do not see.  Our ears are educated to music by his rhythm.  Coleridge[616] and Goethe[617] are the only critics who have expressed our convictions with any adequate fidelity; but there is in all cultivated minds a silent appreciation of his superlative power and beauty, which, like Christianity, qualifies the period.

[Transcriber’s Note:  Number runs from 12 to 14.  Number 13 omitted]

14.  The Shakspeare Society have inquired in all directions, advertised the missing facts, offered money for any information that will lead to proof; and with what result?  Beside some important illustration of the history of the English stage, to which I have adverted, they have gleaned a few facts touching the property, and dealings in regard to property, of the poet.  It appears that, from year to year, he owned a larger share in the Blackfriars’ Theater:[618] its wardrobe and other appurtenances were his:  and he bought an estate in his native village, with his earnings, as writer and shareholder; that he lived in the best house in Stratford;[619] was intrusted by his neighbors with their commissions in London, as of borrowing money, and the like; and he was a