Shakespeare's Judgment Equal to His Genius

 

Shakespeare’s Artistry: The Harmony of Judgment and Genius

I. Introduction: Challenging the Myth of the "Wild" Genius

• The Popular Misconception: A common but flawed notion suggests that Shakespeare was a "great dramatist by mere instinct" who achieved immortality "in his own despite".

• The "Child of Nature" Fallacy: Critics frequently describe Shakespeare with epithets such as "wild," "irregular," or a "pure child of nature". This view posits that his excellence was a "beautiful lusus naturæ" (freak of nature)—a "delightful monster" who produced sublime truths amidst strange follies.

• The Source of the Error: This perspective originated with pedants who, finding that masterpieces like Lear, Hamlet, and Othello did not follow the Aristotelian rules or the models of Sophocles, assumed Shakespeare lacked taste or judgment.

II. The Interdependence of Judgment and Genius

• Core Thesis: In all aspects, from the most significant to the minute, Shakespeare’s judgment is commensurate with his genius. In fact, his genius reveals itself most exaltedly through his judgment.

• Evidence from Early Poetry: Even in his early works, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare demonstrated a "profound, energetic, and philosophical mind". These poems alone prove he possessed all the conditions of a true poet, displaying a "true imagination" that operates as if from another planet.

• The Critic's Prerequisite: To judge Shakespeare rightly is to understand all other works of intellect. A "genial" criticism must be reverential; an Englishman who lacks "proud and affectionate reverence" for Shakespeare is disqualified from being a critic.

III. Organic Form vs. Mechanical Regularity

• Mechanical Form: This occurs when a predetermined shape is impressed upon a material regardless of its properties—similar to giving a mass of wet clay a specific shape.

• Organic Form: This is innate; it shapes itself from within as it develops. The outward form is "one and the same" with the perfection of its internal development.

• The Nature of Art: Just as a living body must be organised (where every part is both an end and a means), the spirit of poetry must circumscribe itself by rules to unite power with beauty.

• Shakespeare’s Law: Shakespeare is not lawless. True genius possesses the "power of acting creatively under laws of its own origination". His work is "nature humanized," where his understanding self-consciously directs a wisdom deeper than consciousness itself.

IV. Rebutting International and National Prejudices

• The "Drunken Savage" Critique: Some foreign critics, notably Voltaire, dismissed Hamlet as a "barbarous" piece that would not be supported by the "vile populace" of France or Italy. Voltaire erroneously viewed the play’s complexities—such as the gravediggers and Hamlet’s feigned madness—as the fruit of the "imagination of a drunken savage".

• The Problem of Narrow Standards: Many critics fail because they judge based on the "peculiarities of their education" rather than universal reason.

• The "Central Point" of Criticism: A true critic must stand on a "central point" (much like an astronomer standing in the sun) to command the whole system of human faculties. They must distinguish between "the imperishable soul of intellect" and the "mere circumstances" of the age or place.

V. Conclusion: The Universal Mind

• A Criterion of Excellence: Shakespeare can be tested against a catalogue of all human faculties: reason, moral law, will, conscience, understanding, wit, fancy, and imagination.

• Final Argument: It is impossible that the "divine truths" conveyed to man through Shakespeare's work could be the product of an "idiot" or a "wild" genius. His differences from the ancients are not flaws but "symbols of living power" and "poetic wisdom".