— 85—

seems to me to be too late a period for the first composition, — the question of a later revision may be left open.— The figure of Bertram is one of the feeblest productions in characterization which can be laid to Shakespeare's charge. The treatment of obscenity, not as a means for the end of depicting true to life as in Henry IV., but as its proper object is quite youthful. There is no other explication for the lascivious dispute between Helena and Parolles, which is as much apart from the action, as from the character of the heroine, who is far from being wanton“. This same character of Helena decides Dowden for the later date:„Just at the close of the period which gave birth to Shakspere's most joyous comedies, and at the entrance to the tragic period, appear types of female character which are distinguished by some single element of peculiar strength: Helena, Isabella, Portia of Julius Caesar“. He allows„Bertram, when the story begins, though endowed with beauty and bravery, and the advantages(and disadvantages) of rank“, to be„in cha- racter, in heart, in will, a crude, ungracious boy“; but he thinks him drawn in this manner intentionally, and Kreyssig and Elze agree with him:„If Helena'’s wooing should have any success, she must not be placed opposite to a strong, resolute, self-conscious man“.(Elze). Dowden continues: „Even at the last Bertram's attainment is but small; he is still no more than a potential piece of worthy manhood. We cannot suppose that Shakspere has represented him thus without a purpose. Does not the poet wish us to feel that although much remains to be wrought in Bertram, his welfare is now assured?... He is safe in the hands of Helena: she will fashion him as he should be fashioned“. The critics will hardly agree about this question. The Transactions of the New Sh. Soc. of 1880— 1882 contain an essay of Dow on All's well, which piece the critic scarcely allows to be? comedy, and assigns to the later period, when Shakespeare began to become grave, and to reflect on the human soul as a compound of good and bad qualities. In Dow's analysis of the characters the Count of Roussillon gets the worst of it, and