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for searching only. x PREFACE
curriculum in the work of Shakspere, whether he came into contact with it directly in grammar school or only indirectly from his environment as it were. It may be possible some centuries hence to write a nice little book on Shakspere's education, but such a book would be mere worthless dabble now.
Where the facts appear to me to be conclusive, I have said so; but that does not make my conclusion worth anything unless the facts justify it, and I would not consciously exert any extrinsic and dictatorial power upon any reader, if I had it. Truth is the sole and only possible objective of such work as this. And I face the judgment bar of the present and the future, exactly as I have called even the greatest of the past to the judgment bar of the present. No one of them has been wholly without the honest original sin of occasional wrong judgment, usually because of inadequate or mistaken facts. Being human (I hope!), I can myself expect no more. I trust the reader will not trouble about me anyway, either to be nasty or nice. Shakspere is the important object here, and I have only collected and arranged from the stores assembled by the great tradition what I considered to have a bearing upon a better understanding of him. If the reader prefers it some other way, that is his privilege.
Nor have I wasted any time, I hope, upon the sadistic diversion of pillorying errors, either directly or by supercilious applause. Even the greatest have been so frequently in error that it behooves none of us to gloat. I have had frequent occasion to disagree with the glorious dead. I trust they will agree that I have done so like a gentleman. If not, I beg their pardon for my manner, but not for my matter until the error be upon me proved. For that, I believe the subject is of sufficient interest to permit me to hope that I shall have the aid both of the living and of the great succession yet to come. I have tried, therefore, as much as possible to refrain also from lecturing my ancestors. They have a great deal to learn no doubt, but they are probably too old to begin now. After all, they produced among other things the Renaissance, and while we are confident that we could show them how to improve upon that a great deal, yet we have not so far found anything else in which we can approach them. So after all we had best be respectful and perhaps even a little admiring.
In my treatment of the various schools, I pray that I have not placed unholy hands upon anyone's ark-a blessing on all your houses!
Some possible phases of Shakspere's training in grammar school,
[ Volume
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