. Shakespeare's England . ss the feelings that are excited by personal con-tact with the relics of Shakespeare — the objects thathe saw and the fields through which he would never tire of lingering in this deliciousregion of flowers and of dreams. From the hideousvileness of the social condition of London in the timeof James the First, Shakespeare must indeed have re-joiced to depart into this blooming garden of rustictranquillity. Here also he could find the surroundingsthat were needful to sustain him amid the vast andoverwhelming labours of his final period. No man,however gr
. Shakespeare's England . ss the feelings that are excited by personal con-tact with the relics of Shakespeare — the objects thathe saw and the fields through which he would never tire of lingering in this deliciousregion of flowers and of dreams. From the hideousvileness of the social condition of London in the timeof James the First, Shakespeare must indeed have re-joiced to depart into this blooming garden of rustictranquillity. Here also he could find the surroundingsthat were needful to sustain him amid the vast andoverwhelming labours of his final period. No man,however great his powers, can ever, in this world, escapefrom the trammels under which nature enjoins and per-mits the exercise of the brain. Ease, in the intellectuallife, is always visionary. The higher a mans facultiesthe higher are his ideals, — toward which, under theoperation of a divine law, he must perpetually strive,but to the height of which he will never absolutelyattain. So, inevitably, it was with Shakespeare. But,. «3 <o ■^V ^^I CHAP. XXI THE SHRINES OF WARWICKSHH^E 243 although genius cannot escape from itself and is nomore free than the humblest toiler in the vast schemeof creation, it may — and it must — sometimes escapefrom the world: and this wise poet, of all men else,would surely recognise and strongly grasp the greatprivilege of solitude amid the sweetest and most sooth-ing adjuncts of natural beauty. That privilege hefound in the sparkling and fragrant gardens of War-wick, the woods, fields and waters of the Avon, wherehe had played as a boy, and where love had laid its firstkiss upon his lips and poetry first opened upon hisinspired vision the eternal glories of her celestial still abides there, for every gentle soul that can feelits influence — to deepen the glow of noble passion, tosoften the sting of grief, and to touch the lips of worshipwith a fresh sacrament of patience and beauty. THE ANNE HATHAWAY COTTAGE. April, 1892. — A record
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidshakespeares, bookyear1895
